THE GAVIAL OF INDIA. 323 



At the Gaboon, the negroes hunt their enemies either with 

 muskets or a kind of harpoon. Their vulnerable points are the attach- 

 ment of the anterior limbs,, and, of course, the eyes. It is here that 

 their assailants endeavour to mark them. They are killed every day 

 without their number appearing to be sensibly diminished, and, what 

 is singular enough, without their seeming to grow mistrustful. During 

 the heat of the noon, they retire among the reeds and rushes for repose, 

 but never remain long in any one place. At evening and at morning 

 they sally forth in quest of prey. They swim without making any 

 noise, scarcely disturbing the water, which they cleave like dogs ; 

 they will also remain motionless on its surface, glancing around them 

 with cruel, dull, sinister eyes. The negro does not feel towards them 

 so great an horror as Europeans experience, who are powerfully affected 

 by their exceeding hideousness. They eat their flesh, with which 

 their huge bony skeleton is scantily furnished, and, according to Du 

 Chaillu, can never obtain enough of the much-prized delicacy.* 



The Indian Crocodile, the Gavial orGarial (Crocodilus Gangeticus), 

 is of the same size as his African congener, but easily distinguished 

 by the peculiar conformation of his mouth; the jaws being remarkably 

 straight, long, and narrow. The sides of the head are straight and 

 perpendicular, the upper surface quadrilateral ; and the mandible, 

 instead of sloping gradually from the forehead, sinks suddenly to fol- 

 low a straight and almost horizontal direction. The teeth are nearly 

 double in number those of the Nilotic monster, but he is far less 

 dangerous, and feeds only on fish. There are two species : the Gavial 

 of the Ganges, found in all the great rivers of Southern Asia; and the 

 Gavial of Schlegel, belonging exclusively to the island of Borneo. 



Serpents of every size, venomous and non-venomous, multiply in 

 the jungles, marshes, and woods of all tropical countries. Africa and 

 Asia are abundantly provided with them. In Senegal they are all, 

 or mostly all, inoffensive, and the objects of devout worship on the 

 part of the negroes of Dahomey ; but naturalists have not yet deter- 

 mined their respective genera. It is certain, however, that they do 



* Du Chaillu, "Travels in Equatorial Africa." 



