244 CROCODILES 



and that in spite of this a big ' bull crocodile ' will 

 attach himself permanently to some such spot, just as a 

 pike frequents a particular pool, and live on the toll he 

 takes from the village. He is then known as a ' burka 

 luggaree gohj or ' crocodile moored like a boat.' 



Such a beast is the subject of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's 

 story, ' The Undertaker,' in which the ' mugger of 

 Mugger Ghaut ' tells his own tale. His feasts of 

 drowned carrion, his constancy to the ford and the 

 bathing ' ghaut,' where he carries off men, women, 

 and children, and his adventures when he changes his 

 quarters to distant haunts by using small tributaries, 

 creeks, and irrigation cuts, are all strictly in keeping 

 with the observations of Mr. Stewart and other Indian 

 naturalists. The former adds some ghastly corrobora- 

 tion to the details of this autobiography of a ' mugger,' 

 though, incidentally, he mentions that this name is 

 English, not Indian. When out tiger - shooting he 

 came across a huge crocodile sleeping on the bank of a 

 small stream for crocodiles will travel up the smallest 

 waterways at certain seasons, and populate any pools 

 formerly free from them. The crocodile was shot, and 

 his men at once cut it open to extract the gall-bladder, 

 which is looked upon as a valuable charm. Inside this 

 creature's stomach were two skulls and the putrid 

 remains of as many bodies. He also witnessed a 

 crocodile's attack on children at a bathing-ghaut. The 



