CROCODILES 



2 45 



creature was swimming on the surface, holding a little 

 native girl in its mouth, while the father was paddling 

 in pursuit in a canoe, and striking the creature with a 

 bamboo. It dropped its victim, but she was so fright- 

 fully injured that she died. Mr. Kipling notes that 

 the < parish ' mugger, which had taken toll of the 

 inhabitants of the village since it was founded, was in 

 time raised to the dignity of a ' godling,' or local fetich. 

 This seems to show the process by which the crocodile- 

 worship became gradually stereotyped in parts of ancient 

 Egypt, the creature being propitiated because it was a 

 pest. Herodotus is careful to mention that it was only 

 in some villages that the creature was worshipped. His 

 words are : * Among some of the Egyptians the croco- 

 dile is sacred, while others pursue him as an enemy. 

 The inhabitants of Thebais and of the shores of Lake 

 Moeris regard him with veneration. Each person has a 

 tame crocodile. He puts pendants of glass and gold 

 in its ear-flaps, and gives it a regular allowance of food 

 daily. When it dies it is embalmed. . . . But the 

 inhabitants of Elephantine eat the crocodile, and do not 

 think it sacred at all.' Possibly these were the villages 

 which suffered most from ' parish crocodiles/ while others 

 which were not so cursed, or had a more enterprising 

 population, cheerfully angled for them, and probably, as 

 they do now, cooked and ate them. At Dongola they 

 were formerly rather proud of their crocodile stews, and 



