376 A Sportswoman in India 



cried. u Syce belong to Toby pony. We wash clothes 

 together down in river, not deep at all deep near ; 

 suddenly big, big crocodile jump like tiger catch my 

 brother by waist dash away very bobbery crocodile 

 drag him into deep water all boiling down below. 

 Come quick ! " Alas ! what avail ! The river was 

 soon reached at a run. On the bank lay the wet, half- 

 washed clothes ; there was the shallow with a ripple on 

 it where the men had stood ; down below, the oily 

 surface of the deep water lay calm and unruffled in 

 the stillness of a fine night, as peaceful as though it 

 had never been disturbed. The man who had lost his 

 brother sat down and sobbed. One of the best syces 

 was indeed gone for ever. 



A crocodile can keep under water for ten minutes. 

 As a rule, it holds its prey beneath the surface till it 

 is drowned ; then taking it to its favourite hiding- 

 place, devours it. Though fish is, in the ordinary 

 course of things, its food, it occasionally attacks man, 

 and bathing in tropical rivers known to be full of 

 muggers is therefore unsafe. As the poor syce de- 

 scribed it, a crocodile's dash at his prey is instantaneous, 

 like a steamboat cutting through the water, faster 

 than the fastest swimmer, more like a gigantic fish. 



The largest mugger ever known in India though 

 not having seen it myself, I cannot vouch for the 

 measurements was said to be thirty feet long and 

 thirteen feet in circumference, its head alone weighing 

 three hundred pounds. On opening the body it was 

 found to contain, besides other parts of a horse, 



