Crocodiles, Turtles, and Lizards. 13 



opened jaws they lie with their chins upon the bank and 

 mouths open, perhaps for the same reason that you see 

 vultures sitting facing the breeze with wings widespread 

 looked like a fringe of hurdle stakes, or chevaux de frise. 

 At Dholpur, near Agra, I have also seen them, full grown, 

 in a large company. But these were retainers of the temples. 

 As Bubastis had its cats, and Thebes her ibis, and Memphis 

 her horned divinities, so Dendera had its collared crocodiles : 



" Clouds of incense woo thy smile, 

 Scaly Monarch of the Nile." 



The priests put necklaces about their necks, and earrings in 

 their ears, and the people worshipped them, these grim 

 obscurities that crept from out the depths of the river 

 to take their place under Isis' throne. But why was 

 Montgomery's " broad river " red with blood ? The alligator 

 takes his victim down, and there is no sign of the tragedy. 

 A few pink bubbles perhaps but that is all. 



For Thomson's Behemoth I have no respect. He had 

 very vague or very confused ideas about the crocodile 

 which is " Leviathan " and not Behemoth the rhinoceros, 

 and the hippopotamus. But, whatever it was, his picture is 

 absurd. For crocodiles do not eat grass. The rhinoceros 

 does not live in the water. The hippopotamus is not mailed. 



Keats, as usual, is true to Nature. His " encased croco- 

 dile " is sufficient, and when he adds a reverence 



' ' Son of the old Moon-mountains African 

 Stream of the Pyramid and crocodile, " 



the conjunction is worthy of the brute "in adamantine 

 scales, That fears no discipline of human hands." 

 How Job militant exults in Leviathan : 



" Dissect the greatnesse of so vast a Creature, 

 By view of severall parts summe up his feature : 

 Whe shields his scales an plac't, which neither art 

 Knowes how to sunder, nor yet force can part. 



