CEOCODILUS NILOTICUS. 27 
exclaims "Deliver me from the crocodiles in this land" 1 . It also appeared in the 
proper names of private individuals, as, for instance, in the stele mentioned by 
Champollion 2 the younger, in which a male and female are spoken of as the children 
of the crocodile, or, ideographically, of Sebek. It was likewise used as a deter- 
minative of certain phonetic groups. On the other hand, one of these groups, 
signifying Sebek, was occasionally replaced in the texts by a figure of the god himself, 
in human form, but with the head of a crocodile. The same deity was ideographically 
represented by a crocodile lying on a pediment. 
Another hieroglyph relating to the crocodile was the one first mentioned by 
Herapollo 3 , who says " that when the ancient Egyptians would write ' darkness ' 
they use the tail of a crocodile." This sign, a fragment of the tail, also meant 
" black," and likewise formed part of one of the phonetic groups for a name of Egypt. 
The apparently most northern limit of the distribution of this species is the Zerak 
and Kishon rivers in Syria 4 . It occurs throughout the Nile and its tributaries, and 
in nearly all the rivers of Africa from the Shebeli in Somaliland, southwards to the 
Cape of Good Hope, thence northwards to the Senegal river, also in all the more 
important lakes, and in the island of Madagascar. 
It probably once had a wider range in Syria than at present, as Saligniac, 1525 a.d. 5 , 
relates that when he was bathing in the Jordan with some other pilgrims, one of their 
company, a French physician, having ventured farther into the river than the others, 
was carried off by a crocodile. 
According to the Chronicles of Sicily 6 the crocodile has appeared from time to time 
in that island, in the waters of the Papireto and the Garaffello, near Palermo ; in the 
environs of Messina ; and in the river Amenano, close to Catania. It has also been 
stated that the Romans obtained crocodiles, for combat in the arena, from Cyrenaica > 
but as there are no rivers in that country in which these saurians could live, they were 
doubtless, in the first instance, imported to Cyrene from Egypt. 
1 Benouf, 'Elementary Grammar of Ancient Egypt. Lang.,' 1875, p. 21. 
2 Syst. Hieroglyph. 1828, p. 29, nos. 214 & 215. 
3 Lib. i. 70. 
1 Pococke, op. cit. vol. ii. pt. 1, 1745, p. 58 ; Tobler, Petermann's Mitth. 1858, p. 8 ; Friedel, Zool. Gart. x 
1869, p. 161 ; Mettenheimer, Zool. Gart. xiii. 1872, p. 237 ; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, 
pp. 199-206. 
5 Iter, Bk. ix. chap. vi. 
6 Doderlein, Ann. Soc. Nat. Modena, vi. 1872, pp. 202-3. 
