m1 THE SERVICE OF TAILS 83 
Later on, I found that the natives of other Pokomo 
villages attribute the same power to the crocodile, 
and the German missionaries at Ngao knew of 
cases where people had been thus swept into the 
river and killed. The natives on the Nile told 
Sir Samuel Baker the same story, and it is hardly 
likely that it would have been independently in- 
vented in two such distant localities, and by such 
different tribes, if it had no basis in fact.” 
Of course if a man, then an antelope, or fish- 
seeking cat, or any other animal of similar size, 
could be knocked into the stream and preyed 
upon; and that this must often happen is mani- 
fest from the great numbers of these reptiles which 
inhabit streams too small to furnish sufficient food 
in the way of fishes alone. 
The same habit belongs to the lesser land-lizards, 
all of which whip severely with their tails when 
fighting, large ones, like the South American 
teguexin, being able to keep dogs at a dis- 
tance by their fear of these blows; and it is 
said that in their quarrels most lizards seek first 
of all to disable the opponent’s tail, success in 
which manceuvre wins the battle. This seems to 
be a trifling casualty in the case of many species, 
such as the geckos, and some American lizards, 
whose tails break off on the slightest provocation, 
sometimes, apparently, as a wilful stratagem on 
the creature’s part, of which a good example 
is found in the behavior of the very common 
