47 
described, is sold in the markets, and is considered a great 
delicacy. The tail is used as a whip. 
The crocodile, known locally in some places as the 
“cayman,” and commonly called “alligator,” deserves a 
passing notice. Most of the West African rivers and 
lagoons are infested with them; they are worshipped 
fetishly as a god, and are the terror of many a village 
bordering on their watery haunts. 
Children and women have been often carried off, and 
many a person has been maimed, especially in the early 
morning, as they visit rivers for water. On such occasions, 
while women are filling their calabashes or earthen pots, 
one of the number is often employed to frighten off the 
monster by throwing large stones into the water beyond 
their dipping companions. 
The skin of the crocodile is converted into caps and bags 
by the natives, and the flesh is smoked and eaten. 
“ Eat a crocodile!” 
Stories are heard of the game “catch-catch” between 
this monster and persons, as also of the latter being 
chased on land by the former. 
It is told of a fresh-water pond at Dix Cove, Gold Coast 
Colony, in which there was a crocodile of some twelve 
feet long, which always appeared at the bank at the call 
from the “Fetishmen” for its meal of fowl. 
An amusing story has been told me in connection with 
the doings of a crocodile. It is no uncommon thing for one 
of them to transfer its habitat from the main lagoon to 
some inland pool or lake at a distance. On one such journey, 
a crocodile mistook the route, and mounted a bamboo fence 
that had partially fallen, thus affording a convenient camp 
for observation, we shall say. This lean-to fence: partly 
‘ enclosed a compound, in which at the time there happened 
