THE CROCODILE 267 



taken from your very side, of help or rescue. The 

 last case I saw was particularly distressing. The 

 man, a native, was in the act of washing in the 

 shallows, as natives will, although fully aware of 

 the dangers they risk in doing so, and I had 

 actually turned to address a remark to the 

 European upon whose veranda I was sitting, 

 regarding the foolhardiness of the misguided 

 bather. As I did so he uttered an exclamation, 

 and leaped to his feet, and I looked back to the 

 river just in time to hear a piteous scream and see 

 a commotion in the deep water a few yards out 

 from the river bank upon which the victim had 

 been standing — just such an agitation as would 

 be made by some huge fish swimming rapidly 

 towards the centre. This died gradually away, 

 and we realised that the poor fellow was indeed 

 gone for ever. We rushed to the water's edge. 

 There lay a red fez, and a small pile of clothing. 

 The wide Zambezi flowed placidly at our feet and 

 — that was all. The victim in this instance was 

 my host's capitdo, or head plantation superin- 

 tendent, and, he told me, a man who would be 

 extremely difficult to replace ; but what doubtless 

 contributed in this as in hundreds of other 

 cases to the fatal issue is the blind faith the ill- 

 advised victim as usual reposed in the efficacy of 

 some charm purchased, probably at no little 

 cost, from a local medicine man and guaranteed to 

 render him immune to crocodiles, as well as to 

 other perils of African daily life. Over and over 

 again I have questioned natives as to the meaning 

 of some row of little pieces of reeds or bark or 



