76 ‘SHAKESPEARE'’S [ CROCODILE. 
this proverb that is applied to women when they weep, 
Lachryme crocodili, the meaning whereof is, that as the 
Crocodile when he crieth, goeth then about most to deceive, 
so doth a woman most commonly when she weepeth. 
Master Fobn Hawkins’ ‘Second Voyage” 
apud Hakluyt, p. 534 (ed. 1598). 
Tue Crocodile is a great worm, abiding near the rivers 
sides. The Crocodile of the earth is afraid of saffron, and 
therefore the country-people, to defend their hives of bees 
and honey from them, strew upon the places saftron. It 
is doubtful whether it hath any place of excrement except 
the mouth. They do not cast their skins as other serpents 
do. After the egg is laid by the Crocodile, many times 
there is a cruel stinging scorpion which cometh out thereof, 
and woundeth the Crocodile that laid it. The Crocodile is a 
fearful serpent, abhorring all manner of noise, especially from 
the strained voice of a man. The Crocodile runneth away 
from a man if he wink with his left eye, and look steadfastly 
upon him with his right eye. Because he knoweth that 
he is not able to overtake a man in his course or chase, 
he taketh a great deal of water in his mouth, and casteth 
it in the path-ways, so that when they endeavour to run 
from the Crocodile, they fall down in the slippery path. 
There is an amity and natural concord betwixt swine and 
Crocodiles. If but a feather of the ibis come upon the 
Crocodile by chance, or by direction of a man’s hand, it 
maketh it immoveable and cannot stir. There is a kind 
of thorny wild bean growing in Egypt, this is a great 
terror to the Crocodile, for he is in great dread of his eyes, 
and therefore all the people bear them in their hands when 
they travel. When they go to the land to forage and seek 
after a prey, they cannot return back again, but by the 
same footsteps of their own which they left imprinted in 
the sand [and so they may be caught in a trench made in 
vay 
their path]. The Indians have a kind of Crocodile in Ganges, | 
which hath'a horn growing out of his nose like a rhinocerot. 
The blood of a Crocodile is thought to cure the bitings of 
any serpent. ‘The skin both of the land and water Crocodile 
dried into powder, and the same powder with vinegar or 
oil laid upon a part or member of the body to be seared, 
cut off, or lanced, taketh away all sense and feeling of pain 
