Chap. XXII. MAKOLOLO AND CROCODILE. 453 



One of the crocodiles which was shot had a piece snapped 

 off the end of his tail, another had lost a forefoot in fighting ; we 

 saw actual leeches between the teeth, such as are mentioned by- 

 Herodotus, but we never witnessed the plover picking them out. 

 Their greater fierceness in one part of the country than ano- 

 ther is doubtless owing to a scarcity of fish ; in fact, Captain 

 Tuckey says, of that part of the Congo, mentioned above, 

 " There are no fish here but catfish," and we found, that the 

 lake crocodiles, living in clear water, and with plenty of fish, 

 scarcely ever attacked man. The Shire teems with fish of 

 many different kinds. The only time, as already remarked, 

 when its crocodiles are particularly to be dreaded, is when 

 the river is in flood. Then the fish are driven from their 

 usual haunts, and no game comes down to the river to drink, 

 water being abundant in pools inland. Hunger now impels 

 the crocodile to lie in wait for the women who come to draw 

 water, and on the Zambesi numbers are carried off every year. 

 The danger is not so great at other seasons ; though it is never 

 safe to bathe, or to stoop to drink, where one cannot see the 

 bottom, especially in the evening. One of the Makololo ran 

 down in the dusk to the river ; and, as he was busy tossing the 

 water to his mouth with his hand, in the manner peculiar 

 to the natives, a crocodile rose suddenly from the bottom, 

 and caught him by the hand. The limb of a tree .was fortu- 

 nately within reach, and he had presence of mind to lay hold 

 of it. Both tugged and pulled ; the crocodile for his dinner, 

 and the man for dear life. For a time, it appeared doubtful 

 whether a dinner or a life was to be sacrificed ; but the man 

 held on, and the monster let the hand go, leaving the deep 

 marks of his ugly teeth in it. 



During our detention, in expectation of the permanent rise 

 of the river in March, Dr. Kirk and Mr. C. Livingstone col- 

 lected numbers of the wadina-birds of the marshes — and 



