246 Travels into the Levant Part I. 
are proof againft a Halbard -, they have a long Tail, covered over with Scales 
like the Body^their Belly below is white and pretty tender. They have four fliorc 
thick Legs, there being five Claws in each of the Fore- feet, and only four in the 
Hind-feet. In a word, a Crocodile refembles very much a Lizard, and grows 
as long as it lives ^ fome of them are above twenty Foot in length, but I have 
feen little ones half a Foot long. This and the Hippopotamus are the only 
Animals, who in eating move the upper Jaw, and move not at all the under. 
The Crocodile is very ftrong, and one day as I caufed one of them, which was 
eight Foot long, to be skinned, four Men flood upon it, whilft they were 
flitting up his Belly, but it ftirred and ftrugled with fo much force, that it 
threw them all four off ; it is alfo very ftrong liv'd, for when they skin it, 
after they have cut the Throat and opened the Belly of it,if it catch hold of any 
thing in its mouth,it will never part from it. As it happened once to sMoor whom 
I knew, who having skinned one for a French-man, f who had a mind to keep 
the Skin ) and cutting the Throat, had feparated the Head from the Body, 
fo that there remained no more but the Head flicking to the Skin, all the flefli 
being taken out j he untied the Snout, but immediately thereupon the Jaws 
opening, caught hold of one of his Fingers, which with its Teeth, it cut clear 
off. Theflefhof a Crocodile is not bad, but it is fomewhat infipid, and not 
at all poyfonous, as many believe, for I have tailed of it, and found it to be 
good ^ the Barbarians eat heartily, and make a great Feaff of it. Thefe Crea- 
tures are great lovers of Mens flefh, and therefore they are very terrible all 
along the Nile, not only to little Boys, whom they frequently devour when 
they come to the River- fide to do their Needs, for thefe cunning creatures hide 
themfelves \ but alfo to Men, whom they furprife fometimes in their Boats. 
For in the Night-time they rife upright, and thrufting their Snout into the 
Boat, endeavour to catch hold of a Man, and if they can but pull him into the 
Water, they quickly mafter hira ; and that is the reafon that no Body will 
willingly venture to Swim in the Nile. It is another moll erroneous fable 
alfo, that a Crocodile will weep like a young Child, to draw People about it 
HowCroco- whom it may devour j it i-s a thing altogether unknown in that Country. To 
diles are ta- Catch thefe Creatures, they make a great many Pits by the River-lide, which 
ken. they cover over with Sticks, and fuch other things, and fo when they come to 
pafs over thefe Ditches, (efpecialjy when the Water encreafes, which is the 
time when moft of them are taken, becaufe then they venture fartheft out) 
they fall into them,and cannot get out again.They let them fail there for feveral 
days, then let down fome Gins with running Noofes, wherewith they muzzle 
their Snout, and fo pull them up, and carry them to the Quarters of the 
Franks. The Maors fay. That at old Caire there is a Talifman againft the 
Crocodiles, which makes that they never pafs beyond old Caire -, but that is 
falfe, for there are of them at Rejfetto and Damiette, and they are to be feen 
upon the way to Caire-, not indeed, in any great number, becaufe commonly they 
keep off from the Sea ; but there fome at leaft to be found there. They never 
come into the /CWw, becaufe (as I think) it is narrow; but if they did, they 
might do a great deal of mifchief, for when the Water runs in it, it is full of 
Swimmers. 
Hippopotmus. There are Hippopotamufes^ or Sea-Horfes, alfo in this River, and there was 
one taken at Girge, in the Year 1558. which was immediately brought to Caire, 
where I faw it in the Month of Fémary, the fame Year. This Creature was 
of a kind of Tawny Colour, the hinder part of it was much like to a Buffler, 
however its Legs were ftiorter and bigger ; it was about the bignefs of a Ca- 
mel, and had a Muzzle like an Ox. The Head of it is like to a Horfes, and 
very great, but its Eyes fmall. It had a very thick Neck, a little Ear, wide 
and open Noftrils, thick large Feet, and almoft round, with four Toes in 
each, like a Crocodile, a little Tail like an Elephant, and little or no Hair 
upon the Skin, no more than an Elephant. In the lower Jaw it had four great 
Teeth half a Foot long, two whereof were crooked, and as big as the Horns 
of an Ox, and one on each fide of the Jaw j the other two were ftreight, and 
of the fame bignefs as the crooked, but ftanding out in length. Many faid at 
firft, that it was a Sea-Buffler, but fome others and I, knew it to be a Sea-Horfe, 
becaufe of the defcription that is given of it by Writers. It was brought 
dead 
