224 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XVII 
Some of the religions of the Sesse islanders were 
horrible. One of the gods (Kitinda) accepted no 
offering but men. The crocodile was his priest. When 
it was considered necessary to appease Kitinda a man 
was hauled to the brink of the lake, where his knees and 
elbows were broken so that he could not crawl away. 
Pie was then abandoned and the crocodiles came and 
seized him. (Cunningham.) Sometimes many men 
were treated in this way to appease the god. 
In Murchison Bay there is a small conical islet 
(Kabulataka) thickly covered with trees. When the 
Mahomedan party w^as defeated, Mutesa ordered the 
prisoners to be placed on this island and left thereto die 
of starvation or to be eaten by the crocodiles which 
haunted its margins. A military guard on the mainland 
prevented the prisoners from swimming ashore. None 
escaped. 
The danger which human beings run from crocodiles 
appears to vary in different localities. In the Nile, 
these reptiles are dangerous to men, and particularly to 
women who fetch water from the river. In many parts 
of the river this risk is so appreciable that it is the 
custom to fence off the watering places with stakes, to 
prevent the women being seized by crocodiles when 
dipping water. The fear of crocodiles is hereditary 
among natives throughout the whole of Africa. 
Idle frequent reports of trustworthy observers in¬ 
dicate that large crocodiles lie in ambush in shadowy 
parts of the river, or swim on the water like a log of 
wood, and suddenly knock an unwary man or woman 
into the w^ater by a swish of their powerful tails. When 
fishing in crocodile-haunted water it is dangerous to stand 
too near the river’s brink. 
Authentic reports are available of boys being dragged 
into the water by crocodiles when leaning over the side 
of a canoe. A. H. Neumann, when sitting in his tent 
by the shore of Lake Rudolf, was suddenly alarmed by 
a scream : on rushing out he was horrified to see his 
