L A C E R T A. 
33 
tire into deep caverns near the fhore at the approach of 
the cold feai'on, and remain torpid during the winter. 
Pliny fays, that the crocodile fpends four months of win¬ 
ter in caves, and without food; and, as the crocodiles of 
the Nile were heft known to the ancients, we may thence 
conclude, that they fuffer an annual torpor during the 
cold feafon. But, though the crocodile, like all other 
oviparous quadrupeds, hybernates in higher latitudes, 
where any degree of winter-cold is experienced, its fcaly 
covering is not injured either by the cold or abltinence, 
as in moft of the other animals of this clafs : hence it does 
not change its Ikin, like moft of the lizards. 
In all thole countries where mankind is not fufficiently 
numerous to force them to live difperfed, crocodile's are 
found in numerous afiemblages. This habit of living to¬ 
gether is an additional proot, that the character of cruelty 
and ferocity has been falfely attributed to this animal; for 
ferocious animals are always folitary and unfocial. That 
they are not naturally either fierce or cruel, is evident from 
their being tamed in fome countries. In Bouton, one of 
the Molucca iflands, they are fometimes kept and fatten¬ 
ed, in a certain degree of domefticity. In fome countries, 
they aretkept for the fake of oftentation. Thus the king 
of Saba, on the flave-coaft of Africa, has always two ponds 
filled with crocodiles. In the R ; o San-Domingo, likewife 
on the weftern coaft of Africa, M. Brue was altonilhed to 
find the crocodiles, ufually conlidered as fuch terrible ani¬ 
mals, perfectly harmlefs, infomuch that the children play¬ 
ed with them, mounted on their backs, and even beat 
them, without danger, or any appearance of refentment. 
M. de la Borde had feen crocodiles in Cayenne kept in 
ponds, where they lived for a long time without doing 
any harm even to the tortoifes which were kept in the 
fame ponds, and fed along with them on the refufeof the 
kitchens. The ancients were well acquainted with the 
means of taming crocodiles ; for Ariftotle informs us, that 
nothing more is necefiary for this purpofe than to fupply 
them abundantly with food, the want of which is the only 
caufe of their being dangerous ; whereas animals natu¬ 
rally ferocious are to be tamed only by llarving. 
Heat is fo necefiary to crocodiles, that they not only 
feem to live with great difficulty in temperate countries, 
but are even fmaller in proportion as the climates they 
inhabit are farther removed from the equator. They are 
met with, however, both in the Old and New Worlds, 
feveral degrees to the north or fouth of the tropics. The 
rivers of Corea are much infefted with crocodiles. 
Notwithstanding the formidable appearance of the cro¬ 
codile, the negroes, in the neighbourhood of the river Se¬ 
negal, venture to attack it, particularly when afleep, en¬ 
deavouring to furprife it in places where the water is not 
deep enough to allow it to fwirn. They approach it 
boldly, having the left arm defended by a covering of 
thick leather, and attack it with fpears, or a kind of dart 
called zagaye, aiming their thrufts chiefly at the throat 
and the eyes. They even fometimes force open its mouth, 
and, preventing it from (butting, by means of the zagaye 
placed firmly between the jaws, hold down its head in the 
water till it is drowned or luffocated. M. Adanfon gives 
the following account of an engagement between a negro 
and a crocodile feven feet long, which the negro dilco- 
vered fleeping among fome buffies at the foot of a tree, 
near the banks of a river. He ftole gently up to the ani¬ 
mal, and gave it a deep wound with a knife, in the fide 
of the neck. The crocodile, though mortally wounded, 
ftruck the negro fo violently on the legs with its tail, as 
to knock him down ; but, without quitting his hold, he 
to fe inftantly, and, wrapping a rope round the muzzle of 
the crocodile, while one of his companions held it fall by 
the tail, and M. Adanfon mounted on its back to hold it 
down, he drew out the knife from the wound, and cut off 
its head. In Egypt, the peafants often dig a deep trench, 
in the ufual track by which the crocodile goes from the 
•water up into the country, which they cover lightly with 
branches of trees and earth j then, making a great noife 
>V ql. XII. No. 808. 
to frighten the crocodile, it haftens to the water, and, fall¬ 
ing into the pit, is there either killed or fecured with ropes 
or nets. Sometimes they fix one end of a Itrong rope to 
the trunk of a large tree, having a large hook at the other 
end, to which a living lamb is tied : this is left on the 
bank of the river, and, by its cries to get loofe, attracts a 
crocodile to the fpot; which, willing to avail itfelf of the 
fuppofed repaft, at the fame time gets the hook fixed in 
its jaws. The more the crocodile ftruggles to get free, 
the more firmly the hook penetrates ; the people on the 
fliore give line in proportion as the crocodile dives, and, 
following all its motions in the water, wait till it is com¬ 
pletely exhaufted, and then drag it to land. 
Mankind is not the only enemy of the crocodile, though 
perhaps the moft deftruCtive, for fewer crocodiles are al¬ 
ways found in proportion to the population of their refi- 
dence : they are likewife preyed on by tigers and by the 
hippopotamus; which latter animal is fo much the more 
dangerous, that it is able to purfue the crocodile to the 
very bottom of the fea or of the rivers. Belides this, 
great numbers of crocodiles are dellroyed before they get 
out of the eggs, by animals that are too weak to look 
them in the face after they have acquired any (ize. The 
ichneumon, monkeys, fagoins, fapajous, and feveral fpe- 
cies of water-fowl, feek for and devour crocodiles’ eggs 
with great avidity; and even break vaft numbers, as if 
merely in fport. 
The eggs and the flelh of crocodiles, particularly that 
of the tail and the belly, are ufed as food by the negroes 
of Africa, and by feveral nations in India and America. 
This flelh is juicy and very white, and is conlidered by 
thefe people as very delicious; but fuch Europeans as 
have ventured to eat of it have been moftly difgufted by 
the ftrong mulky flavour with which it is impregnated. 
M. Adanfon, however, fays, that he ate part of a young 
crocodile which he faw killed in Senegal, and thought it 
tolerably good. It is very probable that the tafte of cro¬ 
codiles’ flelh will differ, according to the age and nourilh- 
ment of the individual from which it is taken. 
A kind of bezoar is fometimes found in the alimen¬ 
tary canal of the crocodile, and in feveral other fpecies of 
lizards. Several of thefe were in the collection of Seba, 
who had received them from Amboyna and Ceylon : the 
largeft were about the fize of ducks’ eggs, but longer; and 
their furfaces were covered over with projections, about 
the fize of fmall pepper-corns. Like all other bezoars, 
thefe were compofed of various layers, one over the other: 
their colour was dufky cinereous, more or lefs mixed or 
marbled with white. 
The ancient Romans, though they might have learnt 
fomewhat of the hiftory and appearance of the crocodile, 
from the reports of travellers, or from the writings of the 
Greek naturalilts, never faw any till fifty-eight years be¬ 
fore the Chriltian era, when Scaurus the edile prefented 
five to the people in the public fltows. Augultus after¬ 
wards produced great numbers of living crocodiles in his 
Ihows, caufing men to fight with them in the arena ; and 
Heliogabalus fed numbers for that purpofe. As the cro¬ 
codiles were brought from a diftance, aud mull have been 
confidered by the Romans as a very formidable animal, 
we are not to wonder that very extraordinary medicinal 
virtues were attributed to them by the ancients: fcarcely 
any part of their bodies but was fuppofed a remedy againft 
difeafe: the teeth, the fcales, the flelh, and the inteftines, 
were all prized as fo many infallible drugs. The gall, the 
fat, and the eyes, of the crocodile, are (till held in much 
eftecm by the modern Egyptians and Arabs. They were 
held in ltill higher veneration by the ancient natives of 
Egypt. From infpiring terror by their ravages, the de¬ 
praved reafon of a mifguided people converted them into 
gods ; building altars and appointing priefts for the fu- 
perintendence of this ftrangely-perverted worlhip. The 
city of Arfinoe was peculiarly confecrated to thefe mon- 
ftrous gods ; and, when they died, their bodies were fa- 
credly deposited in the great pyramids, among the tombs 
K of 
