CROCODILES 
NILE CROCODILE 
The man-eating Nile crocodile, ranging through Palestine, Madagascar 
and nearly all of Africa has the most venerable recorded history of all 
crocodilians. Well known to the ancient Egyptians, who built their civiliza¬ 
tion about the River Nile, the crocodile was worshiped as a god and em¬ 
balmed along with the bodies of prominent men. The dangerous reptile 
was referred to in the Bible as Leviathan, and a mode of capturing it, 
strikingly similar to that employed by primitive peoples today, was de¬ 
scribed in the Book of Job. 
In the European Middle Ages, when people knew the crocodile only 
from wild descriptions and crude pictures, it became a symbol of hy¬ 
pocrisy since, while devouring a man, it shed “crocodile tears.” In more 
recent times, however, it was discovered that crocodiles cry when their 
mouths are so full that the bulk of their prey presses against their lachrymal 
glands. 
The Nile crocodile spends its time floating in African streams and 
lakes, submerged except for its eyes and the tip of its broad snout, on 
the lookout for fishes or aquatic birds. When it sights a victim, it can 
submerge and unerringly reappear directly under its prey’s nose. 
When not in the water, the crocodile suns itself on sand-bars or dry 
banks. The natives in many regions fear to cross a stream without first 
offering prayers to the crocodiles; these prayers may be accompanied by 
sacrifices, frequently human. Many tribes consider themselves descended 
from the crocodiles and therefore do not hunt them; others worship them 
as gods. Some hunt the crocodile only for revenge when a crocodile has 
killed a man, and often permission must first be obtained from the local 
witch doctor before embarking on the hunt. Apart from the prayers and 
incantations, the usual devices employed in the hunt are either a baited 
noose or two, crossed pointed sticks, such as are used in South America 
for hunting caymans. 
In color, the adult Nile crocodile is a dark olive-green. Its usual length 
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