58 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
addressed himself to the crocodile, urging him to do him 
no injury, because he had never done him (the crocodile) 
any; and assuring him that he had never engaged in war 
against any of his species; on the contrary, that he had 
always entertained the highest veneration for him; at the 
same time adding, that if he came to attack him, vengeance, 
sooner or later, would follow; and that if he devoured him, 
all his relatives, and all his race, would declare war against 
him. This harangue occupied a quarter of an hour, after 
which he dashed fearlessly into the stream.” They happen, 
he adds, however, sometimes to be caught, when they are 
not armed with muskets; and then, instead of attributing 
the accident to their own want of precaution, they imagine 
that it arises from some failure in their mode of taking the 
customary oath.* 
Many anecdotes are related by the natives, illustrating 
the characteristic sagacity of the dog in avoiding the jaws 
of these formidable enemies. When accompanying their 
masters across the streams infested by crocodiles, the dogs 
are accustomed to bark and howl, while the natives shout 
and halloo: and it is stated by the people, that a dog, 
when about to cross a river alone, has been known to 
remain near the edge of the water, at one part of the 
stream, barking for a considerable time, as if urging cattle 
to the water, and then running with the utmost speed to 
a distant part of the stream, and there hastening with all 
its might to the opposite side. The barking at the first 
place is said to have attracted many crocodiles within 
hearing to the spot, and thus secured for the dog a safe 
passage at the part actually crossed. 
Though the sea in the neighbourhood of this island 
abounds with every variety of fish, they are not abundant 
* Voyage de Madagascar, par M. de V. Paris, 1722. 
