News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-09-25
FIGHT WITH A CROCODILE.
HOW THE NATIVES DISPATCH THEM
IN THE RIVER NILE.
The Remarkable Encounter in which an
Arab was Victorious.

AEdD was slCiurlOuSs
"What a queer craft I'm glad [
haven't got to go up to Khartoum in a
thing like that"
So spoke bearded, brown-faced Eng
lish officer standing upon the bank of
the Upper Nile, close to the Arab vii
lage of Shendy, midway between Ber-
Der and Khartoum.
Certainly it was "queer craft" and
he might well be glad that he had not
to make a long voyage in it. It was
big, clumsy, fat-bottomed barge, al
most as broad as it was long, and
steered by a gaunt, half-ciad Arab with
something that looked very much like
an overgrown wooden shovel. But the
rigging was more curious still. A tall,
bony native, standing bolt upright upon
the deck, served as mast, while the
piece of coarse canvas which he held
up at full length in his outstretched
hands did duty for a sail. This living
mast was kept in its place by two other
men, one of whom clasped it around the
waist, while the other held on to its
knees with all his might and main.
To use living rigging is not always a
safe experiment, and in this case it
proved very unsafe indeed. A sudden
gust of wind took the sail aback, and
the Arab who was serving as mast for
it, and who had planted his feet upon
the two lower corners of the canvas in
order to keep it stretched to its full ex-
tent, found himself entangled in it al
most before he knew what had hap
pened. Losing his balance, he fell
backward and rolled over the edge of
the boat into the water, dragging along
with him one of the two men who had
been holding him up.
The other man scram bled back into
the boat almost as quickly as he had
tumbled out of it; but the mast man
was not so lucky. 1t took him two or
three seconds to get rid of the canvas
that was hampering him, and those two
or three seconds made all the differ
ence. By the time he had got clear the
ferrvboat had drifted good way down
the stream, the steersman having left
his post and run forward when he saw
his comrades fall overheard.
This of itself would have mattered
little. for every Arab in the Nile valley
can swim like a duck. But while the
struggling man was swimming with all
his might toward the boat and the
steersman was working the boats head
round to meet him, a new actor sud
denly appeared on the scene, whose
coming made the affair look much more
serious.
No one had taken any particular
notice of a long black log which was
living on the edge of sand bank little
way out in the stream. But at the
splash made by the two Arabs as they
plunged overheard the seeming log
made a sudden movement, displaying as
it did so the vast scaly bulk, grinning
teeth and small, cunning, cruel eye of
monstrous crocodile
The hideous creature waddled down
into the river SO clumsily that any one
who had been watching it would have
been startled by the arrowlike swiftness
of its course the moment it touched the
water. The poor Arab knew only too
well what was in store for him and made
frantic efforts to reach the boat, which
was now close at hand. But the mon
ster was too quick for him. Gliding In
between him and the approaching
barge, it spun around suddenly and
darted right at him, opening its terrible
jaws wide enough to show two ranges of
spiky teeth that might have crushed a
buffalo.
But Just as all seemed over, one of
the ferrymen took flying leap from the
side of the boat and came plump on to
the crocodile's back. There he stuck
like aslimpet, while the long, sharp
iambeyeh dagger in his right hand
dealt stab after stab into the monsters
undefended side, just before the fore
shoulder.
Could the crocodile have spoken he
would probably have cried out "Foul
play two against onel" AS it was, ne
showed his disgust plainly enough by
his savage snortIngs and the furious
lashings of its ponderous tail, till, find
ing that its enemy was not to be shaken
off, he plunged suddenly under the wa
ter. Man and beast went down in
whirling eddy, the ripples of which
were dark with blood.
A cry of dismay burst from the
crowd that had gathered upon the bank
as they saw the brave Arab disappear.
But all at once the water began to
heave and bubble, as if some fierce
struggle was going on in the depths be-
low, and then the Mussulman's dark
face rose again to the surface, upon
which a moment later the crocodiles
mighty bulk foated limp and dead,
slain by mortal stab in the throat.
"Aferin, ga habiOi :" well done,
my good friendD cried the Englishman,
as the conqueror struggled ashore
Here are twenty piastres fifty cents)
for you, if you will accept the gift of an
unbeliever."