The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-14
THE CROCODILE OE HISTORY.
HIS LIYE TOOTHPICK.
Ills Tears and Ills Way of Getting
Caught In the Nile.

Caught In the Nile.
 l To say that the crocodile has seen IS
 best days is but feebly to express the
 rapidty with which he is lapsing into
 the class of extinct animals As fea-
 ture of modern Egypt he is perhaps
 rather a curiosity than a plague; ana
 the traveller has to get far beyond the
 regions of the Delta before he can hope for the chance of being introduced to one. Crocodile stories are no longer told in fact, it is safer to trust to the | sea serpent. Nothing can make the | crocodile attractive, and even the man
 with the camera is shy or treating hlm
 as a subject-whether for personal or artistic reasons is not quite clear. Eos
 sibly the crocodile resents being focuss- ed as he formerly shrank from confron- | tation with mirror-an ordeal which often led to his dying of chagrin, as was
 supposed, at the sight of his own ugli-
 ness. Moreover, the experienced photo-
 grapher is wise In taking no risks re-
 membering that the crocodile's tears
 are only natural solvent which the
 saurian applies to the tougher form of
 animal food.
 And this Is where the legend of the toothpick properly comes in. Herodo- tus noticed the fact but seems to have
 been misled as to the motive. He dis
 covered that the crocodile made friends with particular bird, which he allow
 cd to enter his mouth in order, as the
 writer supposed, to rid the reptile of the
 leeches infested his jaws, Pliny says
 nothing of these pests, but considers the
 complaisance of the crocodile to be due
 to the satisfaction he felt in having his
 teeth picked by the bird. He taketh so great delight in this here scraping and
 securing of his teeth and jaws" Both
 authors speak of the bird as a wren; later naturalists described Is as being as large as a thrush, while 1t has been re- served for the present generation Of
 travellers to identify this useful friend of the crocodile as the spur winged plover Of the fact that the alliance there is not the least doubt. The opera ton has been frequently witnessed by numerous independent observers, one of the latest of whom considers that the bird does actually perform the functions of toothpick, "a process which the CTuCOullG GUJOyS. w WItll SuNi Ollppoio tion the narration of Herodotue, sub ject to qualification, as it must be, is at least to be taken seriously, and no longer regarded as the visionary idea of a mere fabulist.
 In the Egyptian hieroglyphics he is represented by a single wavy line, so perfectly suggestive of the contour of the animal that it is quite impossible to escape from it's meaning. It might | stand as an excellent contemporary il- illustration of the text of Herodotus, nei- | ther author nor artist overstepping the | modesty of nature. This was reserved 1 for later times, in which arose so many ! of the myths and extravaganees which | we are ready to impute to the lack of | practical knowledge by the classic writ CTS. When Fuller lucubrated so learn edly of the crocodile he doubtless felt | that he was correcting the erroneous idea of an earlier period, and the fol- lowing example of his erudition may serve to show how he set about the task: "The sovereign power of saffron is plainly proved by the antipathy of the crocodile thereto; for the erocodles tears are never true, save when he Is
 
 he hath the name of saffron fearer, knowing himself to be all poison and it all antdote." As to legend of the croco- dies tears, it can only be regarded as a myth grafted upon some of the rep tiles observed habits. Probably be-s cause they could offer less resistance to his attacks women and children were liable to them, the office of the former as water carriers gringng them often to the Nile and the child ren naturally finding a playground on It's shores.
 Herodotus gives an amusing account of the manner in which the Egyptian brothers of the angle used to fish for from which it would seem that they had taken leaf out of the reptiles own book of strategy. They baited the hook with large piece of hog's flesh, with which they made real anglers least" into the middle of the river. And they employed very spec al and alluring form of ground bait, of vigorous young porker, whom they anchored, Irish fashion. o1 he bank, and melted by divers irritat- ng arts into energetc squealing En- .ranced with the melodious sound, the crocodile was drawn in the direction which it came, and being unable to get 1t the pig, put tip with the baited nook Globe.