About A Dozen Women
Had Been Filling Their Water-Skins, When Suddenly They Were
Attacked By A Large Crocodile, Who
Attempted to seize a woman,
but she, springing back, avoided it, and the animal swallowed her
girba (water-skin), that,
Being full of water and of a brown
exterior, resembled the body of a woman. The women rushed out of
the river, when the crocodile made a second dash at them, and
seized another water-skin that a woman had dropped in her flight.
They believe this to be the same monster that took a woman a few
months ago. Few creatures are so sly and wary as the crocodile.
I watch them continually as they attack the dense flocks of small
birds that throng the bushes at the water's edge. These birds are
perfectly aware of the danger, and they fly from the attack, if
possible. The crocodile then quietly and innocently lies upon the
surface, as though it had appeared quite by an accident; it thus
attracts the attention of the birds, and it slowly sails away to
a considerable distance, exposed to their view. The birds, thus
beguiled by the deceiver, believe that the danger is removed, and
they again flock to the bush, and once more dip their thirsty
beaks into the stream. Thus absorbed in slaking their thirst,
they do not observe that their enemy is no longer on the surface.
A sudden splash, followed by a huge pair of jaws beneath the bush
that engulfs some dozens of victims, is the signal unexpectedly
given of the crocodile's return, who has thus slyly dived, and
hastened under cover of water to his victims.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 239 of 556
Words from 64673 to 64950
of 151461
