They Are Called Not Crocodiles But
/Champsai/, And The Ionians Gave Them The Name Of Crocodile, Comparing
Their Form To That Of The Crocodiles (Lizards) Which Appear In Their
Country In The Stone Walls.
There are many ways in use of catching
them and of various kinds:
I shall describe that which to me seems the
most worthy of being told. A man puts the back of a pig upon a hook as
bait, and lets it go into the middle of the river, while he himself
upon the bank of the river has a young live pig, which he beats; and
the crocodile hearing its cries makes for the direction of the sound,
and when he finds the pig's back he swallows it down: then they pull,
and when he is drawn out to land, first of all the hunter forthwith
plasters up his eyes with mud, and having done so he very easily gets
the mastery of him, but if he does not do so he has much trouble.
The river-horse is sacred in the district of Papremis, but for the
other Egyptians he is not sacred; and this is the appearance which he
presents: he is four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox, flat-nosed,
with a mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and
voice like a horse and in size as large as the largest ox; and his
hide is so exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of
javelins are made of it.
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