The Danger Is Not So Great At Other Seasons; Though
It Is Never Safe To Bathe, Or To Stoop To Drink, Where One Cannot See
The Bottom, Especially In The Evening.
One of the Makololo ran down
in the dusk of the river; and, as he was busy tossing the
Water to
his mouth with his hand, in the manner peculiar to the natives, a
crocodile rose suddenly from the bottom, and caught him by the hand.
The limb of a tree was fortunately within reach, and he had presence
of mind to lay hold of it. Both tugged and pulled; the crocodile for
his dinner, and the man for dear life. For a time it appeared
doubtful whether a dinner or a life was to be sacrificed; but the man
held on, and the monster let the hand go, leaving the deep marks of
his ugly teeth in it.
During our detention, in expectation of the permanent rise of the
river in March, Dr. Kirk and Mr. C. Livingstone collected numbers of
the wading-birds of the marshes - and made pleasant additions to our
salted provisions, in geese, ducks, and hippopotamus flesh. One of
the comb or knob-nosed geese, on being strangled in order to have its
skin preserved without injury, continued to breathe audibly by the
broken humerus, or wing-bone, and other means had to be adopted to
put it out of pain. This was as if a man on the gallows were to
continue to breathe by a broken armbone, and afforded us an
illustration of the fact, that in birds, the vital air penetrates
every part of the interior of their bodies.
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