CROCODILE. Of the two names in the Bible that apply to the greater saurians, one appears to be general, and the other almost always to desig nate a particular animal. The former, 14m, tanneen, may be best rendered reptile,' although the reptile intended is sometimes the crocodile. The latter, leviathan,' in every place but one can be rendered crocodile,' and in some places, as in the famous description in Job, must bear that meaning. The present article contains a description of the crocodile of Egypt, with the addition of some his torical particulars connected with the animal. Its object is to illustrate the biblical notices when they come to be discussed under later heads [LE VIATHAN; TANNEEN ; WHALE; see also TAN].
The crocodiles which we have to notice at pre sent consist of three varieties, or perhaps species, all natives of the Nile, distinguishable by the diffe rent arrangement of the scutN or bony studs on the neck, and the number of rows of the same processes along the back. Their general lizard-form is too well known to need particular description ; but it may be remarked that of the whole family of cro codiles, comprehending the sharp-beaked gavials of India, the alligators of the west, and the croco diles properly so called, the last are supplied with the most vigorous instruments for swimming, both from the strength and vertical breadth of their tails, and from the deeper webs of the fingers of their paws. Although all have from thirty to forty teeth in each jaw, shaped like spikes, without breadth so as to cut, or surface so as to admit of grinding, the true crocodile alone has one or more teeth on each side in both jaws, exserted, that is, not closing within but outside the jaw. They have no external ear beyond a follicle of skin, and the eyes have a position above the plane of the head, the pupils being contractile, like those of a cat, and in some having a luminous greenish tinge, which may have suggested the comparison of the eyes of leviathan to ' the eyelids of the dawn' ( Job xli. so [A. V. is]). The upper jaw is not movable, but, as well as the forehead, is ex tremely dense and bony ; the rest of the upper surface being covered with several rows of bosses, or plated ridges, which on the tail are at last reduced from two to one, each scale having a high horny crest, which acts as part of a great fin. Al though destitute of a real voice, crocodiles when angry produce a snorting sound, something like a deep growl [or rather grunt] ; and occasionally they open the mouth very wide, remain for a time thus exposed facing the breeze, and, closing the jaws with a sudden snap, cause a report like the fall of a trap-door. It is an awful sound, which we have heard more than once in the stillness of the night in tropical South America ; and we are informed that the same phenomenon occurs on the Ganges, and on the west coast of Africa. The gullet of the crocodile is very wide, the tongue being completely tied to the lower jaw, and beneath it are glands exuding a musky substance. On land the crocodile, next to the gavial, is the most active, and in the water it is also the species that most readily frequents the open sea. Of the immense number of genera which we have seen or examined, none reached to 25 feet in length, and we believe the specimen in the British Museum to be one of the largest. Sheep are observed to be unmolested by these animals ; but where they abound no pigs can be kept, perhaps from their frequenting the muddy shores ; for we have known only one in stance of crocodiles being encountered in woods not immediately close to the water's side : usually they bask on sandy islands. [They rarely attack men, but women are sometimes seized by them : in Nubia they are much more dangerous than in Egypt (See Sir G. Wilkinson's Modern Egypt and Thebes, ii., p. 127)]. As their teeth are long, but not fitted for cutting, they seize their prey, which they cannot masticate, and swallow it nearly en tire, or bury it beneath the waves to macerate. Having very small excretory organs, their digestion requires, and accordingly they are found to possess, an immense biliary apparatus. They are ovipa
rous, burying their eggs in the sand ; and the female remains in the vicinity to dig them out on the day the young have broken the shell. Croco diles are caught with hooks, and they seldom suc ceed in cutting the rope when properly prepared. Though a ball fired point blank will penetrate be tween the scales which cover the body, the invul nerability of these great saurians is sufficiently exemplified by the following occurrence.* One being brought well bound to the bazaar at Cawn pore on the Ganges, it was purchased by the British officers on the spot, and carried further in land for the purpose of being baited. Accord ingly, the ligatures, excepting those which secured the muzzle, being cut asunder, the monster, though it had been many hours exposed to the heat, and was almost suffocated with dust, fought its way through an immense crowd of assailants, soldiers and natives, armed with staves, lances, swords, and stones, and worried by numerous ter riers, hounds, and curs ; overturning all in its way, till, scenting the river, it escaped to the water at a distance of two miles, in spite of the most strenu ous opposition !' With the ancient Egyptians the crocodile was a sacred animal, not, however, one of those revered by the whole nation, but only locally held in honour. Of old it was found in Lower as well as Upper Egypt, now it is restricted to the latter region, never descending as low as Cairo, and usually not being seen until the traveller approaches the ThebaIs. In hieroglyphics it bears the name ItISUH, literally ' in the egg,' as though express ing surprise that so great an animal should issue from so small an egg. From this name the Cop tic and Arabic names take their origin. The crocodile was sacred to the god SEBAK, repre sented with the head of this animal and the body of a man, and of uncertain place in the Egyptian mythology. It was not only not worshipped throughout Egypt, but was as much hated in some as venerated in other parts of the country : thus in the Ombite nome it was worshipped, and hunted in the Apollinopolite and Tentyrite nomes. The worship of this animal is no doubt of Nigri tian origin, like all the low nature-worship of Egypt. It is not certain that the crocodile was an emblem of the king with the Egyptians, but it seems probable that this was the case.' There is evidence that the crocodile was found in Syria at the time of the Crusades. A reptile of this kind has lately been discovered in the Nahr-el-Kelb, the ancient Lyons.
' The exploit of Dieudonne de Bozon, knight of St. John, who, when a young man, slew the dragon of Rhodes, an exploit which Schiller has cele brated in his Kampf mit dem Drachen,' must be regarded as a combat with a crocodile, which had probably been carried northward by the regu lar current of the eastern Mediterranean ; for so the picture still extant in the hareem of a Turkish inhabitant represents the Idayawan Keber or Great Beast—a picture necessarily painted anterior to the expulsion of the knights in 1480.* As De Bozon died Grand Master of the Order at Rhodes in 1353, and the spoils of the animal long remained hung up in a church, there is not, we think, any reason to doubt the fact, though most of the recorded circumstances may be fabulous. All the ancient Greek and the later Mediterranean dragons, as those of Naples, Arles, etc., where they are not allegorical, are no doubt derived from croco diles.'" ' That crocodiles and alligators take the sea, and are found on islands many leagues distant from other land, we have ourselves witnessed ; and the fact is particularly notorious at the Grand Cay manas in the sea of Mexico, which is almost desti tute of fresh water. It is indeed owing to this cir cumstance that the same species may frequent all the rivers of a great extent of coast, as is the case with some found in Africa, whence they spread to India and the Malayan islands.'—C. H. S. R. S. P.
The zoological portion of the article, denoted by marks of quotation, is retained from the previous editions.