They told the story of their adventure to the Doctor, who measured the rope, and found that the crocodile was only a few inches short of fifteen feet long.
"It's a very good one," said Abdul, "but I've seen 'em eighteen or twenty feet long. The great fellows are no more dangerous than the smaller ones, as a crocodile ten feet long can drag a man under water and hold him there till he is drowned."
SECURING A SUPPER.
Abdul said that one day, while the men of Baker Pacha's party were working among some masses of reeds that the river had piled up, they felt something moving under their feet. They got away from the spot as soon as possible, and a moment afterward the head of a crocodile was thrust up from below. His body was tangled in the reeds, and before he could get free the men attacked him. He was unable to use his tail, and so was at their mercy; "and you may be sure," he continued, "nobody has any mercy for a crocodile. Besides, the men were negroes from the Soudan country, and, unlike the Arabs, they had no scruple in eating the flesh. They made short work of him, and had a good supper that night, in addition to the sport of killing their natural enemy."
Abdul said that the number of natives killed by crocodiles every year along the upper part of the Nile must be quite large. Every few days a death from this cause occurs in nearly every town or village. The careless habits of the people are greatly in the crocodile's favor, and he has no scruples about taking them as near his heart as the position of his stomach will permit. When a large crocodile is killed and dissected the proof of his misdeeds is generally discovered, in the shape of anklets and other silver ornaments worn by his unfortunate victims, and which remain of course undigested.
The crocodile does not eat his game on the spot where he captures it; his habit is to drag it to a secluded place and take his time in devouring it. In this respect he differs from his marine cousin, the shark, who bolts his prey at once, and then, like Oliver Twist, looks around for more.