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Arabs, which was about six feet long. Their length varies from twelve to thirty feet. I got a small portion of this crocodile boiled, to ascertain its taste; the flavour a good deal resembled that of a lobster, and though somewhat tougher, it might certainly be considered very excellent food. I am astonished that the Arabs, who can eat snails, locusts, land tortoises, and camels' flesh, should reject that of the crocodile. The female takes three or four days to deposit her eggs in the sand; the number varies from fifteen to forty-five. Sir Thomas Herbert says sixty, and that the animal has sixty teeth, sixty vertebræ, and lives sixty years. The most striking peculiarity in the crocodile is its digestion; in the one I dissected, I found several pebbles in the stomach: the rectum was situated close to the lower orifice of the stomach, but this passage is remarkably small for the size of the animal; and the Arabs assert that it always leaves the water to eject the contents of the intestines. I believe there is some truth in this statement. On each side of the fore shoulder I found a follicle containing musk, or at least a substance which does not differ from it in smell; one weighed two drams, the

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other something less. This, in Cairo, fetches a large price, being used as an ingredient for madjoun powder. It takes two months to bring the eggs to maturity; and when they are deposited, they are about the size of those of a small goose.

Our boatmen were constantly in the river dragging the boat, and in those parts where the crocodiles abound most, yet no accident occurred; in all our route I only heard of one little girl being drawn into the river, off the bank, some months ago indeed the Arabs say that a crocodile cannot seize its prey in the water.

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Hasselquist and most modern authors think the crocodile is the leviathan of the Scriptures, " Can a man draw up the leviathan?" says Job, and answers it in the negative; and on this Hasselquist remarks, that "this animal, the crocodile, has the power of destroying the hooks and other instruments of fishermen." Now Herodotus describes the method of catching the crocodile by a hook; so that, if this be true, the crocodile cannot be the leviathan of Job.

The chameleon, which is another of the lacerta species, I have latterly examined a good

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THE CHAMELEON.

deal I had one which lived for three months, another two months, and several which I gave away, after keeping them ten days or a fortnight. Of all the irascible little animals in the world, there are none so choleric as the chameleon. I trained two large ones to fight, and could at any time, by knocking their tails against one another, ensure a combat; during which their change of colour was most conspicuous. This change is only effected by paroxysms of rage, when the dark green gall of the animal is transmitted into the blood, and is visible enough under its pellucid skin. The gall, as it enters and leaves the circulation, affords the three various shades of green which are observable in its colour.

The story of the chameleon assuming whatever colour is near it, is, like that of its living upon air, a fable. It is extremely voracious: I had one so tame, that I could place it on a piece of stick, opposite a window; and in the course of ten minutes, I have seen it devour half a dozen flies. Its mode of catching them is very singular : the tongue is a thin cartilaginous dart, anchor

THE CHAMELEON- -THE LIZARD.

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shaped; this it thrusts forth with great velocity, and never fails to catch its prey.

The mechanism of the eyes of the chameleon is extremely curious; it has the power of projecting the eye a considerable distance from the socket, and can make it revolve in all directions. One of them, which I kept for some months, deposited thirteen eggs in a corner of the room; each was about the size of a large coriander seed. The animal never sat on them: I took them away to try the effects of the sun, but from that period she declined daily in vivacity, and soon after died.

The lizard called gecko, is a small poisonous reptile, which the people of Thebes dread very much; its peculiarity is, that its poison exudes from the feet. I was called to a man at Gourna, who was in a dying state, from ulceration of the fauces; the only account I could get of his malady was, that he was taken ill after eating a water melon, over which one of these poisonous lizards had crawled. From what I hear in Thebes of the numerous accidents arising from provisions imbibing this poison, I think they are much

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more to be dreaded than serpents. A very virulent poison used to be prepared in Egypt, by tying up a live gecko by the tail, placing a piece of glass underneath it, and then flogging the tortured animal, till it discharged its venom on the glass.

Two hyenas, as untameable as any of their species, I kept at Alexandria, in a magazine, at large, for several months. A man slept in the magazine all this time, and had no apprehension of these ravenous animals. The fact is, I believe, that the hyena never attacks a man, notwithstanding what Bruce says, of the Desert being covered with the bones of the dead; horrid monuments of the victories of this savage animal.

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I inquired of the Bedouin Arabs, if the dib, as they call him, ever attacked men? They said, he never did: that he has been known to attack an infant; but this rats do in Egypt. tended an infant in Alexandria, the child of a German carpenter, which was pulled out of its cradle by rats at night, by dragging at the clothes on which it was laid; and in the morning, the child was found with the tops of the toes and

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