of putrified dog’s flesh, of which the Marutse believe the crocodile to be especially fond, and is supported on a tripod of reeds, three or four feet above the water, and almost close to its edge. After a crocodile has scented the bait, it usually hovers round it for a long time, sometimes until late in the evening, before it makes a snap at it; but when it attempts to swallow it, the projecting points of the hook prevent the closing of the jaws, and the water rushing into the throat and windpipe makes the brute sink to the bottom, where it soon becomes exhausted; its carcase floats down the stream, either towards the shore or against a sandbank, its position being indicated by the float which it drags after it. Two or three crocodiles have been repeatedly known to be taken in this way during a single night from the setting of five hooks. Except they are found alive on the hook, or are accidentally wounded by fishermen or hunters, they are never speared. Crocodile-snares, like fishing-nets, are all royal property.
On one occasion, when the hooks had been baited overnight, I went down to the river to ascertain the result, and met three large canoes with two men apiece, each of them conveying the carcase of a crocodile big enough to contain a human body. As soon as the carcases were brought to shore, some of Sepopo’s people proceeded to cut off their heads; the eyelids, the coverings of the nostrils, and a few of the scales from the ridge of the back were reserved for the king, to be used as charms.
I did what I could to induce the crowd that had found the body of the poor girl to have it buried, but my pleading was to no purpose; her relatives
