The crocodile is a fierce beast that lives always beside the river Nile.
In shape it is somewhat like an ox; it is full twenty ells long, and as
big around as the trunk of a tree. It has four feet, large claws, and
very sharp teeth; by means of these it is well armed. So hard and tough
is its skin, that it minds not in the least hard blows made by sharp
stones. Never was seen another such a beast, for it lives on land and in
water. At night it is submerged in water, and during the day it reposes
upon the land. If it meets and overcomes a man, it swallows him entire,
so that nothing remains. But ever after it laments him as long as it
lives[12]. The upper jaw of this beast is immovable when it eats, and
the lower one alone moves. No other living creature has this
peculiarity. The other beast of which I have told you (the
water-serpent), which always lives in the water, hates the crocodile
with a mortal hatred. When it sees the crocodile sleeping on the ground
with its mouth wide open, it rolls itself in the slime and mud in order
to become more slippery. Then it leaps into the throat of the crocodile
and is swallowed down into its stomach. Here it bites and tears its way
out again, but the crocodile dies on account of its wounds.
[Footnote 12: "Crocodile tears" are proverbial. Cf:
"As the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers."--'2 Henry VI.,' iii. 1.
"Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile."--'Othello' iv. 1.]