In the existing representatives of the antediluvian saurians, the
crocodile and alligator, we see the prototypes of the dragons and hydras
of poetic fancy. The crocodile is a well-known huge amphibious reptile, in
general contour resembling a great lizard covered with large horny scales
that cannot be easily pierced, except underneath, and reaching twenty-five
to thirty feet in length. The crocodile was held sacred by the ancient
Egyptians, the Nile was and is its best-known habitat; it is also found in
the rivers of the Indian seas. Though an awkward creature upon land, it
darts with rapidity through the water after fish, which is its appropriate
food, but it is dangerous also to dogs and other creatures, as well as to
human beings entering the water or lingering incautiously on the bank.
It is the _Lacerta crocodilus_ of Linnæus, from Greek κροκοδειλος
(_krokodeilos_) a word of uncertain origin. The Alligator, the American
crocodile, takes its name from the Spanish _El Legarto_, the lizard. The
Latin form is _Lacertus_ or _Lacerta_.
Miss Millington, in her "Heraldry in History, Poetry and Romance," says
that both dragon and crocodile seem anciently to have been confounded
under one name, and that Philip de Thaun, in his "Bestiarus," says that
"crocodille signifie diable en ceste vie." Guillim, an old heraldic
writer, says: "The dragons are naturally so hot that they cannot be
cooled by drinking of waters, but still gape for the air to refresh them,
as appeareth in Jeremiah xiv. 6."
Young, author of "Night Thoughts," in a footnote appended to the
magnificent description of the leviathan (crocodile), in his paraphrase of
part of the book of Job says: "The crocodile, say the naturalists, lying
under water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges,
the breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently that it
resembles fire and smoke. The horse suppresses not his breath by any means
so long, neither is he so fierce and animated," yet the most correct of
poets ventures to use the same metaphor regarding him:
"Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem."