DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0107
(
100 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
by the tail, with his large jaws distended by a
stick, it struck me that he would make a still better
substitute for cameos and mosaics, and that I
would box him up, and, without any advice, send
him to my friend.
The reader may judge how desperately I was
pushed for amusement, when I tell him that I
chuckled greatly over this happy conceit; and hav-
ing sent my Nubian to hail the boat as she was
coming by, I followed with my little memorial.
The whole village turned out to escort us, more
than a hundred Arabs, men, women, and children,
and we dragged him down with a pomp and cir-
cumstance worthy of his better days. Paul looked
a little astonished when he saw me with a rope
over my shoulder, leading the van of this ragged
escort, and rather turned up his nose when I told
him my joke. I had great difficulty in getting my
prize on board, and when I had got him there, he
deranged every thing else ; but the first day I was
so tickled, that I could have thrown all my other
cargo overboard rather than him. The second
day the joke was not so good, and the third I grew
tired of it, and tumbled my crocodile into the river.
I followed him with my eye, as his body floated
down the stream ; it was moonlight, and the creak-
ing of the water-wheel on the banks sounded like the
moaning spirit of an ancient Egyptian, indignant
at the murder and profanation of his god. It was
perhaps hardly worth while to mention this little
circumstance, but it amused me for a day or two,
100 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
by the tail, with his large jaws distended by a
stick, it struck me that he would make a still better
substitute for cameos and mosaics, and that I
would box him up, and, without any advice, send
him to my friend.
The reader may judge how desperately I was
pushed for amusement, when I tell him that I
chuckled greatly over this happy conceit; and hav-
ing sent my Nubian to hail the boat as she was
coming by, I followed with my little memorial.
The whole village turned out to escort us, more
than a hundred Arabs, men, women, and children,
and we dragged him down with a pomp and cir-
cumstance worthy of his better days. Paul looked
a little astonished when he saw me with a rope
over my shoulder, leading the van of this ragged
escort, and rather turned up his nose when I told
him my joke. I had great difficulty in getting my
prize on board, and when I had got him there, he
deranged every thing else ; but the first day I was
so tickled, that I could have thrown all my other
cargo overboard rather than him. The second
day the joke was not so good, and the third I grew
tired of it, and tumbled my crocodile into the river.
I followed him with my eye, as his body floated
down the stream ; it was moonlight, and the creak-
ing of the water-wheel on the banks sounded like the
moaning spirit of an ancient Egyptian, indignant
at the murder and profanation of his god. It was
perhaps hardly worth while to mention this little
circumstance, but it amused me for a day or two,