One in [the] other wfll they Join, And a bi-eath cannot come between them : Each in Its fellow will adhere ; They will cling together that thev cannot be parted. [At] his sneezings a light will flash, And his eyes [ai^] like the lashes of dawn : Prom his mouth will flames proceed ; Sparkfl of fire will escape :
From his nostrils a smoke will go, ^ Like a pot blown with [biasing] reeds : His breath— coals will It kindle, And a flame fhmi his mouth will go. In his neck force shall lodgo. And before him terror shall run. The flaps of hb flesh have stuck [fnst] ; BoUd opon him. it cannot be shaken : His heart [is] solid like a stone. Even solid like [the] under mill-stone. Prom his rising [the] mighty shall fear, From tenors they shall stray. .
COne] hitting him [with the] sword, it wHI not at all stand [the shi>ck]—
Lance, dart, or mail : He will regard as straw, Iron; Aj rotten wood, copper :
The bow-shot cannot make him flee.
To chaff have sling-stones been changed for him : Like chaff clubs have been regarded [by him]. And he will laugh at the brandishing of the Javelin.
Under him [are] pcdnts [as] of pottery,
He will strew [his spiked belly like] a thieshinfi^eledge upon [the] mud : He will cause [the] deep to bdl like the pot, [The] sea he will make like the unguent-kettle ;
Behind him he will illuminate a path ;
[One] would regard [the] main as hoary. (There la] not upon [the] dust hia ruler— The [one] made without dismay:
Uveiything lofty will he behold— He, [the] king over all the sons of pride [!. e. larger beasts].
This description is in the main strikingly applicable to animals of the alligator tribe, although highly col- ored in the poetic style. Yet, as observed with regard to the associated animal (see Behemoth), the phrase- ology is perhaps rather intended generically for large amphibious monsters of the saurian or lizard family, than for any one creature distinctively ; a conclusion that is confirmed by th^ employment of the Heb. term leviathan to other animals of the fishy and reptilo kinds. Indeed, as in the case of the hippopotamus, despite the formidable attributes ascribed to the beast in question by the writer in Job, it appears to have been attacked without much fear by the ancients ; and although held sacred in some parts of Egypt, where it is especially found, in other nomes it was hunted suc-
Crocodile {Croeodilus Vulgaris).
cessfully (Wilkinson, Ana. Eg. i, 241 sq.). The croco- dile, however, is apparently elsewhere definitely re- ferred to in Scripture by other names, especially as the reedrheast (Psa. Izviii, 81 ; see Schramm, De bettia arundmetij F. ad 0. 1718). See Bahab.
**The crocodiles, constituting the order Ixnricata among reptiles, are distinguished pre-eminently by the character noticed in Holy Writ They are clothed on the entire upper parts of the body with distinct series of bones, imbedded in the substance of the skin, and for the most part furnished with a ridge or crest, which greatly augments their strength, and constitutes the whole a coat of plate-mail which is able to resist tho assaults of the most powerful enemy. The structure of the skull is remarkably solid, and it is surmounted by bony crests. There is a single row of teeth in each side of each jaw, locking into each other. The gape is enormous ; the lips are altogether wanting, so that the teeth are visible when the mouth is closed ; hence the animal, even when tranquil, seems to be grinning with rage. The tongue is fleshy, flat, but fi-ee only at the extreme edge, the inferior surface being adherent to the chin and throat; hence the crocodile has been er- roneously represented as tongueless.
"All the species of this order are of huge size : not
CROCODILE
574
CROCODILE
only are they the hugest of reptiles, bat they are among the most gigantic of all animals. Crocodiles have been described as attaining a length of twenty-five feet, bat no specimens have been brought to Enrope of nearly that size. They are probably long-lived, and perhaps their increase of dimensions is commensurate with their age. Highly carnivorous and predaceous, fierce and cunning, they are greatly dreaded in all the tropical regions which they inhabit. Larking in the dense reeds or tangled herbage that grows rank and teeming at the edges of rivers in hot climates, or under the man- groves that interweave their myriad roots in arches above the water, or concealed among the bleaching trunks and branches of trees that have fallen into the stream, these huge reptiles watch for the approach of a living prey, or feed at leisure on the putrid carcasses with which the waters daily supply them. It is even affirmed that they prefer a condition of putrescence in their prey, and that their practice, when not pressed by immediate hunger, is, on seizing a living prey, to plunge into the stream in* order to drown it, after which it is dragged away to some hole, and stored ontil de- composition has commenced.
** Among the decorations of the palace of Shalmane- ser, M. Botta discovered a bas-relief continued over five slabs, and representing a great naval expedition against a maritime dty. A fleet of ships transport timber along a coast washed by the sea, and studded with for- tified islands — ^perhaps the siege of Tyre by this As- syrian monarch. The sea is represented as filled with various marine animals, such as fishes of various forms, turtles, turbinate shells, crabs, and crocodiles (Mon. de Ninivey This, it is true, may have been but a license of the artist ; but Mr. Lyell, in his Principles of Geology^ observes that the gavial, a larger species than the croc- odile of the Nile, inhabiting the Ganges, descends be- yond the brackish water of the delta to the sea. And other species of the genus Crocodilus (as restricted) are frequently known not only to haunt the mouths of riv- ers, but even to swim among islands, and pass from one to another, though separated by considerable spaces of open sea" (Fairbaim, s. v.). See the Petmy Cydopxdiay s. V. Compare Leviathan.