in the air he is of a very keen sight. Since he has his living in the
water he keeps his mouth all full within of leeches; and whereas all
other birds and beasts fly from him, the trochilus is a creature which
is at peace with him, seeing that from her he receives benefit; for
the crocodile having come out of the water to the land and then having
opened his mouth (this he is wont to do generally towards the West
Wind), the trochilus upon that enters into his mouth and swallows down
the leeches, and he being benefited is pleased and does no harm to
the trochilus. Now for some of the Egyptians the crocodiles are sacred
animals, and for others not so, but they treat them on the contrary
as enemies: those however who dwell about Thebes and about the lake of
Moiris hold them to be most sacred, and each of these two peoples keeps
one crocodile selected from the whole number, which has been trained
to tameness, and they put hanging ornaments of molten stone and of gold
into the ears of these and anklets round the front feet, and they give
them food appointed and victims of sacrifices and treat them as well
as possible while they live, and after they are dead they bury them
in sacred tombs, embalming them: but those who dwell about the city
of Elephantine even eat them, not holding them to be sacred. They are
called not crocodiles but _champsai_, and the Ionians gave them the name
of crocodile, comparing their form to that of the crocodiles (lizards)
which appear in their country in the stone walls. There are many ways in
use of catching them and of various kinds: I shall describe that which
to me seems the most worthy of being told. A man puts the back of a pig
upon a hook as bait, and lets it go into the middle of the river, while
he himself upon the bank of the river has a young live pig, which he
beats; and the crocodile hearing its cries makes for the direction of
the sound, and when he finds the pig's back he swallows it down: then
they pull, and when he is drawn out to land, first of all the hunter
forthwith plasters up his eyes with mud, and having done so he very