Facts and fancies about Java

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Of Crocodiles.

The fisherfolk of these parts have yet another enemy - a much more energetic one to all appearance than the money-goddess, who evidently does not make many victims among these good-natured, frugal, and careless people; the coast warms with crocodiles; and, according to annual reports, quite a considerable number of people are every year devoured by these brutes. They infest especially the marshy country around the mouth of the Kali Batawi, where they may sometimes be seen, lying half in the water and half upon a mudbank, their wicked little eyes blinking in the

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sunlight, their formidable jaws agape and showing the bright yellow of the gullet. There, they wait for the carcases of drowned animals and the offal of all of kinds floating down the river. Imprudent bathers are often attacked by them, and they even swim up the watercourses, and venture for considerable distances inland

The Government, some years ago, put a premium on the capture of crocodiles, a relatively high sum being offered for a carcase. But the measure had to be withdrawn after a while, and this, though, to all appearance, it worked excellently well. Numbers of crocodiles were caught and killed: not a day went by but natives presented themselves at the police stations, exhibiting a limp carcase slung on to a bamboo frame, which a score of coolies ‘pikoled’ or carried along. Harassed officials began to believe in a universe peopled exclusively by Malays and dead or dying crocodiles: and philanthropists rejoiced over an

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imminent extermination of caymans, and consequent safety of bathing for little boys and girls. But there were those who understood the nature of both natives and crocodiles, and who considered their ways; and they smiled a smile of wisdom and pity ineffable, as they looked upon the dead saurians, and saw that they were young. The philanthropists contended that a little crocodile was a crocodile nevertheless, and would, in its own bad time, be a big crocodile, and one which feasted on the flesh of men and women and innocent children: but those wise men only smiled the more. And, presently, one of them took a philanthropist by the hand, and led him by quiet waters, and showed him men and women seeking for the eggs of the crocodile, and gathering them in their bosoms, and watching the young come out, and rearing them even with a father's care und lovingkindness, to the end that they might wax fat and kick, and be hound

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with iron chains, and delivered over to the schout.^*

The crocodiles now are left to multiply and replenish the shores of Java; and nobody molests them, except now and then some adventurous sportsman, upon whom tigers have palled, and who cares but little for ‘bantengs,’ and holds the rhinoceros of no account. And, generally, too, though he lie in wait for a crocodile, he catches only a fever - of a particularly malignant kind, it is true.

The Malays, as a rule, do not readily kill crocodiles. They believe that the spirits of the dead are re-incarnated in these animals; so that, what seems a repulsive and dangerous beast, may, in reality, be an honoured father, or a longlamented bride. And they piously prefer the risk of being devoured to the certainty of becoming murderers. Far from injuring, they honour the ‘cayman’ by sacrifices of rice, meat, and

* A police official.

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fruit, which they send down the river in little baskets of palm-leaves with a light twinkling a-top; a gift offered whenever a child is born, to propitiate the metamorphosed ancestors in river and sea, and implore their protection for this, their newly born descendant. And human feelings and susceptibilities are attributed to them which the Malay carefully abstains from wounding. He never speaks but of my ‘Lord the Crocodile.’ And a wayang-play, such as, for instance, Krokosono, the hero of which defeats and kills the King of the Crocodiles, no dalang would dream of representing in a place where caymans could hear or see it. There is one act, however, by which a crocodile forfeits all claim to respect: and that is killing a human being. From his supposed human nature, it evidently follows that this is an act of malice prepense, a crime knowingly committed: and, as such, should be punished as it would be were the perpetrator a man or a woman -

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that is, with death; and it would seem as if the guilty creature was conscious of his crime: and, sometimes, out of sheer remorse, gave himself up to justice. At least, a story to this effect is told of a certain crocodile, which had devoured a little girl, and this, though the child's parents had duly offered rice and meat and fruit, at the stated times; of which gifts this crocodile had undoubtedly had his share. The crime, therefore, was all the more heinous. The parents, weeping, sought a hermit who lived not far from the ‘dessa’ or village, a wise man who understood the language of animals: and implored him to restore at least the remains of their daughter's little body to them, and to visit with condign punishment her brutal murderer. The hermit, moved with pity and indignation, forthwith left his cave, repaired to the sea-shore, and there, standing with his feet in the waves, he pronounced the patent spell which all crocodiles must obey. They came, hurrying, from

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far and near: the shore was covered with their scaly backs ranged in serried rank and file. And, when all were present, the hermit addressed them in their own tongue, declaring that one of them had committed the unpardonable crime of murder - murder upon an innocent child - whose parents had offered sacrifices for her at her birth: rice and fruit and meat, of which they all had partaken, in token of amity and good will. So abominable a breach of good faith would not remain unpunished. Wherefore, let him who had perpetrated it, stand forth! But all the others, let them withdraw into the sea! The crocodiles heard. The solid land seemed to heave and break up, as the congregated thousands dispersed. But one crocodile remained behind on the beach. It crawled nearer and lay down at the feet of the hermit. And the father of the little girl, approaching, drew his ‘kris,’ and thrust it into the creature's eyes, killing it. The

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holy man then took out of the monster's jaws the necklace of blue beads, which the little girl had worn: and handed it to the father, promising him that, within the year, his wife would bear him another daughter, even fairer than the lost one. But the carcase of the crocodile was devoured by the dogs.

Something in the landscape near Petite Trouville brought back to my memory this tale, heard from a village priest some time ago. It was a fit scene for such events. That brown hut among the bananas might have been the abode of the hapless little maid. The dense wood, behind, might well shelter an anchorite, some old man, wise and humble, content to live on wild fruit and learn from the birds among the branches and the fishes in the sea; assuredly, he would stand upon the little spit of land that has the njamploeng on it, and the crocodiles, obedient to his command, would raise their formidable beads from the water, and

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with their serried ranks cover the shelving bench...... Very peaceful it lay now, in the light of the setting sun. The sea shone golden. And already, among the blossom-laden branches of the njamploeng, there began to rustle the sea breeze precursor of deep-breathed Night.