]
The word crocodile means a creature which dislikes saffron; so it would be
of no use, I suppose, for us to offer that lazy-looking animal floating
in his tank, looking as lifeless as the trunk of a tree, with his nose
and a little ridge of his mail-clad back alone appearing above the water,
a saffron bun--to say nothing of his being a creature whose appearance
does not seem to invite us to come to close quarters, or to hold any
communication with him. But we have little idea of what these enormous
reptiles are really like, when we see them so far away from their native
haunts. It is thought by some that the "_leviathan_," spoken of in the
book of Job, whose "teeth are terrible round about," is the crocodile; for
its mouth is larger than that of any other animal, and is armed with very
sharp teeth. Dr. Smith tells [Footnote: "Nile," _Dictionary of the Bible_,
p. 621.] us that crocodiles were once so plentiful in the East, that the
great river of Egypt swarmed with them, and the Egyptians, who made almost
everything into a god, worshipped them and made mummies of them, as they
did of birds, cats, and snakes.
I have often thought that when the mother of Moses long ago laid that child
who was "fair to God" in his bulrush cradle among the reeds by the river's
bank, her heart must almost have failed her as she remembered the terrible
crocodiles; but she had faith in God, and He suffered no wild beast to
molest that little ark.
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