39 The taking the crocodile is most difficult. Diodorus says, they are
not to be taken but by iron nets. When Augustus conquered Egypt, he
struck a medal, the impress of which was a crocodile chained to a
palm-tree, with this inscription, Nemo antea religavit.
40 This alludes to a custom of this creature, which is, when sated with
fish, to come ashore and sleep among the reeds.
41 The crocodile's mouth is exceeding wide. When he gapes, says Pliny,
sic totum os. Martial says to his old woman,
Cum comparata rictibus tuis ora
Niliacus habet crocodilus angusta.
So that the expression there is barely just.
42 This too is nearer the truth than at first view may be imagined. The
crocodile, say the naturalists, lying long under water, and being
there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges, the breath long
represt is hot, and bursts out so violently, that it resembles fire
and smoke. The horse suppresses not his breath by any means so long,
neither is he so fierce and animated; yet the most correct of poets
ventures to use the same metaphor concerning him:
Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem.
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