Herodotus was a Greek Historian who lived c 490-415 BC. He traveled widely in what was the then knowN world. He was the first person to systematically collect data, test it in as much as he could and present it in a narrative to the reader. He is widely thought of the Father of history, ethnography and anthropology. Though many of his stories were thought of as hard to believe much of what he has written about as since been shown to be accurate.
Through his wandering he saw and heard many weird things such as tribes who speak in bat like squeaks and build houses of salt, Ethiopians preserving their dead in huge, hollowed out crystals and the Babylonians preserving their dead in honey.
He wrote several curious passages on animal life.
“The following account is of the crocodile. During the four winter months it takes no food. It is a four footed, amphibious creature, lays and hatches its eggs on land, where it spends the grater part of the day and says all night in the river, were the water is warmer than the nigh air and the dew. The difference in size between he young and the full-grown crocodile is greater than in any other known creature; for a crocodile’s egg is hardly bigger than a goose’s, and the young when hatched is small in proportion, yet it grows to a size of some twenty three feet long or even more. It has eyes like a pig’s but great fang like teeth in proportion to its body, and is the only animal to have no tongue and a stationary lower jaw; foe when it eats it brings the upper jaw down upon the lower. It has powerful claws and a scaly hide, which ion its back is impenetrable. It cannot see underwater, though its sight on land is remarkably sharp. One result of spending so much time in the water is that its mouth gets covered with leeches. Other animals avoid the crocodile, as do all birds with one exception-the sandpiper of Egyptian plover; this bird is of service to the crocodile and lives, in consequence, in the greatest amity with him; for when the crocodile comes ashore and lies with his mouth wide open (which he generally does facing towards he west), the bird hops in and swallows the leeches. The crocodile enjoys this and, in consequence, never hurts the bird. Some Egyptians reverence the crocodile as a sacred beast; other do not, but treat it as an enemy. The strongest belief in its sanctity is to be found in Thebes and around Lake Moeris; in these places they keep one particular crocodile, which they tame, putting rings made of glass and gold into its ears and bracelets round its front feet, and giving it special food and ceremonial offerings. In fact, while these creatures are alive they treat them with every kindness, and, when they die, embalm them and bury them in sacred tombs. On the other hand, in the neighborhood of Elephantine crocodiles were no considered sacred animals at all, but are eaten. In the Egyptian language these creatures are called champsae. The name crocodile-or lizard- was given them by the Ionians who saw they resembled the lizards commonly found on stone walls in their own country.
Of the numerous different ways of catching crocodiles I will describe the one which seems to me the most worthy to report. They bait a hook with a chine of pork and let it float out into midstream, and at the same time, sanding on the bank, take a live pig and beat it. The crocodile, hearing its squeals, makes a rush towards it. Gulps it down, and is hauled out of the water. The first thing the huntsman dies when he has got the beast on land is to plaster its eyes with mud; this done, it is dispatched easily enough-but without this precaution it will give a lot of trouble.”
Herodotus’ description is, overall quite good. His description of the symbiosis between the Nile crocodile and the Egyptian plover is the first of its kind.
Through his wandering he saw and heard many weird things such as tribes who speak in bat like squeaks and build houses of salt, Ethiopians preserving their dead in huge, hollowed out crystals and the Babylonians preserving their dead in honey.
He wrote several curious passages on animal life.
“The following account is of the crocodile. During the four winter months it takes no food. It is a four footed, amphibious creature, lays and hatches its eggs on land, where it spends the grater part of the day and says all night in the river, were the water is warmer than the nigh air and the dew. The difference in size between he young and the full-grown crocodile is greater than in any other known creature; for a crocodile’s egg is hardly bigger than a goose’s, and the young when hatched is small in proportion, yet it grows to a size of some twenty three feet long or even more. It has eyes like a pig’s but great fang like teeth in proportion to its body, and is the only animal to have no tongue and a stationary lower jaw; foe when it eats it brings the upper jaw down upon the lower. It has powerful claws and a scaly hide, which ion its back is impenetrable. It cannot see underwater, though its sight on land is remarkably sharp. One result of spending so much time in the water is that its mouth gets covered with leeches. Other animals avoid the crocodile, as do all birds with one exception-the sandpiper of Egyptian plover; this bird is of service to the crocodile and lives, in consequence, in the greatest amity with him; for when the crocodile comes ashore and lies with his mouth wide open (which he generally does facing towards he west), the bird hops in and swallows the leeches. The crocodile enjoys this and, in consequence, never hurts the bird. Some Egyptians reverence the crocodile as a sacred beast; other do not, but treat it as an enemy. The strongest belief in its sanctity is to be found in Thebes and around Lake Moeris; in these places they keep one particular crocodile, which they tame, putting rings made of glass and gold into its ears and bracelets round its front feet, and giving it special food and ceremonial offerings. In fact, while these creatures are alive they treat them with every kindness, and, when they die, embalm them and bury them in sacred tombs. On the other hand, in the neighborhood of Elephantine crocodiles were no considered sacred animals at all, but are eaten. In the Egyptian language these creatures are called champsae. The name crocodile-or lizard- was given them by the Ionians who saw they resembled the lizards commonly found on stone walls in their own country.
Of the numerous different ways of catching crocodiles I will describe the one which seems to me the most worthy to report. They bait a hook with a chine of pork and let it float out into midstream, and at the same time, sanding on the bank, take a live pig and beat it. The crocodile, hearing its squeals, makes a rush towards it. Gulps it down, and is hauled out of the water. The first thing the huntsman dies when he has got the beast on land is to plaster its eyes with mud; this done, it is dispatched easily enough-but without this precaution it will give a lot of trouble.”
Herodotus’ description is, overall quite good. His description of the symbiosis between the Nile crocodile and the Egyptian plover is the first of its kind.
He gets a few things wrong. The crocodile, like all other vertebrates moves the lower jaw not the upper. Crocodiles do have tongues and can see very well under water.
