People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1897 — A SUMATRAN’S VENGEANCE UPON A CROCODILE THAT-HAD KILLED HIS WIFE. [ARTICLE]

A SUMATRAN’S VENGEANCE UPON A CROCODILE THAT-HAD KILLED HIS WIFE.

Speaking of crocodiles in Sumatra. the following story is told by Dr. Theodore Weyffian, naturalist and traveler, who passed ten years in lands washed by the Indian Ocean: “Except in districts where bounties are maintained by the government for the destruction of crocodiles the natives do not hunt them systematically. But when some members of a tribe or village is killed by a crocodile, the relatives of the victim, helped by the other members of the community, turn out to avenge his death. Their revenge is satisfied when they believe they have destroyed the crocodile that did the killing. In this association there came under my observation one of the unwritten tragedies of the tropic shores and waters, the carrying off of a woman by a crocodile and the vengeance that followed. “A short distance above Deshak was a spot on the riverside where the village women went with their eart hern jars for water. Here .the bank gently inclined to the water’s edge, with a gradual deepening beyond the margin. It was also for these water carriers a rendezvous for the exchange of village gossip. I was watching them one morning from the platform supported by piles above the water, on which half the village houses stood. Most of the women had filled their jars and were standing in the water near the edge dr were scattered on the bank, a laughing, chattering group, gay

with their bright colored garments and gilt and silver orna ments. The one standing furthest from the shores was a young married woman, the prettiest in the village. She had come to the landing late, after the rest had filled their jars, and, the water being roiled near the margin, she had gone further out, to where it was less muddy. Now standing in water rising half way from her knees to her hips, she had turned toward the shore, and with jar poised on her shoulder, was passing some jest with her merry companions. “Her water jar fell suddenly from her shoulder, laughter ended in a piercing scream, her face was dislored and ghastly with fear and horror, as she fell forward in the water with arms outstretched toward the shore, and instantly was drawn backward beneath the water by the invisible monster that seized her by the leg. A line of bubbles extending out toward the middle of the river marked the course of the crocodile swimming with his prey. Twenty-live yards from shore he emerged at the surface, released his hold of his victim for an instant, in order to seize her more conveniently by the middle of the body, swam along the top of, the water for several minutes, then disappeared down into the depths, and I saw him no more. While the crocodile was at the Surface I got a distinct view of the woman, who, to my relief, evidently was insensible, if not quite lifeless. “Hope of pursuit of the crocodile at the time was, of course, impossible, but some of*the villagers, drawn to the landing by the screams of the women who had witnessed the tragedy, went up along the bank or pushed out into the river in boats to watch for the crocodile to emerge somewhere on the shore with his prey, which he was sure to do, sooner or later, order to devour it—for by the structure of throat the crocodile cannot swallow his prey under w<ter. Nothing came of thia search, the crocodile prodably postponing his banquet until the concealment of night. But the victim’s husband, Aka Ar warn, after the custom of his people, abonded his vocation of fisherman and sailor to devote his time to vengeance on the saurian that had carried off his wife. “There was every reason to think that this particular crocodile was one that for two years had stayed in the river near the village, during which time three people and many domestic animals had been carried off, presumably by him. He was of great size, and the villagers bad got so familiar with his presence and habits as to recognize him from others of his species when his ugly head appeared from the water as he lay on some mud bank asleep in the sun. But he had proved too wary to be trapped in any manmer, and he ventured upon the lapd only in places that could not be approached by enemies without his noticing their com ing in time to escape into the water* The women on the bank and several men at the village had obtained a plain view of his head during the carrying off of his latest victim, and all were sure that it was the ‘bad’ crocodile that had done the deed. “After Aka Arwam had made his preliminary . arrangements for capturing the man-eater he waited for the saurian’s reappearance near the village. This vtfould not occur until the crocodile had completely devoured his victim and bad become hungry again. Tt was ten days before some boatmen re ported having seen the crocodile up the river, and a day or two later he was spied drawn up on a sand bank opposite the village. Then Aka Arwam went fishing for him. The tackle was a long rattan, with its end made fast to the middle of a short stick of tough, strong wood. The bait was a very young kid. The stick and the end of the rattan were fastened to the kid lengthwise of its body in such a way that a sharp pull on the rattan would cause the stick at the end to turn crosswise. “The place the Malay avenger selected as his fishing ground was the scene of the recent tragedy, the spot where the women

went with their jars for water, for it was quite certain that the crocodile would revisit it the next time he was hungry, unless his attention was drawn elsewhere by some attractive prey. While the women, keeping safely near shore, were filling their ja?s, the fisherman, with a dozen men at hand to help him, was watching his bait held at the surface ten or twelve yards from shore. The women filled their jars with the usual and clatter and accompaniment of feminine laughterand outcry, but these signs, of their presence failed to entice the crocodile into making an appearance. The Aka Arwam tried another lure. He took a white hen, put her head under her wing, and swung her gently round and round until he had ‘put her to sleep,’ as boys say, and then threw her like a ball, out beyond the kid as far as he could throw. The fowl came to her senses on striking the water, and, unable to rise to fly, turned shoreward and fluttered to the bank wii,i a splashing and commotion. “This enticement was more than the crocodile, who, indoubt, had been all the tim3 lying in wait nearby, could understand. The bait was the first thing to come in his way as he swam under water in the wak.) of the hen, and, just as she lauded on the bank, the water surged upward about the bait, which instantly disappeared in the jaws of the crocodile, whose head came fully in view above the surface. The kid, purposely selected for its smallness, was a morsel that the crocodile could gorge outright; lie lifted his head clear of the water to swallow, and then, as he sank, there came a strong tug at the rattan. Aka zkrwam already was at the eml of the rattan, which was seen ed at the shore. His companions jumped from concealment to help him. As they pulled in hard on the rattan the crocodile’s head came again to the surface v and he lashed fiercely about with his tail churning the water into foam with fearful strokes He was held fast and strong by the stick turned crosswise in his stomach at the first hard pull of the rattan.

“Once caught, the monster was handled by his captors with an e&se that seemed astonishing when his size, strength, and great agility in the water were considered. He was. pulled ashore and up the shelving bank in a hurry. Over his tail, more dangerous on the land than his teeth, a rope noose was. slipped and drawn taught with a turn round the foot of a tree trunk, while his head was hauled hard by the rattan in the opposite direction, stretching the creature’s seventeen feet of length to the full. To tie the jaws together under these conditions was an easy matter and then the reptile was turned on his back. The other Malays stood back while Aka Arwam, with long, curved knife in hand, stood beside the crocodile and upbraided it for carrying off his wife and for its other crimes. As the Malay talked, his manner became more vehement and his countenance took on an expression of fiendish hate. Having gloated over his enemy for a time, he suddenly stopped, stuck his knife into the crocodile’s throat, and then, with a long,sweeping slash, laid its belly open from jaw to tail. “In the crocodile’s stomach was found sufficient proof that it was the one that had carried away and devoured the unfortunate woman the week before. Some tresses of hair, a fragment of calico cloth, and a silver armlet she had worn were there to tell their story.”—New York Sun. Constip ition in its worst toru», dyspepsia, sick headache, biliiousness and derangement of the liver are ruadi.y cured by DeVVitt’s Little Early Kisers. These little pills nevergripe. Small pill, safe pill, best pill. Sold by A. F. Long.