Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/628

594 the sources of the Nile the crocodile is still abundant. Sir Samuel Baker states that when navigating the Albert Nyanza he observed every basking place covered with them, the creatures lying parallel to each other like trunks of trees prepared for shipment, and that on one bank he counted twenty-seven of large size. The flesh of this species is eaten by the natives, but it does not seem suited to the European palate. &quot; To my taste, &quot; says the authority just referred to, &quot; nothing can be more disgusting than crocodile flesh. I have eaten almost everything, but although I have tasted crocodile I could never succeed in swallowing it. The combined flavour of bad fish, rotten flesh, and musk is the carte de diner offered to the epicure.&quot; In Siam the flesh of another species is regularly sold in the market as human food. The Common Crocodile usually measures about 15 feet in length. Alligators differ from the preceding group in having the canine tooth fitting into a pit in the upper jaw ; the hind legs are also destitute of fringe, and the toes are less com pletely webbed. They are found in America only, and with one exception are confined to its tropical parts. The Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) occurs in the rivers and swamps of Mexico and the United States, where it is a source of danger to all animals venturing to enter tho water. In winter this species retires into holes on tha river banks, and there hybernates. While thus dormant it is often got at by the negroes, who unearth it for the sake of the tail, which they reckon a delicacy. It is said to attain a length of 15 to 18 feet. The remaining eight species of alligators are found chiefly in South America, where they are known as Caymans and Jacare&quot;s k They abound in the Amazon and the Orinoco, the silence of whose lonely banks is seldom broken except by their nocturnal bellowings. According to Humboldt they re semble their Old World allies in lying basking in the sun shine, wherever a shallow in the river discloses a sand bank, &quot; with open jaws, motionless, their uncouth bodies .often covered with birds.&quot;

1em  CRŒSUS, king of Lydia, was the son and successor of Alyattes. It was supposed by Clinton and Bahr that for fifteen years he shared the throne with his father; however that may be, he became sole king on the death of Alyattes, about 568 B.C. (according to the computation of Rawlinson), when, Herodotus tells us, he was thirty-five years old. Jle speedily reduced all the Greek cities in Asia Minor, and soon most of the tribes to the west of the River Halys (tho Kizil Irruak) were subject to him. The wealth, meanwhile, which he had inherited from his father had been enormously increased, until it far surpassed that of any other sovereign with whom the Greeks were acqviainted, He was therefore to them the type of human prosperity ; and the bitter contrast of his fall powerfully impressed itself on their imagination, which became in part the creator of the vividly dramatic story so finely told by Herodotus. The most famous incident in that story was the visit of Solon. After ostentatiously displaying all his treasures, the king asked the sage who was tho happiest man he had ever known. Tellus of Athens, was the reply, for he lived while his country was prosperous ; he was surrounded with children and children s children, who were both beautiful and good ; and he died upon the field of battle after having gained a gallant victory over the enemy. And next to him Solon counted two Argive youths, Cleobis and Bito, whose strength and skill won prizes at the games, who, when the oxen failed to appear from the fields in time, piously drew their mother s car forty- five furlongs to the festival of Juno, and as reward received the praises of all men, and were allowed to die in the very temple of the goddess, after offering their sacrifices and feasting at the holy banquet in her honour. For two reasons, added the wise man, Crcesus with all his fortune was not to be held so fortunate as these, the gods are jealous of human prosperity, and no man can be called fully happy till a happy death has closed a happy life. Soon after misfortunes began to thicken about Crcesus. His son, despite all the care with which, being warned in a dream, he drew him from the dangers of battle, and sought to shield him even from accident, was unintentionally slain at a boar-hunt by Adrastus. News came also of the conquests of Cyrus, who had overcome Astyages, the brother- in-law of Croesus. The oracle of Delphi prophesied that if Croesus went to war he would &quot; destroy a mighty empire,&quot; and that he was to flee when a &quot; mule &quot; sat on the throne of Media ; and, secure in what appeared to him the most unambiguous of prophecies, Crcesus invaded Cappadocia. But the mighty empire he was to destroy proved to be his own ; he was repulsed, and soon Sarclis was stormed and taken by Cyrus. Crcesus, careless of life, was about to be slain, when one of his sons, hitherto dumb, in his fear over came his infirmity, and made known his father s rank. Crcesus was therefore spared to be taken as a prisoner before Cyrus. He was placed on a funeral pyre, and, as he watched the rising flames, he thought of Solon, whose name burst from his lips. When questioned, he repeated the warning of the sage, which so powerfully affected tho mind of Cyrus that he ordered the flames to be extinguished. The efforts of the soldiers, however, were in vain ; but, as Herodotus narrates, the prayers of Crcesus prevailed upon Apollo, whose temples he had formerly enriched with costly gifts, to send a heavy fall of rain which quenched the fire. The wisdom of Croesus gained the friendship of Cyrus, who also made him minister to his son, Cambyses. But, having ventured to reprove Cambyses for an act of cruelty, Crcesus was forced to seek safety in flight ; and here ends the story of his life. It is said that, when he reproached the oracle which had led to his fall, he received tho convincing answer that Cyrus was the &quot; mule &quot;foretold, as he was the son of a Median princess and a Persian subject. Apollo, it was added, had done what he could by prevail ing on the fates to delay the fall of Crcesus full three years.

1em  CROFT, (1677-1727), doctor of music, wag born in 1677, at Nether Eatington in Warwickshire. He received his musical education in the Chapel Royal under Dr Blow. He early obtained the place of organist of St 