Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/469

1770 west again as far as Java and Sumatra; on which islands, however, such instances are very scarce among the natives. To show how firmly this prejudice has laid hold of the minds of ignorant people, I shall repeat one story out of the multitude I have heard, confirming it from ocular demonstration.

A slave girl who was born and bred up among the English at Bencoulen on the island of Sumatra, by which means she had learnt a little English, told me that her father when on his deathbed told her that he had a crocodile for his sudara, and charged her to give him meat, etc., after he was gone, telling her in what part of the river he was to be found. She went, she said, constantly, and calling him by his name Radja pouti (White King), he came out of the water to her, and ate what she brought. He was, she said, not like other crocodiles, but handsomer, his body being spotted, and his nose red; moreover, he had bracelets of gold on his feet, and earrings of the same metal in his ears. I heard her out patiently, without finding fault with the absurdity of her giving ears to a crocodile. While I am writing this, my servant, whom I hired at Batavia, and is a mongrel, between a Dutchman and a Java woman, tells me that he has seen at Batavia a crocodile of this kind: it was about two feet long, being very young. Many, both Malays and Dutch, saw it at the same time; it had gold bracelets on. "Ah!" said I, "why such a one at Batavia told me of one which had earrings likewise, and you know that a crocodile has no ears." "Ah! but," said he, "these sudara are different from other crocodiles, they have five toes on each foot, and a large tongue which fills the mouth, and they have ears also, but they are very small." So far will a popular error deceive people unused to examine into the truth of what they are told. The Bougis, Macassars, and Boutons, many of whom have such relations left behind in their own country, make a kind of ceremonial feast in memory of them: a large party go in a boat furnished with plenty of provisions of all kinds and music, and row about in places where crocodiles or alligators are most common, singing and