Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/353

Rh and have swum the moats in defiance of the mugger. They have not always escaped. Some have been wounded ; others have lost their lives. When the crocodile has secured his prey he does not consume it at once, but buries it in the mud as a dog buries a bone.

In some parts of India the mugger is held sacred, and is fed by its devotees like the cobra. The pujah is an act of propitiation. A power of evil is recognised in the personality of the mugger, and its hideous appearance goes a long way to support the belief. The only individual who prefers a request is the barren woman. She seems to think that it can assist her, a strange belief considering that the reptile is her deadly enemy. Many women going to the river or the tank to draw water have been seized and carried off. Lying flat and motionless upon the river bank, or floating like a log upon the water, the mugger escapes the notice of his victim. She stoops to fill her pot. The grey log becomes animated with hideous life. There is a sudden silent rush. The enormous jaws close with a snap upon the tender flesh of a limb, and before she can utter a shriek for assistance she is drawn under water and held there until her struggles cease. Then she is hidden away in the reptile's larder. Her companions have not noticed the tragedy, so quietly has the undertaker, as Kipling aptly calls him, gone to work. Presently she is missed and a search is made. No sign is visible to give a hint of her awful fate. Her water-pot lies at the bottom of the river out of sight, and she is never seen again. Should vengeance in the shape of a sportsman ever overtake the mugger and an unerring bullet lay him low, the secret of the girl's disappearance is revealed. Her bangles and anklets with those of other victims are found in the stomach. A ball or two of black hair that once shone in soft glossy locks may also be discovered with the jewellery.