applied to the Young Person or New Woman of the world of crocodile-folk—the
aggressive female who “snaps” at everything and everybody for the mere glory
of the snap!
“After hatching,” says Mr. Wray, “the mother watches, and ... eats up all those
which run away from the water, but should any escape her and get away on to
the land they will turn into tigers.” There is perhaps more point in the Selangor
tradition, according to which the little runaways turn, not into tigers, but into
“iguanas” (Monitor lizards).
As regards the want of a tongue, which is supposed to be common to all
crocodiles, it is said they were so created by design, in order that they might not
acquire too pronounced a “taste” for human flesh. Hence the proverb which
declares that no carrion is too bad for them to welcome: “Buaya mana tahu
mĕnolak bangkei?” (“When will crocodiles refuse corpses?”)^288
After the outbreak of ferocity (ganas) among the crocodiles in the Klang River
last year, some account of the way in which the crocodile is here said to capture
and destroy his human victims may prove of interest.
Every crocodile has, according to the Selangor Malay, three sets of fangs, which
are named as follows: (1) si hampa daya^289 (two above and two below), at the
tip of the jaws; (2) ĕntah-ĕntah (two in the upper and two in the lower jaw), half-
way up; (3) charik kapan (two in the upper and two in the lower jaw), near the
socket of the jaws.
The first may be translated by “Exhaust your devices”; the second by “Yes or
no”; and the third by “Tear the shroud,” the latter being a reference to the
selvage which, among the Malays, is torn off the shroud and afterwards used for
tying it up when the corpse has been wrapped in it.
If a man is caught by the “Exhausters of all Resources,” he has a fair chance of
escape; if caught by the “Debateable” teeth his escape is decidedly
problematical; but if caught by the “Tearers of the Shroud,” he is to all intents
and purposes a dead man. Whenever it effects a capture the crocodile carries its
victim at once below the surface, and either tries to smother him in the soft, thick
mud of the mangrove swamp, or pushes him under a snag or projecting root,
with the object of letting him drown, while it retires to watch him from a short