Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

434 THINKING BLACK
reptiles quite coolly commence to nip poor Jumbo's toes,
forgetful of the fact that Jumbo's trunk is Jumbo's glory.
At any rate, Nemesis falls like a bolt from the blue, for,
smacking like a long whip, down comes that elephant's
trunk, twisting round the crocodile's tail, and—tableau !
With one half-shriek, half-squeak, the long greenish-
yellow croc is sent flying over the marsh—flop
splash ! thirty yards ofi". That deft tight grip the tusker
took of the huge reptile's tail, and the way in the moon-
light he waved it theatrically aloft like the figure-of-eight
smack of a whip, doubtless made that crocodile unto the
third and fourth generation resolve never again to nibble
at an elephant's toes.
The mannish type of woman here even tackles a
crocodile, and Madam Luban is not too finicking in the
choice of a weapon. These ladies are quite deft with
the short national knife, and two of them attacked a
crocodile in best Amazon manner. They had gone down
to the fishing-weir to empty the wicker baskets when
a lurking croc shot out at them with a snap. Taking
advantage of the fact that when this beast misses a first
grab he must pause to unlock his teeth, these plucky
women attacked him with their two short knives and
finished him in a few minutes. But what a weird
business, the long yellow crocodile writhing with his
wounds, and snap, snapping his white teeth in chagrin
The two women flowing with blood yet never a wince
two paltry penknives doing it all. And all the while
yonder is a heron fishing on a sand-spit, chuckling with