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CURIOUS CREATURES. 313
say, came from the Coliseum at Rome, and was then in
the Vatican.
Topsell, in his " History of Serpents," dwells lovingly,
and lengthily, on the crocodile. He says : " Some have
written that the Crocodile runneth away from a man if
he winke with his left eye, and looke steadfastly uppon
him with his right eye, but if this bee true, it is not
to be attributed to the vertue of the right eye, but
onely to the rarenesse of sight, which is conspicuous to
the Serpent from one eye. The greatest terrour unto
Crocodiles, as both Seneca and Pliny affirme, are the
inhabitants of the He Tentyrus within Nilus, for those
people make them runne away with their voyces, and
many times pursue and take them in snares. Of these
people speaketh Solinus in this manner : There is a
generation of men in the He Tentyrus within the waters
of Nilus, which are of a most adverse nature to the
Crocodile, dwelling also in the same place. And,
although their persons or presence be of small stature,
yet heerein is theyr courage admired, because at the
suddaine sight of a Crocodile, they are no whit daunted ;
for one of these dare meete and provoke him to runne