THE HERO AND THE CROCODILE

Evening Star, Issue 21724, 19 May 1934, Page 5

THE HERO AND THE CROCODILE

An Englishman in Egypt has sent home to ‘ The Times ’ the glorious story of Juma Kalenzi, who lives on the banks of the Nile at a point where crocodiles have taken nine human lives in the course of one short year. One day. when there was a crowd of people on the steamer landing-stage, some natives and others noticed a little boy called Mataka fall into the Nile. A crocodile seized him. The crowd shouted. Juma Kalenzi heard the commotion, and came running to the scene. Without hesitation he jumped from the landing-stage and came down on his feet, with muddy water up to his chin. He could not swum. Only Mataka’s little arm could be seen, weakly waving. Juma seized it and began to pull. Tho crocodile had begun to swim away, holding both the boy’s legs firmly in its jaws. When it felt Juma’s tug it turned, lashing the water furiously with its tail. Juma might easily l|avo been dragged into deeper waters and drowned, but he held on, and even managed to drag the child and crocodile back a little toward the land.

Then his own little son Salim did a brilliant thing. He snatched a spear from one of the people gaping on the landing-stage and threw is so accurately that his father was able to catch it in one hand, while still grasping the half-drowned child with the other.

Making a supreme effort, Juma jumped up in the water and brought the spear down on the crocodile’s back. It only made a hollow wound in the armour, but the force of the blow angered the creature, and, letting go of Mataka, it attacked Juma, seizing and crushing his wrist. Juma then quickly pushed the child behind him, back and back into the shallower water till he judged that Mataka was safe: then he stooped and struck the lower part of the crocodile' with the spear. The under-parts of the crocodile have no stout armour as the back has, and the pain compelled it to let go and retreat. The victorious Juma had saved the hoy’s life, hut his own arm was permanently damaged, and in the struggle he had received internal injuries which led to a serious operation. Unrewarded, unacclaimed, he quietly set off on the 100-mile journey to hospital. Mataka was a stranger to him. and he had risked his life for him.