CROCODILES IN BORNEO.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13493, 12 June 1914, Page 2

CROCODILES IN BORNEO.

Sarawak;, the portion of Borneo which the Rajahs of the Brooke family have governed since 1842, is a peaceful and smiling land. But for his crocodile population it would be perfect. The Ranee of Sarawak (known before her marriage by the less barbaric name of Margaret Alice Lily de Windt) told the Royal Society of Arts the other evening how her people are pestered by these monsters, and explained the capture. The danger lay, she said, in the fact that the people went from one house to another on the river banks in very small canoes, which only held one person. Despite the fact that the crocodiles often with a swish of their tails knocked the boats in the air and seized the occupants as they fell back into the water paddle in hand, the men and women seemed indifferent to the risks, so skilful were they in the management of any craft. A great deal of etiquette had to be observed after the capture of a crocodile in Sarawak. As it was being towed a captive to its place of execution the proprieties required that it should first be brought to the Rajah, and until it was isafely landed in the Rajah's garden the most complimentary speeches were made to it: "You are a Rajah"; "You must come and see your brother" j "You are the light of the day; "You are the eun and moon shining over the land," and so on. These flattering remarks were made by the captors as they dragged the huge scaly thing to its doom. The Rajah having passed the sentence, the reptile was dragged off to be killed by having its head cut off.