stream there comes without the slightest warning the lightning swish of
a scaly tail, a scream, the crunch of monster jaws, a widening eddy, a
scarlet stain overspreading the surface of the water--and there is one
less inhabitant of Borneo. But instead of proceeding to devour its
victim then and there, the crocodile carries the body up a convenient
creek, where it has the self-control to leave it until it is
sufficiently gamey to satisfy its palate. For the crocodile, like the
hunter, does not like freshly killed meat. Hence, a crocodile swimming
up-stream with a native in its mouth is by no means an uncommon sight
on Borne an rivers.

"But it is a quick death," as an Englishman whom I met in Borneo
philosophically observed. "They don't play with you as a cat plays with
a mouse--they just hold you under the water until you are drowned."

Yet, in spite of the hundreds who fall victim to the terrible jaws each
year, the natives seem incapable of observing the slightest
precautions. For superstitious reasons they will not disturb the
crocodile until it has shown itself to be a man-eater. If the crocodile
will live at peace with him the native has no wish to start a quarrel.
But the day usually comes when a native who has gone down to the river
fails to return. In America, under such circumstances, the relatives of
the missing man would send for grappling irons and an undertaker. But
in Borneo they summon a professional crocodile hunter. The idea of this
is not so much to obtain revenge as to recover the brass ornaments
which the dear departed was wearing at the moment of his taking off,
for, though human life is the cheapest thing there is in Borneo, brass
is extremely dear.

The professional crocodile hunters are usually Malays. One of the best
known and most successful in Borneo is an old man who runs a ferry
across the Barito at Bandjermasin. He has capitalized his skill and
cunning by organizing himself into a sort of crocodile liability
company, as it were. Anyone may secure a policy in this company by
paying him a weekly premium of 2-1/2 Dutch cents. When one of his
policy holders is overtaken by death in the form of a pair of four-foot
jaws the old man turns the ferry over to one of his children and sets
out to fulfill the terms of his contract by capturing the offending
saurian, recovering from its stomach the weighty bracelets, anklets and
earrings worn by the deceased, and restoring them to the next of kin.