tain the production of a
hair-worm by the mysterious vivification of an inert substance such as
a horse's hair.

The expression "crocodile's tears" has passed into common use, and it
therefore may be worth while noting the probable origin of this myth.
Shakespeare, with that wide extent of knowledge which enabled him to
draw similes from every department of human thought, says that

"Gloster's show
Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers."

The poet thus indicates the belief that not only do crocodiles shed
tears, but that sympathizing passengers, turning to commiserate the
reptile's woes, are seized and destroyed by the treacherous creatures.
That quaint and credulous old author--the earliest writer of English
prose--Sir John Mandeville, in his "Voiage," or account of his
"Travile," published about 1356--in which, by the way, there are to be
found accounts of not a few wonderful things in the way of zooelogical
curiosities--tells us that in a certain "contre and be all yonde, ben
great plenty of Crokodilles, that is, a manner of a long Serpent as I
have seyed before." He further remarks that "these Serpents slew men,"
and devoured them, weeping; and he tells us, too, that "whan thei
eaten thei meven (move) the over jowe (upper jaw), and nought the
nether (lower) jowe: and thei have no tonge (tongue)." Sir John thus
states two popular beliefs of his time and of days prior to his age,
namely, that crocodiles move their upper jaws, and that a tongue was
absent in these animals.

[Illustration: CROCODILE.]

As regards the tears of the crocodile, no foundation of fact exists
for the belief in such sympathetic exhibitions. But a highly probable
explanation may be given of the manner in which such a belief
originated. These reptiles unquestionably emit very loud and
singularly plaintive cries, compared by some travellers to the
mournful howling of dogs. The earlier and credulous travellers would
very naturally associate tears with these cries, and, once begun, the
supposition would be readily propagated, for error and myth are ever
plants of quick growth. The belief in the movement of the upper jaw
rests on apparent basis of fact. The lower jaw is joined to the skull
very far back on the latter, and the mouth-opening thus comes to be
singularly wide; whilst, when the mouth opens, the skull and upper jaw
are apparently observed to move. This is not th