A THAVELLER'S TALES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 104, 1 May 1880, Page 2

A THAVELLER 'S TALES.

{Once a Week.') THE tfMTTY ABLIGATOB. Here js an anecdote for which I cannot vouch, and itfhich indeed it : is extremely difficult to 1 credit. However, it was told me by tibme " grrive and reverend seignors "—South Indian Missionaries of the Church of England— one of whom I Understand to Vouch for the correctness of the sfory. The story in question relates to the extraordinary pertinacity with which alligators cling to life. If they have not nine lives', like a cat, it is clailtoed for them that, for a considerable time at iedßt, they can exist under ]tfhe mos'f; abriotoal circumstanceSf. The' anecdote; afe I heard it, and as far as t caW remember, runs as iollowa &**& iJiissidnafy aiid a fe W

; friends had occasion to travel along the . great Travancore backwater, whick cxi tends, parallel to the sea, along the southnibst portion of the Malabar Coast ■ of India', nearly down to Gape Comorin. One da|y the party happened to be staying at the house of a' friend, who lived not far from the bank of the backwriter. Suddenly a dozen natives rushed into the house, wailing and beating their breasts. An alligator had carried off a baby, and was quietly munching his food on the banks. I may mention that the Travancore backwater is famous for three things — its innumerable palms, its countless fireflies, and its multitudes of alligators. The parity and their host jumped up, 1 and;, sallied out in a body with their guns. In five minutes they came to the fatal spot. There lay the' hideous brute, basking in the sun, with its tail in the water, and its body half embedded in the mud, audibly crunching the Bkullandbonesofitsvictim. Mr S . raised his rifle — a crack — the monster gave a slight shudder as the bullet crashed through its brain j and the next minute the party dragged the alligator further up the bank, finding him ap- , parently stone dead. After this, he was hauled by the natives with ropes to . the , garden attached to the house, at which tlie party was 1 staying. The remains, or the half-devoured infant were buried ; bxxi as most; of the child's limbs were undoubtedly within the alligator, it was summarily disembowelled, and I , fear the heart of the cannibal received . as decent interment as the fragmentary members' 6t the poor babe's body. \ After all this had been duly and solemnly , performed, MrS ,the missionary, , thought that he would have the alligator dried and preserved for the Madras . Museum^ as it was a fine full-grown animal, quite 13ft long. So it was laid , out on its back, ltd internal parts being , very cleanly scraped away, and quantities of arsenical soap rubbed in, where, be- : fore the heart; lungs, liver, intestines, ; &c, had been located, while huge stones were placed on the si<Jes of the carcase !to keep it open. By this time it was evening, and the party sat down to a merry dinner. Then came' the cigars, i and. then bed. Somehow Mr 8 could nob sleep. Frightful nightmares haunted him. He dreamt that he was a baby; find that an^ alligator crunched his tibia! bone ! Theii he fancied he was an alligator, and that fiends were rubbing his inside with arsenical soap ! After a few hours of feverish sleep, he rose, lit a cheroot, and determined to take a walk out in the garden. It was 3 a.m. There was a bright moonlight. Mr S — — thought he would go and have justs one peep at the dead alligator; He' went^what ! — could be believe his eyes ? There was the alligator slowly walking off, with a waddling motion, and rolling his head about as if in pain, to the back-water ! Mr S*— — rushed back and awoke his friends. They simply laughed in his face, and told him he must have been dreaming. But the morning brought its iull revelation. The alligator was gone, and the tracks it had made to the bank of the backwater were plainly discernable ! They never saw the creature again ; but the gentleman who" lived by the back-water wrote to Mr S — — some three months afterwards? informing him that some fishermen had been^chased by a hungry alligator,; with which they had had a terrific tusslb. At length they overcame the brute, and killed it by cutting off its ' head. But the peculiar part of the business was that, after killing the alligator in this manner, they found that it had got no inside !