Note 45 — Chapter VI

Mr. MacMillan, describing some of the incidents of his recent expedition to the upper reaches of the Blue Nile, told an interviewer: “We were roused at four in the morning by the wild screams of one of our people (a Somali), who had been seized by a big crocodile, which had crawled up the rocks. The brute had seized his victim by the head and dragged him to the water’s edge. By throwing stones at the crocodile we succeeded in making him leave the Somali, who, though terribly mauled, eventually recovered.”—Egyptian Gazette, October 21, 1903. Mr. MacMillan told me subsequently in conversation that the Somali, when he was attacked, was sleeping with his head on his arm, and that the crocodile seized both head and arm, with the result that the Somali put his finger in the crocodile’s eye. Mr. MacMillan was inclined to believe that this action made the reptile release the man. The guns and ammunition of the expedition had all been lost, and were at the bottom of the river, and the night was pitch dark.