The crocodilia are all inhabitants of hot countries, and are found in Asia, Africa, Australia, and tropical America. We chiefly associate them in our thoughts with the Nile and the Ganges rivers, where they particularly abound, and were once paid divine honors. The gavial, or crocodile of India, often reaches twenty-five feet in length, and is the giant of its order.[70] It is distinguished from the true Nile crocodiles and the alligators by its very long and narrow snout, the jaws of which are set with fifty-four teeth above and fifty-two below, presenting the appearance of a terrible pair of huge double saws. Each of these great cone-shaped teeth has beneath it, slowly growing for future use, two or three other teeth, which, as the tooth in use is worn out, grow up and displace it, and so continue the perfection of the entire set. The shape of the nose or snout of the crocodile changes with its age; a young crocodile’s snout is depressed, and the animal cannot remain under water so long as an old one. The male gavials have a large, prominent swelling in front of the nostril. Africa is the original home of the true crocodile, and there it has been feared and deified from remote antiquity. Pictures and sculptures of it are to be found on the oldest monuments. With the terror of the crocodile the African mothers frighten their children into obedience, and often in the end the crocodile gets both mother and child if they venture too near the water. In the Upper Nile region the beasts abound, and are seen lying basking in the sun, “placed side by side like rows of felled tree trunks,” says one traveller. They abound thus because the number of eggs deposited is enormous. No creature is more subject to enemies: men, turtles, and fish, besides wild animals, seek out and devour the crocodile eggs. As soon as the little monsters are hatched, fish, wild beasts, birds of prey, and the large male crocodiles wait to devour them. A baby crocodile has no friend or defender but its mother, and through all its life it is the foe of nearly every living thing, and consequently hated and attacked by everything that is capable of doing it injury. The crocodiles are entirely carnivorous in their habits. They prefer putrid flesh to fresh, and thus they are valuable river scavengers, eating every carcass that appears. Travellers tell us that in attacking prey the crocodile prefers to give first a good blow with his tail, and so render the victim unconscious. Then he drags it under water and devours it; or, if not pressingly hungry, buries it in the mud until it partly decays. The monsters lie in wait at fords, or at the drinking places where cattle and wild beasts come at evening to drink. Then they seize the stooping prey and pull it under the water. Antelopes, cows, and human beings seem to be the crocodile’s favorite food. The creature is cowardly and will draw off if a person shows fight when it appears.