Sacred Handbag

My previous blog entry briefly name checked crocodiles.  I really mentioned them only in passing but on immature reflection I feel that they deserve an entry all of their own.  Because I'm quite fond of crocodiles.  That is, I'm fond of crocodiles in the way that somebody who lives in Sydney can be, if I lived beside a river in India I might have a different opinion.

Still, crocodiles have their appeal; they're so knobbly and prehistoric looking.  Whenever I think of the word "reptilian" my mind immediately goes to crocodiles (or Christopher Walken but that's another matter) despite the fact that I have far more experience with lizards.  The thing is, crocodiles are impressive.  When you see a big lizard you're likely to think something like "Oh, a big lizard" but if you see a crocodile you think, "Holy fuck, a crocodile" or possibly if you're Egyptian "Fuck, A holy crocodile".  I doubt if anybody has ever been that impressed by a gecko.

Crocodiles were around in dinosaur times and haven't changed much since then.  When the comet (or whatever) wiped out the dinosaurs crocodiles just closed their eyes and imitated logs until it was all over.  Come to think of it, the crocodile is an amazingly versatile animal.  It can float in the water like a log, lie on the ground like a log or lie half in and half out of the water like a log just washed up on a beach.  I venture to suggest that if you tossed one out of an aeroplane it would even fly like a log although I might let somebody else do the field testing on that hypothesis.

Crocodiles are also supposed to be rather clever although to be fair they may have just seemed that way in comparison to Steve Irwin.  I think its far more likely that the researchers, faced with twenty feet of armoured, sharp toothed reptile of dubious temper simply gave it full marks for everything and then backed rapidly away.  The Egyptians probably considered them sacred for much the same reason.  After all if you're going to make an animal sacred are you going to award the prize to a gerbil or the beast that can rip you into bloody shreds if you hurt its feelings?

I don't know if crocodiles will ever be considered sacred again but I know they're still held in pretty high regard in the garment and handbag industries.  They're also rather delicious.