Европейскость
Сканы журнала "Harpers Basaar" за 1888 год. Дело происходит на Цейлоне.
Фото 1. "Цивилизованный мореплаватель" находит след крокодила у реки
Фото 2. Берёт напрокат ребёнка потолще в ближайшей деревне
Фото 3. Привязывает его к коряге недалеко от реки в качестве живой приманки. Крокодил бросается на ребёнка, раздаётся выстрел. Bingo!
Фото 4. Кому интересно - ребёнок крупным планом.
Будем считать, что наш находчивый охотник не промахивается.
Оригинальный текст на английском:
Sport in Ceylon - shooting a man-eating crocodile
Crocodiles abound in this island (The Eden of the Eastern Wave), and in many places the natives will “salaam” in dread to the waters. Lately at Galle, in the southern province, there was killed a saurian that, when cut open, was found to have two human skulls inside. The crocodile is very wary, and difficult to kill outright; generally they manage to sink themselves out of sight.
Our sketches represent, in Fig.1, the trail of a big one being discovered on a water-side bank.
Fig.2 refers to the arrangements at a neighboring village for bait, so as to get a sure shot. A fat native child is the lure which will make a monster walk out of the water. Contracting for the loan of a chubby, rice-distended, squally infant is a matter of some negotiation with the parents.
Fig.3 gives a view of the collapse of the man-cater, which, after viewing the tempting morsel tethered carefully to a shrub near the water’s edge, now makes a rush through the sedges; the mud takes the imprint of the beast’s five-toed front feet and four-toed hind ones, as also the trail of its tail. As the bullet penetrates the heart this enormous rudder flaps convulsively, the pale fishy eyes are covered with the film of death, the tongueless cavern of a mouth (the gullet of which is closed with a valve) shuts with pistol-like snap, the two front lower-jaw tooth (which are longer than the rest) now show their points through corresponding holes in the snout. (This makes the difference between the crocodile and the alligator). The little bait, scared by the report of the rifle, is now taken home by its doting mother for its matutinal banana. The natives wait to get the musky flesh of the animal, and the sportsman secures the scaly skin and the massive head of porous bone as a trophy.