We were at La Manzanilla Crocodile Sanctuary, walking past a sign warning people not to let their
dogs near the crocodiles. We had heard before that crocs are
particularly fond of dogs (as a snack) and we asked Don Francisco if it
was true. He laughed. “It’s absolutely true,” he said with a sparkle in
his eye, “and we even have a legend about this. You know that
crocodiles have no tongues, right? Well, a long, long time ago, the
legend says that the first crocodile did have a nice long tongue, while
the first dog had a very short one. Then one day, Dog went up to Croc
and told him that he wanted to borrow Croc’s long tongue for a while,
so he could go to a certain far-away place to drink the delicious water
there.“‘No!’ said Croc, but Dog insisted and insisted again and again. Finally, Croc relented, ‘but only if you solemnly promise you’ll return my tongue to me afterward,’ said Croc. Well, Dog went off and really enjoyed lapping up the water with that nice, big, long, new tongue. And that was the last Croc ever saw of him. In fact, to this day, no crocodile has a tongue, but whenever they get a chance to gobble up a dog, they never hesitate.”
Afterwards I discovered
that this story is very ancient and variations of it are part of the
folk lore of many peoples, from the Guajiros of South America to the
Buras of northeast Nigeria. I also learned that crocodiles do have
tongues but they’re hard to see. According to the Crocodilian Biology
Database, the back of the tongue has been modified into a palatal valve
which closes when the reptile is underwater. This means crocodiles can
bite all they want while immersed, but must surface in order to swallow
their food. John Pint
