1. A creature of strange form in Egypt arising
Found nowhere on earth except in Egypt abiding

2. The crocodile common in her Upper Nile
Who lies in wait for any water in the Nile providing

3. And snatches them up with a hawk's abrupt violence
Ripping them member from member and swallowing

4. Of all the Nile's creatures none but he is found
With hands and feet on land upright and bounding

5. Oft he is found on land a terror
Darting as swift as a whip or faster yet sounding

6. With swaying tail long he keeps erect
To entwine any among men he finds astounding

7. His teeth are female set in male
To break the sturdy bones their power demanding

8. He digs in the sand and buries his eggs
Leaving them secretly until they are hatching

9. Swords do him no harm as though
His skin were iron armor fully enfolding

10. But under the armpit lies a soft spot
Whence death creeps up while he lies there reposing

11. No tail has he to eject his waste
But to his gullet it keeps on forwarding

12. He opens his mouth and in flies a bird
To take what filth in his stomach was goading

13. Would he snap shut the bird meets its doom
As the feathers close off his throat palisading

14. The hippo kills him though when it spies
Him floundering in the marsh his strength degrading

15. Man tricks him and hunts him down
Tying his legs like a goat securely braiding

16. We've seen him hauled on a camel's back
His limbs trailing the ground on either side grading

17. The mind has cunning for catching crocodiles
Which thoughtful wit carefully premeditating

18. He who has wit has power over creatures all
Each living thing by a vigilant lord created

19. Neither birds in the air nor beasts in the wild
Nor the mountains except to his will relegated

20. He subdues them killing and slaughtering
And in the end only man's grave is never waiting