One of my favorite crocodile-related history tales is when Ibn Battuta, a Medieval Arab traveler, is visiting Subsaharan Africa and, not knowing the local environment, goes to take a leak in the river. His way is blocked by a local who doesn’t speak Arabic, and Batuta thinks the fellow is terribly rude until someone who does speak Arabic informs him that the local saved his life, because there was a crocodile right there in the reeds.