Bismarck owed his survival in large part to Ranavalona I's arrogance and morbid curiosity. After the interpreter relayed Bismarck's words, Ranavalona I immediately arranged a contest.
But Bismarck's opponent was not a man, but an enormous crocodile.
This was Ranavalona I's favorite beast. She affectionately called it "Big Stomach!"—meaning a great belly.
Big Stomach was a colossal Nile crocodile, thick-skinned and tough-fleshed, with astonishing explosive power. It was nearly sixty years old.
Yet unlike a human, it had not grown old. Instead, it had become ever more ferocious and powerful. In the twenty-three years since Ranavalona I had taken power, at least a thousand people had been buried in Big Stomach's jaws. Its appearance drew a thunderous wave of cheers.
Yet the bloody spectacle everyone had imagined failed to appear. The man and crocodile in the arena actually began playing a game of sitting still. Those who had come for a bloodbath could not stand it, and all manner of trash rained down upon Bismarck and Big Stomach.
This time, the giant crocodile finally moved, but Bismarck kept his distance from it, heedless of the rain of garbage.
About a quarter of an hour later, perhaps Big Stomach had been provoked, or perhaps its patience had simply run dry. It finally rushed at Bismarck at full speed, but Bismarck did nothing but flee.
A crocodile's burst of speed was formidable, but it only lasted within thirty meters or so. And even at full sprint, a crocodile could not outrun a human on land.
Exhausted, the crocodile instinctively adopted an ambush strategy, intending to wait for the human to come near. But what awaited it this time was a spear thrown its way.
As a weapon that had helped mankind conquer the world, the javelin had once wiped out countless species: