He is very sacred and thrives comfortably upon suicides and the dead, which are often cast into the river to be purified.

The Hindus are a suicidal race; the reverse of the occidental conception, suicide is a quick and glorious route to Heaven.
The current of the stream carried Kathlyn along at a fair pace; all she had to do was to pole away from the numerous sand-bars and such boulders as lifted their rugged heads above the water.
Round a bend the river widened and grew correspondingly sluggish.

She sounded with her pole.

Something hideous beyond words arose--a fat, aged, crafty crocodile.

His corrugated snout was thrust quickly over the edge of the raft.