We find various reptiles, _Chelonian_, _Saurian_, and _Ophidian_, still
forming articles of food in many quarters of the world, and some so
repulsive in their appearance, that it seems difficult to conceive how
they could first have been tasted.
In the class REPTILIA, we have in the first order _Chelonia_ or
_tortoises_, comprising the following which are used as food:--1,
several of the terrestrial tortoises, genus _Testudo_; 2, some of
the marsh tortoises or Emydes, the chelodina, matamata, &c.; 3, the
cryptopus or river tortoise; and 4, the marine tortoises or turtles.
In the second order SAURIA or lizards, we find--1, crocodiles and
alligators contributing to the sustenance of man; 2, several of the
iguarians.
In the third order, OPHIDIA or serpents, the rattlesnake, boas and
pythons, and several other snakes.
In the fourth order, AMPHIBIA, some of the edible and tree frogs.
We know not, observes a recent writer, why the flesh of the
vegetable-feeding tortoises should not be adopted, as well as that
of the green turtle, among the various articles which are in request
for the table. There is much in habit and association of ideas; and
though persons who would not refuse turtle might turn from tortoise
with disgust, they may rest assured that in Sicily and Italy these land
tortoises are sold in the markets, principally for being made into
soup, which dish is more esteemed than the flesh prepared in any other
way.
The flesh of a tortoise, called the matamata by the aborigines of
Cayenne (_Chelys matamata_, Dumeril, _C. fimbriata_, Spix), is said to
be highly esteemed in various parts of Guiana.
There is a great variety of land tortoises in Trinidad and some of the
other West Indian Islands, which in general are as delicious as the
best green turtle.
The eggs of the close tortoise (_Testudo clausa_) of North America, are
reckoned a delicacy, and are about the size of pigeons’ eggs.
The gopher tortoise (_Testudo Carolina_, of Leconte) occasionally makes
considerable depredations in the potato fields of the farmer, and in
gardens and other cultivated grounds, but its flesh is excellent, and
hence it is sought after for the table.
The flesh of the Carolina terrapin or box tortoise (_Cistudo Carolina_)
is occasionally eaten, but it is held in low estimation; the eggs,
however, which are about as large as those of a pigeon, are accounted
excellent, and are much sought after.
The flesh of the European box tortoise (_Cistudo Europæa_), though not
very delicate, is nevertheless eaten on the Continent; it is said,
however, to be greatly improved by feeding the animals for some time
on grains, bran, and other vegetable aliment. The salt water terrapin
(_Emys concentrica_), which is found both in North and South America,
is in great request, its flesh being highly esteemed as a delicacy for
the table, especially at the close of the summer, when the animals have
returned to their winter dormitory. They are then fat, and considered
as a luxury.
The eggs of the terrapin are not provided with a hard shell, but a skin
like that purest of all parchments, parchment just before it receives
the ink of law upon it.
The general method of killing these animals is a most barbarous one.
They are laid upon their backs, either close to the fire, or upon the
red wood-ashes, until the thick shell becomes so hot to the animal
within that he desperately stretches out both legs and neck, in the
vainest of endeavours to extricate himself from the walls of his
burning house. The tender-hearted cook watches his opportunity, and
when it is evident that, in ordinary phrase, the poor terrapin ‘cannot
contain itself,’ or in other words, will no longer draw back his head
into such a living furnace--the knife descends, and the head is cut
away. The late Mr. Charles Hooton told me, that he had seen such heads
at least half-an-hour after being cut off, attempt, on being touched,
to bite with sufficient force to take the piece out of the finger.
During this time the eyes will occasionally open, though generally they
remain shut.
The flesh of the Indian Cryptopus, a river or fluviatile tortoise
(_Cryptopus granosus_, Bibr., _Testudo scabra_, Latr.) is eaten in
Pondicherry and Coromandel, where it lives in large sheets of fresh
water or lagoons.
The flesh of the soft tortoise of America (_Trionyx ferox_, Cuvier),
which inhabit the rivers of Carolina and Georgia, is eaten.
The curious New Holland tortoise (_Chelodina longicollis_), first
described by Shaw, which, as far as the head and neck is concerned,
reminds one rather of a snake than a tortoise, is abundant in some of
the lakes of Western Australia, and is considered by the natives a
great treat, as are also the snakes and lizards.
Chief Justice Temple, of Honduras, from whose lively and interesting
letters to the Society of Arts I have already quoted, says--‘Another
article which might be preserved and exported, and which would, I have
little doubt, be highly prized by epicures in England, is the liver
of the hiccatee. The hiccatee is the fresh water turtle or tortoise,
and is, I believe, altogether unknown in Europe. It never approaches
anything like the size of the large turtles. The weight of the hiccatee
seldom exceeds 20 lbs. It has not got fins like a turtle, or to be
more correct, the sea tortoise, but round, webbed-feet, each having
five claws, like those of a duck. It is made for the land, therefore,
as well as the water. It does not, however, make the former its home,
and its feet are evidently intended merely to enable it, when one pool
becomes dry, to travel in search of another. The hiccatee is generally
caught in the dry season, when going across the country in pursuit
of water. The feet when dressed are gelatinous, but the flesh is dry
and fibrous. It is, however, the liver which renders this species of
tortoise so highly estimable. It is a dark olive colour, and immensely
large. If this were preserved in oil with truffles, it would be
considered far superior to the goose’s liver of which the _pâté de foie
gras_ is made.’
The following way of effectually shooting a turtle may be interesting
to the sporting world generally, and aldermen in particular. ‘The
soft-shell turtle is found throughout the south, and abounds in the
rivers and bayous of Louisiana, where they are esteemed a delicacy.
They are so shy as to elude the various inventions which are adopted to
capture them; the rifle has, therefore, been resorted to; and, though
easily killed by a fair marksman, when he finds them sunning themselves
on the floating or projecting trunk of some old tree, he still often
fails to secure his prize, since they drop into the bayous, are swept
down into the current, and scarcely, if ever, secured. To remedy this,
a gentleman of Louisiana adopted the following method successfully. He
cut a piece of wood, one inch long, and rounded it so as to fit easily
in his rifle; around the middle, crosswise, he cut a small groove, so
as to secure to it a twine some six or seven inches long; at the other
end of this string he attached the ball, by passing the string through
a bore in the ball, and then knotting the end of the string. The ball
is first inserted in the rifle; the string and wood follow, and all are
rammed down. The turtle is now shot, and as the ball passes through
the turtle, it enters the tree or log some one or two inches; the piece
of wood, being too light to enter the shell of the turtle, is left
suspended. So that, at a single shot, the game is killed, strung, and
hung up.’ Of course, this is from an American paper.
The flesh of the land tortoise is largely used for food, both fresh and
when salted, in the Gallipagos Archipelago and other islands of the
Pacific; and a beautifully clear oil is prepared from their fat. They
are eaten in Australia by the aborigines; and in Russia, on the shores
of the Mediterranean, and some parts of Germany, are fattened for the
table, and are esteemed a great delicacy. Wallace, in his journeys
up the Amazon, says he found the land tortoise for dinner as good as
turtle.
Captain Dampier, when he visited the Gallipagos, in 1684, records ‘That
there is no place in the world so much stored with guanoes and land
tortoises as these isles. The first are fat and of an extraordinary
size, and exceeding tame; and the land tortoises so numerous, that
some hundred men may subsist on them for a considerable time, being
very fat, and as pleasant food as a pullet, and of such bigness that
one of them weighs 150 or 200 lbs.; and are from two feet to two feet
six inches over the belly; whereas, in any other places, I never met
with any above 30 lbs. weight, though I have heard them say that at St.
Lawrence or Madagascar there are also very large ones.’
Wafer, another old voyager, when at these islands, salted the flesh of
the land tortoise for use on shipboard, and fried the fat and converted
it into lard or oil, of which they secured 60 large jars.
Tortoises of an immense size are found on many of the islands of the
Pacific. Mr. Lawson, a vice-governor of the Gallipagos Archipelago,
states that he has seen several so large that it required six or eight
men to lift them from the ground; and that some had afforded as much
as 200 lbs. of meat. Dr. Darwin remarks: ‘I was always amused when
overtaking one of these great monsters, as it was quietly pacing along,
to see how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw in its head
and legs, and, uttering a deep hiss, fall to the ground with a heavy
sound, as if struck dead. I frequently got on their backs, and then
giving a few raps on the hinder part of their shells, they would rise
up and walk away; but I found it very difficult to keep my balance. The
flesh of this animal is largely employed, both fresh and salted; and
a beautifully clear oil is prepared from the fat. When a tortoise is
caught, the man makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see
inside its body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it
is not, the animal is liberated; and it is said to recover soon from
this strange operation.
In chasing the turtle, a man standing ready in the bow of the boat
dashes through the water upon the turtle’s back; then clinging with
both hands by the shell of its neck, he is carried away till the
animal becomes exhausted and is secured. In the Chagos Archipelago,
the natives, by a horrible process, take the shell from the back
of the living turtle. It is covered with burning charcoal, which
causes the outer shell to curl upwards; it is then forced off with a
knife, and before it becomes cold flattened between two boards. After
this barbarous process, the animal is suffered to regain its native
element, where, after a certain time, a new shell is formed; it is,
however, too thin to be of any service, and the animal always appears
languishing and sickly.
Dampier, in 1684, speaks of three or four kinds of land tortoises being
eaten in the West Indies. ‘One,’ he says, ‘is called by the Spaniards
_Hackatee_, which keep most in fresh-water ponds; they have small
legs and long necks, and flat feet, and commonly weigh betwixt ten
and fifteen pounds. The second sort they call _Tenopen_ (terrapin?),
much less than the former, and something rounder; but for the rest not
unlike them, except that the shell on their backs is naturally coloured
with a curious carved work. Both sorts afford very good meat, and these
last delight in low marshy places, and are in vast numbers at the Isle
of Pines, near Cuba, among the woods.’
Turtle would seem to have been first introduced in England, as an
article of food, about the middle of the 17th century, for a record
in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, under date August 31, 1753, shows
that it was then a rarity. ‘A turtle, weighing 350 lbs., was ate at
the King’s Arms tavern, Pall Mall; the mouth of an oven was taken
down to admit the part to be baked.’ The locality for eating them
now has been transferred principally to the city; and the Ship and
Turtle, the London Tavern, Birch’s (in Cornhill), and the Guildhall or
Mansion-house, are perhaps the largest depôts of consumption. Steam
communication has greatly increased the imports, which amount to about
15,000 in the year, weighing from one quarter to three hundred weight,
and valued at, probably, £8,000. Not that all these shielded animals
can be called ‘lively’ turtle, for the voyage has very often a damaging
effect upon them.
Turtling is much resorted to by the inhabitants of Grand Cayman, 160
miles north-west from Jamaica. The turtle are now chiefly caught on
the Mosquito coast, or on the South Keys of Cuba, and sold either in
Jamaica or to homeward-bound vessels. Formerly, these valuable animals
were abundant at Grand Cayman itself, but the very reprehensible
practice which has prevailed there, for some years past of making use
of large quantities of their eggs deposited on the shore, has almost
frightened them entirely away.
In an account of Jamaica, published in 1683, we find the following
statement respecting turtle hunting and other articles of food:--
‘Tortoise are taken much on this coast, but chiefly at the island
of Caymanos, thirty leagues to the west of this island, whither the
vessels go May, June, and July, to load of their flesh, that they
pickle in bulk, and take them in that season when they come on shore to
lay their eggs, which they do, and cover them with sand, that hatches
them; and then by instinct they crawl to the sea, where they live, and
feed on weed that grows in the bottom or floats. In many rivers and
ponds of Jamaica, there is vast numbers of crocodiles or allegators,
that is an amphibious creature, and breeds an egg, hatch’d by the sun
in the sand. A tortoise egg is just like the yolk of a hen egg, of
which she lays near a peck at a time; but the allegator but a few, and
are like a turkey’s. Their flesh is not good; they are voracious, and
live on fowls and beasts that they catch by surprise, but seldom or
never hurt any man.
‘Here’s an Indian coney, called racoon, that is good meat; but of a
distasteful shape, being something like an overgrown rat. The snakes in
this island are not at all hurtful, but were eaten by the Indians as
regular as the guanaes are by the Spaniards; it is but small, and of
the shape of an allegator, and the flesh is sweet and tender.’
I was told a story not long ago of a distinguished American politician
from the rural districts, who came to New York, and resolved to give
a splendid dinner to some of his party friends. In order to make sure
that everything should be of the very best quality, he went to the
market himself, and bought first a _turtle_. After taking great pains
to select one of the finest specimens in the lot, and ordering it to be
sent home, he said to the tradesman, by way of making it quite right,
‘This is a right down genuine turtle, aint it?’
‘Oh, certainly,’ was the reply, ‘one of the very best.’
‘Because,’ he added, ‘although I ain’t been in the city long, I ain’t
to be humbugged: it won’t do for you to try to put off any of your
confounded _mock_ turtles on me!’
The turtle dealer stood astounded at his customer’s sharpness.
Sir James E. Alexander calls Ascension ‘the headquarters of the finest
turtle in the world,’ and his account of the operations connected with
turtling in that locality is so interesting that I must copy it.
‘We walked down to the turtle ponds, two large enclosures near the sea,
which flowed in and out through a breakwater of large stones. A gallows
was erected between the two ponds, where the turtle are slaughtered
for shipping, by suspending them by the hind flippers and then cutting
their throats. About 300 turtle of four and five hundred pounds each
lay on the sand or swam about in the ponds--a sight to set an alderman
mad with delight!
‘In the hot weather of January, February, March, and April, the females
land at night, and waddling over the sands in the various bays of the
island, far above high-water mark,--for by a pole in the ponds, the
tide only rises here four feet,--they scrape up, by alternate scoops
of their flippers, a hole deep enough to cover their bodies. Into this
they get, sighing heavily, and deposit from 150 to 200 eggs, cover them
up, leaving them to the sun to hatch; and then waddle again towards
the sea. Two stout hands are, meanwhile, on the look out, watching
the movements of the unfortunate turtle; and, running up to her after
the completion of her task, one seizes a fore flipper and dexterously
shoves it under her belly to serve as a purchase; whilst the other,
avoiding a stroke which might lame him, cants the turtle over on her
back, where she lies helpless. From fifteen to thirty are thus turned
in a night; and 600 had been so captured in the season of 1834.
‘In the bays, when the surf of heavy rollers prevents the boats being
beached to take on board the turtle when caught, they are hauled out to
them by ropes.
‘No ships’ crews are now allowed to turn turtle, which is converted
into a government monopoly; and £2 10_s._ is the fixed price for each.
Strange to say, from the time that the young turtle, the size of a
dollar, are observed scuttling down to the water, they are never seen
again here until they are four or five hundred pounds weight; and how
long they take to attain this great size, and where they spend the
intermediate time, is as yet a mystery. I was surprised to hear that
turtle are kept in the ponds for a year and upwards without a morsel of
food of any kind. They sometimes deposit their eggs in the sand, on the
sides of the ponds; and in due time the little animals are allowed to
make their escape to the sea.
‘One old female called ‘Nelson,’ because one of her flippers had been
carried off by a shark, was kept, out of respect, for two or three
years in the ponds. She contrived, however, one night to crawl round
the enclosure and make her escape; but she was turned next year in
Clarence Bay. Another turtle was also turned there a short time since,
on the back of which was carved the name of a mate of a British vessel,
who had bought it and sailed with it three weeks before; it is probable
that, imagining it to be dead, he had thrown it overboard.
‘The best way to send home turtle from Ascension is, to head them up
in a _sealed_ cask, and have the water changed daily by the bung hole
and a cork. Turtle, though the extremes of heat and cold are equally
injurious to them, should always arrive in hot weather in England.
Thus, an unfortunate captain, on one occasion, took from Ascension
200 turtle, and timing his arrival badly, brought only four alive to
Bristol!’
Humboldt, in his _Personal Narrative_, speaks of the expertness of the
jaguars of South America, who turn the turtle on the beach and devour
them at their ease, emptying the double armour of the arraus, by the
introduction of their supple paws, with greater ingenuity than the most
skilful naturalist could do. They also eat the eggs.
The eggs are of a globular shape, with a soft semi-transparent
calcareous shell. These are much prized whenever they can be procured
as articles of food, both by natives and Europeans. A native will
consume in Brazil as many as twenty or thirty eggs at one meal, and an
European sometimes eats a dozen for breakfast.
Scarcely a thirtieth of the number of young turtles, even if the eggs
are all hatched, reach the sea, or live after they have gained that
element. Birds, and beasts, and alligators, and rapacious fishes, all
prey upon them.
The flesh of the female is held in the greatest estimation, and it is
considered to be in perfection at the time she is about depositing her
eggs. The flesh, the eggs, and certain portions of the intestines,
are often salted and barrelled for shipment to a distance. The eggs
of the turtle, although oily, are very savory, and make an excellent
omelet. The shell does not harden, but is leathery; and the white never
coagulates, but is thrown away and the yolk only eaten. The Indians of
Brazil frequently eat the eggs raw, mixed with their cassava farinha.
Captain William Dampier, in his voyages, tells us, the flesh of
the hawk’s-bill turtle is eaten. ‘The flesh’ (he remarks) ‘is but
indifferent, yet somewhat better than that of the loggerhead. Those
taken betwixt the Sambellas and Portobello, make those that eat their
flesh vomit and purge vehemently. The flesh however differs according
to their food, for those that feed upon moss among the rocks have a
much yellower fat and flesh, and are not so well tasted as those that
feed upon grass.’
Soon after the fall of the waters of the Orinoco, which begins in
February, millions of turtle deposit their eggs among the sand, and
the Indians obtain a rich harvest of food. From the eggs they procure
a rich oil termed ‘_mantega_,’ which is preserved in pots. A good deal
is sent down the Amazon, fully to the value of £2,000, and several
thousand persons are occupied in its preparation.
The eggs are not very large, but about the size of a bantam’s egg. The
stratum of eggs in the sand is ascertained by a pole thrust in, the
mean depth being about three feet, and the harvest of eggs is estimated
like the produce of a well cultivated acre; an acre, accurately
measured, of 120 feet long, and 30 wide, having been known to yield 100
jars of oil. The eggs, when collected, are thrown into long troughs of
water, and being broken and stirred with shovels, they remain exposed
to the sun till the yolk, the oily part, is collected on the surface,
and has time to inspissate; as fast as this oily part is collected
on the surface of the water, it is taken off and boiled over a quick
fire. This animal oil, or tortoise grease, when prepared, is limpid,
inodorous, and scarcely yellow. It is used, not merely to burn in
lamps, but in dressing victuals, to which it imparts no disagreeable
taste. It is not easy, however, to produce oil of turtle’s eggs quite
pure. It has generally a putrid smell, owing to the mixture of addled
eggs. The total gathering of the three shores, between the junction of
the Orinoco with the Apure, where the collection of eggs is annually
made, is 5,000 jars, and it takes about 5,000 eggs to furnish one jar
of oil.
In the Comarca of the Rio Nigro, the value of the turtle oil imported
in 1840 was 6,000 dollars; and from the small town of Barra, on the
Amazon, in 1850, turtle oil of the value of 1818 dollars was sent. It
is filled in pots, of which 1628 were made in Santarrem, a mile above
the mouth of the Tapajos.
Turtle oil is employed for various purposes. In some of the West India
islands, it is used when fresh in the place of butter, or salad oil,
and also for lamps.
The eggs of most of the species are excellent, being both nutritive
and agreeable to the taste; those of the green turtle are especially
fine. The white, or albuminous portion, does not, however, harden on
boiling.
The large tree lizard, popularly termed the guana, (_Iguana
tuberculata_, Laur. Syn. 49) is certainly not very attractive in
appearance, and yet by most persons its flesh is highly esteemed, being
reckoned as delicate as chicken, and but little inferior to turtle in
flavour.
It is about three feet long, from the head to the extremity of the
tail, and covered with a soft skin of a bluish green colour on the back
and legs; on the sides and belly, nearly white. It has a pouch of loose
skin under its throat, of a light green; eyes black; and claws, of
which there are three or five on each foot, sharply pointed. A fringed
skin, or kind of mane, runs along from the head to the tail, which it
erects when irritated, and will then snap hold of anything with great
tenacity; but it is perfectly harmless if undisturbed. The bite is
painful, but is not dangerous.
This ugly-looking tree lizard, which looks like an alligator in
miniature, is considered a great delicacy in most tropical countries.
However white and tender the flesh may be when cooked, when one of its
fore paws happens to stick up in the dish, it reminds one too much of
the allegator to eat it with any great relish.
I know no animal, or rather reptile, whose appearance is so little
calculated to tempt man to eat of its flesh; and yet, despite the
repugnance that results from its looks, neither Ude nor Soyer could
have compounded any dish that would compare to the delicacy of a
well-dressed iguana.
We all know that the turtle is most delicious, yet did we see it for
the first time, we might call it with the rustic ‘a great sea toad.’
The appearance of the turtle does not carry a letter of recommendation
to the kitchen; accordingly, his introduction to the Lord Mayor’s
table was rather tardy, and we learn from Sir Hans Sloane that, at the
beginning of the last century, turtle was only eaten in Jamaica by the
poor.
The poet Gay hath sung, that he must have been a bold man who first
swallowed an oyster:
‘The man had sure a palate covered o’er
With steel or brass, that on the rocky shore
First ope’d the oozy oyster’s pearly coat,
And risked the living morsel down his throat.’
Yet neither turtle nor oyster looks so repugnant, yet tastes so
delicious, as an iguana.
Although often roasted or fricasseed, a frequent native mode of cooking
the iguana is to boil it, taking out the leaves of fat, which are
melted and clarified, and put into a calabash or dish, into which they
dip the flesh of the guana as they eat it.
It was long before the Spaniards could conquer their repugnance to the
guana, the favourite delicacy of the Indians, but which the former
regarded with disgust as a species of serpent. They found it however to
be highly palatable and delicate, and from that time forward, the guana
was held in repute among Spanish epicures. The story is thus related by
Peter Martyn:--
‘These serpentes are like unto crocodiles, saving in bygness; they
call them guanas. Unto that day none of oure men durste adventure to
taste of them, by reason of they’re horrible deformitie and lothsomnes.
Yet the Adelantado being entysed by the pleasantnes of the king’s
sister Anacaona, determined to taste the serpentes. But when he felte
the flesh thereof to be so delycate to his tongue, he fell to amayne
without al feare. The which thynge his companions perceiving, were not
behynde hym in greedynesse: insomuche that they had now none other
talke than of the sweetnesse of these serpentes, which they affirm to
be of more pleasant taste than eyther our phesantes or partriches.’
Pierre Labat gives a minute account of the mode of catching this
reptile, and if the reader has no objection to accompany the good
father _à la chasse_, he may participate in the diversion as
follows:--‘We were attended,’ says he, ‘by a negro who carried a
long rod; at one end of which was a piece of whipcord with a running
knot. After beating the bushes for some time, the negro discovered
our game basking in the sun on the dry limb of a tree. Hereupon he
began whistling with all his might, to which the guana was wonderfully
attentive, stretching out his neck, and turning his head as if to enjoy
it more fully. The negro now approached, still whistling, and advancing
his rod gently, began tickling with the end of it the sides and throat
of the guana, who seemed mightily pleased with the operation, for he
turned on his back and stretched himself out like a cat before the
fire, and at length fell fairly asleep; which the negro perceiving,
dexterously slipt the noose over his head, and with a jerk brought him
to the ground; and good sport it afforded to see the creature swell
like a turkey-cock at finding himself entrapped. We caught others in
the same way, and kept one of them alive seven or eight days; but,’
continues the reverend historian, ‘it grieved me to the heart to find
that he thereby lost much delicious fat.’
Guanas are very large and plentiful on the outlying cays and islands of
the Bahamas. They are hunted with a small kind of hound, and if taken
alive, the mouth is sewed up with twine, and they keep alive a month or
six weeks without food. Nassau, New Providence, the capital is chiefly
supplied from these islands with the guana.
There are several varieties of this reptile in Australia, but that
which is most common is from four to six feet in length, and from about
a foot and a half to two feet across the broadest part of the back,
with a rough dark skin, enlivened by yellow spots. Although perfectly
harmless, as far as the human race are concerned, this huge lizard
is a terrible foe to the smaller quadrupeds--opossums, bandicoots,
kangaroo-rats, &c.,--on which it preys. It is very destructive also
among hen roosts, and often takes up its quarters in the vicinity of a
farm-house for the convenience of supping on the hens and their eggs.
The guana is much sought for and esteemed by the blacks as an article
of food, and is frequently presented as a great delicacy to the young
‘gins.’ By the settlers it is not often eaten, owing to the natural
feeling of dislike which is created by its form and habits. Those,
however, who do not entertain these feelings, or are able to overcome
them, find the flesh of the creature really excellent. It is not unlike
that of a rabbit, to which, in flavour, it is fully equal, and eats
best when stewed or curried.
The guana usually lives in trees, and, on the approach of man, it
invariably makes off with great alacrity, scrambling rapidly up the
nearest trunk; but it is easily brought down by a shot.
Captain Keppel tells us, ‘that while out on a shooting excursion at
Port Essington, he observed a native plucking the feathers off a
goose; while so employed his eye caught the tip-end of the tail of an
iguana, an animal of the lizard kind, about four feet long, which was
creeping up the opposite side of a tree; he tossed the goose, without
further preparation, on to the fire, and ascended the tree as easily as
Jack would run up the well-rattled rigging of a man-of-war. He almost
immediately returned with the poor animal struggling in his scientific
grasp. It was the work of a minute to secure it to a stick of about
the same length as itself to prevent its running away, when it was
made to change places with the goose, which, being warm through, was
considered to be sufficiently done. The whole goose he devoured, making
no bones, but spitting out the feathers. Then came the iguana’s turn,
which, although less tender, was not the less relished. It appeared
to require great muscular strength to detach the flesh from the skin.
The operation being finished, he lay down to sleep. His wife, having
sprinkled him with dirt to keep the flies off, was proceeding to eat
the skin of the iguana, when the arrival of some more geese offered her
a more satisfactory repast.’
The iguana is, I believe, the Talagowa of the natives of Ceylon--_le
Monitor terrestre d’Egypte_ of M. Cuvier. The Indian monitor (_Monitor
dracæna_, Gray) is found in great abundance in all the maritime
provinces of Ceylon. The natives are partial to its flesh. Dr. Kelaart
states that he once tasted some excellent soup made from a tender
guana, which was not unlike hare soup. At Trincomalee they are hunted
down by dogs, and sold in the market for 6_d._ each. They feed on the
smaller reptiles and insects, and measure, when large, four feet five
inches. Despite its repulsive appearance, the iguana is eagerly hunted
for food by the natives of Africa, Australia, America, and Asia.
The eggs of the guana are another article deserving the attention
of gourmands. One of these lizards sometimes contains as many as
four-score eggs. These are about the size of a pigeon’s egg, with a
very soft shell, which contains only a very small quantity of the
albumen. The yolk, unlike that of other eggs, does not become hard and
dry when boiled, but is soft and melting as marrow.
It would be a refreshing sight to see Alderman A., or Sheriff B., or
any other civic dignitary who has gone the round of all the dishes
which native and foreign skill have been able to produce, and to whom
a new combination would convey as much delight as a black tulip or a
blue dahlia would to a horticulturist, partaking for the first time
of _pâté de foie gras de l’hiccatee_, or a dish of the eggs of the
iguana garnished with anchovies. The inhabitants of some of the Pacific
islands esteem the large oval eggs of the lizards as food.
The meat of the _Amblyrynchus subcristatus_, another lizard, when
cooked, is white, and by those whose stomachs rise above all
prejudices it is relished as very good. Humboldt has remarked, that in
intertropical South America, all lizards which inhabit dry regions are
esteemed delicacies for the table.
There are an almost innumerable variety of lizards, properly so
called, in all parts of the colony of New South Wales, and the whole
of the larger kinds are used for food by the blacks, although but
very rarely eaten by the settlers. Those who have eaten them, state
that their flesh resembles that of a fowl. The dragon lizard, or as
it is sometimes called, the frilled lizard, is the most remarkable,
being provided with a large frill, which it has the power of extending
suddenly, and in a rather startling manner, when attacked or alarmed;
it is usually about a foot and a half or two feet long. The Jew
lizards are dark coloured, with a dewlapped and puffy appearance about
the throat and neck, varying in size, but seldom exceeding two feet
in length. The scaly lizards are fierce looking, although harmless,
reptiles, with a spotted scaly hide, generally about a foot long, and
remarkable for having small round club-shaped tails. They are easily
domesticated, but as their appearance is far from attractive, they are
seldom made pets of. The large spiny-backed rock lizard resembles a
guana, the only material points of difference being that it has a heavy
dewlap beneath its chin, and a row of spines along the back from the
head to the tail. The flat-tailed lizard, called by the natives the
Rock Scorpion, is imagined by them to be venomous, although in reality
it is perfectly harmless; it is nocturnal in its habits, and possesses
to a peculiar extent the singular power, which is more or less vested
in all the lizard family, of leaving its tail in the hands of any one
who attempts to capture it by laying hold of that appendage, and of
making off apparently scatheless. The sleeping lizard is in body, as
well as in its sluggish habits, exactly like the terrible death adder,
from which it is only to be distinguished by its short feet.
Many of the lizard family are believed by the settlers to be venomous,
but such is not the case; I believe in fact that no four-footed
reptile has yet been discovered which is possessed of venom.
A remarkable power possessed by the guana, and perhaps by others of
the lizard family, is its power of resisting the poison, ordinarily
most destructive to animal life,--prussic acid. A middling sized guana
took a small bottle of prussic acid, and seemed rather to have been
exhilarated by it than otherwise; it was killed, however, by a dose of
arsenic and spirits of wine.
There is a large, ugly, amphibious lizard, about three feet long,
met with in Guiana, known as the Salempenta, or _El Matêo_, which is
thought (particularly by the Indians) good eating, the flesh being
white and tender. It is, however, much more ugly in appearance than the
guana.
Occasionally large lizards of other kinds, two or three feet in length,
are brought to the Rio market, and they are said to be excellent eating.
In the reign of Cheops, as an Egyptian gentleman curious in poultry,
and famous even there for his success in producing strange birds,
was walking by the river Nile, he met with an egg, which, from its
appearance, he thought promised results out of the common way; so,
picking it up, he took it home, and gave directions for hatching it.
But some time after, on visiting his poultry yard, he found that all
his pets had disappeared, a few feathers only lying scattered about,
whilst a fearful animal rushed upon him open-mouthed. The fact was, _he
had hatched a crocodile_.
Mr. Joseph, in his _History of Trinidad_, tells us, that he has eaten
the eggs of the cayman or alligator, (without knowing what eggs they
were), and found them good. In form and taste they much resemble the
eggs of the domestic hen.
Dr. Buckland, the distinguished geologist, one day gave a dinner, after
dissecting a Mississippi alligator, having asked a good many of the
most distinguished of his classes to dine with him. His house and his
establishment were in good style and taste. His guests congregated.
The dinner-table looked splendid, with glass, china, and plate, and
the meal commenced with excellent soup. ‘How do you like the soup?’
asked the doctor, after having finished his own plate, addressing a
famous gourmand of the day. ‘Very good, indeed,’ answered the other;
‘turtle, is it not? I only ask because I do not find any green fat.’
The doctor shook his head. ‘I think it has something of a musky taste,’
said another; ‘not unpleasant, but peculiar.’ ‘All alligators have,’
replied Buckland; ‘the cayman particularly so. The fellow whom I
dissected this morning----’ At this stage there was a general rout of
the whole guests. Every one turned pale. Half-a-dozen started up from
the table; two or three ran out of the room; and only those who had
stout stomachs remained to the close of an excellent entertainment.
‘See what imagination is!’ said Buckland. ‘If I had told them it was
turtle, or tarrapen, or birdsnest soup, salt-water amphibia or fresh,
or the gluten of a fish, or the maw of a sea bird, they would have
pronounced it excellent, and their digestion been none the worse. Such
is prejudice.’ ‘But was it really an alligator?’ asked a lady. ‘As good
a calf’s head as ever wore a coronet,’ answered Buckland.
The Australian crocodile is more closely allied to the gavial of India
(_Gavialis gangeticus_), but is now often termed, like the American
species, an alligator. It is large and formidable; one captured by
Captain Stokes, in the Victoria River, and described in his published
journal, was fifteen feet long, and some have been taken still larger
than this. Like all animals of its class, the Australian crocodile is a
much more formidable enemy in the water than on shore; but even in the
latter position, it is by no means to be despised, for it progresses
with tolerable speed; and, although it seldom or never attacks a man
openly when out of its own proper element, still it is believed to
have a strong liking for human flesh, when that delicacy can safely
be obtained. One of these creatures paid a visit to a seaman, who was
asleep in his hammock on shore after a hard day’s labour, and being
unable to get conveniently at the man, it managed to drag off and carry
away the blanket which covered him; the sailor at first charged his
comrade with having made him the subject of a practical joke, but the
foot-prints of the huge reptile, and the discovery of the abstracted
blanket in the water, soon showed him the real character of his
nocturnal visitant.
The flesh of the crocodile is white and delicate, resembling veal.
It was a favourite dish among the Port Essington settlers, and among
the seamen employed in the surveys of the northern coast and rivers
of Australia. It is frequently pursued and killed for food by the
aborigines of that part of the country: the plan which they adopt is to
hunt it into some blind creek, when the reptile, finding itself closely
pressed, and no water near, usually forces its head, and perhaps the
upper part of its body in some sand-hole, fancying that it has, by
so doing, concealed itself from its pursuers. In this position it
is despatched with comparative ease. The crocodile makes a terrible
noise by snapping its jaws, particularly when in pain, or when it is
annoyed by the buzzing about its mouth and eyes of the mosquitoes or
other insects, which are found in myriads among the swamps, creeks,
and shallow waters, where it abides; this snapping noise is often a
startling sound to explorers encamping near waters frequented by the
monster.
The aboriginal tribes far to the southward of the localities in which
the crocodile has its habitation, have an imperfect knowledge of the
animal; stories of its voracity and fierceness have probably been
recounted at the friendly meetings of the tribes, and these stories
have in the same manner passed across the continent, changed and
magnified with each new relation, until on reaching the coast tribes of
the south, the crocodile became a nondescript animal of most terrible
form, frightening the blacks and puzzling the whites under the name of
the Bunyip.
In Dongola, at the present day, the crocodile is caught for the sake of
its flesh, which is regarded as a delicacy. The flesh and fat are eaten
by the Berbers, who consider them excellent. Both parts, however, have
a smell of musk so strong that few strangers can eat crocodiles’ flesh
without violent sickness following.
The Rev. Mr. Haensel, in his _Letters on the Nicobar Islands_, tells
us that ‘part of the flesh of the crocodile, or cayman, is good and
wholesome when well cooked. It tastes somewhat like pork, for which I
took it, and ate it with much relish, when I first came to Nancauwery,
till, on inquiry, finding it to be the flesh of a beast so disgusting
and horrible in its appearance and habits, I felt a loathing, which I
could never overcome; but it is eaten by both natives and Europeans.’
The aboriginal natives of Trinidad considered a broiled slice of
alligator as a dainty morsel; and Mr. Joseph, the historian, records
having tasted it, and found it very palatable. Tastes in this, as in
other matters, differ.
Mr. Henry Koster, in his _Travels in Brazil_, says--‘I have been
much blamed by my friends for not having eaten of the flesh of the
alligator, and, indeed, I felt a little ashamed of my squeamishness
when I was shown by one friend a passage in a French writer, whose name
I forget, in which he speaks favourably of this flesh. However, if the
advocate for experimental eating had seen an alligator cut into slices,
he would, I think, have turned from the sight as quickly as I did.’ The
Indians of South America eat these creatures, but none of the negroes
will touch them.
Dr. Madden, in his _Travels in Egypt_, appears to have experimentalized
on the saurians as food--
‘I got’ (he says) ‘a small portion of a young crocodile, six feet long,
broiled, to ascertain its taste. The flavour a good deal resembles
that of a lobster, and, though somewhat tough, it might certainly be
considered very excellent food.’
The spectacled cayman (_Alligator sclerops_) is known under the name of
yacaré, or jacquare, in South America. Azara, the naturalist, tells us
that the eggs of this animal are white, rough, and as large as those
of a goose; they are deposited, to the number of sixty, in the sand,
and covered with dried grass. The Indians of Paraguay, and other
districts, esteem them as food, and also relish the white and savoury
flesh of this alligator, although it is dry and coarse. Cayman is the
Spanish word for alligator, and, according to Walker, alligator is the
name chiefly used for the crocodile in America.
Mr. Wallace thus describes an alligator hunt, as pursued on the lakes
in Mexiana, an island lying off the mouth of the Amazon:--‘A number of
negroes went into the water with long poles, driving the animals to the
side, where others awaited them with harpoons and lassos. Sometimes,
the lasso was at once thrown over their heads, or, if first harpooned,
a lasso was then secured to them, either over the head or the tail, and
they were easily dragged to the shore by the united force of ten or
twelve men. Another lasso was fixed, if necessary, so as to fasten them
at both ends; and, on being pulled out of the water, a negro cautiously
approached with an axe, and cut a deep gash across the root of the
tail, rendering this formidable weapon useless; another blow across the
neck disabled the head; and the animal was then left, and pursuit of
another commenced, which was speedily reduced to the same condition.
‘Sometimes the cord would break, or the harpoon get loose, and the
negroes had often to wade into the water among the ferocious animals
in a very hazardous manner. They were from ten to eighteen feet long,
sometimes even twenty, with enormous mis-shapen heads and fearful
rows of long, sharp teeth. When a number were out on the land, dead
or dying, they were cut open, and the fat, which accumulates in
considerable quantities about the intestines, was taken out, and made
up into packets in the skins of the smaller ones, taken off for the
purpose. After killing twelve or fifteen, the overseer and his party
went off to another lake at a short distance, where the alligators were
more plentiful, and by night had killed nearly fifty. The next day they
killed twenty or thirty more, and got out the fat from the others. In
some of these lakes 100 alligators have been killed in a few days; in
the Amazon or Para rivers it would be difficult to kill as many in
a year. The fat is boiled down into oil and burned in lamps. It has
rather a disagreeable smell, but not worse than train-oil.’
The flesh of the land alligator, as it is termed by the Malays (the
_Hydrosaurus salvator_), which occasionally attains the length of five
or six feet, makes, it is said, good eating, and is much esteemed by
the natives for its supposed restorative and invigorating properties.
At Manila, these creatures are regularly sold in the markets, and fetch
a good price; the dried skin is readily bought by the Chinese, who use
it in some of their indescribable messes of gelatinous soup.
Another species eaten is the _Hydrosaurus giganteus_. Like that of the
_Iguanæ_ of the New World, the flesh of these saurians is delicate
eating, and has been compared to that of a very young sucking pig.
The eggs of all the different kinds of alligators, and there are three
or four distinct species abounding in the Amazon and its tributary
streams, are eaten by the natives, though they have a very strong musky
odour. The largest species of alligator (_Jacare nigra_), reaches a
length of 15 or rarely 20 feet.
Mr. Wallace, in his _Travels_, records, that on one occasion, the
Indians on the Rio Negro supped off a young alligator they had caught
in a brook near, ‘but the musty odour was so strong that I could not
stomach it, and after getting down a bit of the tail, finished my
supper with mingau, or gruel of mandioc.’
Alligators are killed in great numbers in parts of the river Amazon,
for their fat, which is made into oil.
Hernandez states, that the flesh of the Axolotl, an aquatic reptile,
is very agreeable and wholesome. It is the _Siren pisciformis_ of
Shaw; the _Menobranchus pisciformis_, Harl. It is commonly sold in the
markets of Mexico. When dressed after the manner of stewed eels, and
served up, with a stimulating sauce, it is esteemed a great luxury.
The flesh of the sauve-garde or common Teguixin of Brazil (_Teguixin
monitor_ of Gray, _Teius Teguixin_) is eaten, and is said to be
excellent.
The flesh of the common ada of Mr. Gray is accounted excellent by the
natives of Guiana, who compare it to a fowl; its eggs are also in great
request. It is the _Thorictes dracæna_, Bibron; _La grande dragonne_,
Cuvier, and attains the length of four to six feet.
Some species of lizards are used as food in Burmah. One of these
especially, called pada, is stated not to be inferior to a fowl,--this
is probably the iguana. Nearly every species of serpent is eaten there,
after the head has been cut off. All have a fishy taste. Some few
kinds, however, although the teeth are carefully removed, cannot be
used, as the flesh appears to be poisonous.
The flesh of snakes is eaten by many in Dominica, particularly by
the French, some of whom are very fond of it; but it is reckoned
unwholesome, and to occasion the leprosy.
A snake called, by the natives of Western Australia wango, is
particularly liked by them as food.
There is a very venomous yellow-bellied snake, from five to six feet
long, called locally dubyt, which is much dreaded; but that is also
eaten by them.
The formidable lance-headed viper, of the Leeward Islands
(_Trigonocephalus lanceolatus_), feeds chiefly on birds, lizards, and
rats. After swallowing their prey, these snakes exhale a disgusting
odour; this does not prevent the negroes from eating their flesh, which
they find, it is said, free from any unpleasant flavour.
Mr. Buckland, in his interesting volume, _Curiosities of Natural
History_, says, he once had the opportunity of tasting a
boa-constrictor, that had been killed by an accident, and came into his
possession.
‘I tried the experiment,’ he observes, ‘and cooked a bit of him; it
tasted very like veal, the flesh being exceedingly white and firm. If
I had had nothing else, and could have forgotten what I was eating, I
could easily have made a dinner of it.’
The flesh of serpents was held in high repute by the ancients,
medicinally; and, when properly prepared, seems to have made a very
agreeable article of diet, corresponding with the turtle soup of the
present day. Even now, in the French tariff, vipers are subject to a
duty of 4_s._ the cwt.
In Guatemala, there is a popular belief, that lizards eaten alive cure
the cancer. The Indians are said to have made this important discovery;
and in 1780, the subject was investigated by European physicians. I
do not find the remedy in the modern pharmacopœias, nevertheless,
the inhabitants of Amatitlan, the town where the discovery was first
made, still adhere to their belief in its efficacy. The man who first
eat a live oyster or clam, was certainly a venturous fellow, but the
eccentric individual who allowed a live lizard to run down his throat,
was infinitely more so. There is no accounting for taste.
Probably some of our learned physiologists and medical men may be able
to explain the therapeutic effects.
Some of the tribes of Southern Guinea, eat the boa-constrictor, or
python, and consider it delicate food. The more informed among them,
however, regard the practice as peculiarly heathenish. In Ceylon, the
flesh of the anaconda, which is said to devour travellers, is much
esteemed as food by some of the natives.
Who shall determine what is good eating? When we have gone over so many
delicacies, we must not be surprised at men’s eating rattlesnakes, and
pronouncing them capital food. An English writer, who has recently
published a work entitled _A Ride over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon
and California_, in describing the journey across the great desert,
says:--
‘_12th July._--Shot two prairie dogs. Jem killed a hare and
rattlesnake. They were all capital eating, not excepting the snake,
which the parson cooked, and thought it as good as eel!’
The Australian aborigines, and some of the Kafir tribes, commonly eat
snakes roasted in the fire--and stewed snakes may, for aught I know, be
as good as stewed eels.
The Italians regale themselves with a jelly made of stewed vipers.
The Bushman of Africa catches serpents, not only as an article of food,
but to procure poison for his arrows.
Various reliable accounts before me prove that rattlesnakes are not
unfit for food, and may be placed among the multifarious articles
regarded by man as delicacies of the table. The negroes eat the
flesh of the rattlesnake, as well as that of other serpents.
When the skin and intestines are removed, no bad odour remains. A
correspondent of the _Penny Magazine_ thus describes his experience
of fried rattlesnakes, at a tavern in Kaskaskia, a small town on the
Mississippi. He finds there a party of four or five travellers, who had
been on an exploring expedition:--
‘After a brief interview, they politely invited me to partake of the
supper they had already bespoken, informing me, at the same time, that
they considered themselves peculiarly fortunate in having procured
an excellent dish,--in fact, a great delicacy--in a place where they
expected to meet with but indifferent fare. What this great delicacy
was, they did not attempt to explain; and, having without hesitation
accepted of their invitation, I felt no inclination to make any farther
inquiries.
‘When the hour of supper arrived, the principal dish--and, indeed,
almost the only one upon the table--appeared to me to be a dish of
good-sized eels fried. I being the guest of my new acquaintances, had
the honor of being the first served with a plate of what the person
who presided called ‘Musical Jack.’ ‘Musical Jack,’ thought I, is some
species of eel peculiar to the Mississippi and its tributary waters;
and taking it for granted that it was all right, I forthwith began to
ply my knife and fork. ‘Stop,’ said the individual that occupied the
bottom of the table, before I had swallowed two mouthfuls. ‘You, sir,
have no idea, I presume, what you are eating; and since you are our
guest for the time being, I think it but right that you should have no
cause hereafter to think yourself imposed upon. The dish before you,
which we familiarly call ‘Musical Jack,’ is composed of rattlesnakes,
which the hunter who accompanies us in our tour of exploration was so
fortunate to procure for us this afternoon. It is far from the first
time that we have fared thus; and, although our own hunter skinned,
decapitated, and dressed the creatures, it was only through dint of
coaxing that our hostess was prevailed upon to lend her frying-pan for
so vile a purpose.’
‘Although curiosity had on many occasions prompted me to taste strange
and unsavoury dishes, I must confess that never before did I feel such
a loathing and disgust as I did towards the victuals before me. I was
scarcely able to listen to the conclusion of this short address, ere I
found it prudent to hurry out of the room; nor did I return till supper
was over, and ‘Musical Jack’ had either been devoured or dismissed
their presence.
‘As far as I recollect the circumstance, there was nothing peculiar
or disagreeable in the flavour of the small quantity I ate; and when
the subject was calmly discussed on the following day, one of the
party assured me he was really partial to the meat of the rattlesnake,
although some of the other members of his party had not been fully able
to conquer their early-conceived antipathies towards this snake; but
that during their long journey they had been occasionally prevailed
upon to make trial of a small quantity of the flesh, and were willing
to own that had they, been ignorant of its nature, they should have
pronounced it of a quality passably good.
‘Ever afterwards in my visits to Kaskaskia, I narrowly examined every
dish of a dubious character that was placed before me, in order to
satisfy myself that it was not ‘Musical Jack.’’
Dr. Lang, in one of his works, gives us an account of snake cooking in
Australia:--
‘One of the black fellows took the snake, and placing it on the branch
of a tree, and striking it on the back of the head repeatedly with a
piece of wood, threw it into the fire. The animal was not quite dead,
for it wriggled for a minute or two in the fire, and then became
very stiff and swollen, apparently from the expansion of the gases
imprisoned in its body. The black fellow then drew it out of the fire,
and with a knife cut through the skin longitudinally on both sides of
the animal, from the head to the tail. He then coiled it up as a sailor
does a rope, and laid it again upon the fire, turning it over again
and again with a stick till he thought it sufficiently done on all
sides, and superintending the process of cooking with all the interest
imaginable. When he thought it sufficiently roasted, he thrust a stick
into the coil, and laid it on the grass to cool, and when cool enough
to admit of handling, he took it up again, wrung off its head and tail,
which he threw away, and then broke the rest of the animal by the
joints of the vertebræ into several pieces, one of which he threw to
the other black fellow, and another he began eating himself with much
apparent relish. Neither Mr. Wade nor myself having ever previously
had the good fortune to witness the dressing of a snake for dinner by
the black natives, we were much interested with the whole operation;
and as the steam from the roasting snake was by no means unsavoury,
and the flesh delicately white, we were each induced to try a bit of
it. It was not unpalatable by any means, although rather fibrous and
stringy like ling-fish. Mr. Wade observed, that it reminded him of the
taste of eels; but as there was a strong prejudice against the use of
eels as an article of food in the west of Scotland, in my boyhood, I
had never tasted an eel, and was therefore unable to testify to the
correctness of this observation. There was doubtless an equally strong
prejudice to get over in the case of a snake, and for an hour or two
after I had partaken of it, my stomach was ever and anon on the point
of insurrection at the very idea of the thing; but, thinking it unmanly
to yield to such a feeling, I managed to keep it down.’
In a paper which I published in the _Journal of the Society of
Arts_, in October 1856, (vol. 4, p. 872,) I entered very fully into
a description of the various snakes which are met with in different
countries, poisonous or harmless, and to that paper I would refer those
who wish to obtain descriptive details--scientific or general--not
bearing on the subject of food, at present under our consideration.
The consumption of frogs is not, as is very often supposed, confined
to the French. It is now also indulged in, to a considerable extent,
by Americans; and frogs appear to command a high price in the New York
market. An enthusiastic writer tries to convince us, that the only
objection to frogs as an article of diet is a mere prejudice on the
part of those who have never eaten them. ‘In what respect are they
worse than eels? The frog who swallows young birds and ducklings is
surely as clean a feeder as the snake-like creature that dines on
dead dogs, and makes the celebrity of the ait at Twickenham. Or is a
frog less savoury than a rat? And yet what a price was paid for rats
at the siege of Kars! If the garrison could only have been supplied
with lots of frogs--literal or metaphorical--the Russians would never
have taken the place. Again, does a snail--the large escargot, which
people are so fond of in Paris--appear more tempting than a frog? Or
that animal picked out of its shell with a pin, and called, in vulgar
parlance, a winkle. ‘Away, then,’ as indignant orators say, ‘away,
then, with this cant of false delicacy and squeamishness, and the very
first opportunity you have, _O lector fastidioso!_ order _A Dish of
Frogs_. They are quite as good as whitebait, when assisted by a flask
of Rhenish.’
The _Athenæum_, also, recently came out in favour of frogs. ‘There is
no reason,’ it remarks, ‘why we should eschew frogs and relish turtle;
still less is there for our eating one or two of the numerous edible
funguses, which our island produces, and condemning all the rest.’
The green or edible frog (_Rana esculenta_) is a native of Europe,
some parts of Asia, and also of Northern Africa. It is in high request
on the Continent for its flesh, the meat of the hind quarters, which
is alone used, being delicate and well tasted. In Vienna, where the
consumption of these frogs is very considerable, they are preserved
alive, and fattened in froggeries (grenouillières) constructed for the
express purpose.
In America, the flesh of the huge bull-frog (_R. pipiens_, Harl.; _R.
mugiens_, Catesby,) is tender, white, and affords excellent eating.
Some bull-frogs weigh as much as half-a-pound, but the hind legs are
the only parts used as food. They make excellent bait for the larger
cat-fish.
In the Antilles, another huge bull-frog is reared in a state of
domestication for the table. It is the _Rana ocellata_, Linn; _R.
gigas_ of Spix; _Cystignathus ocellatus_, Wagler.
Toads seem also to be eaten by the French, though unwittingly.
Professor Dumeril used to relate, in his lectures at the Jardin des
Plantes, that the frogs brought to the markets in Paris are caught in
the stagnant waters round Montmorenci, in the Bois de Vincennes, Bois
de Boulogne, &c. The people employed in this traffic separate the hind
quarters and legs of the frogs from the body, denude them of their
skin, arrange them on skewers, as larks are done in this country, and
then bring them in that state to market. In seeking for frogs, these
dealers often meet with toads, which they do not reject, but prepare
them in the same way as they would frogs; and, as it is impossible to
determine whether the hind quarters of these creatures, after the skin
is stripped off, belong to frogs or toads, it continually happen that
great numbers of the supposed frogs sold in Paris for food are actually
toads.[18]
This account of the mode of bringing the frogs to market, in Paris,
does not tally with that given by my friend, Mr. F. T. Buckland, in his
_Curiosities of Natural History_; he says:--
‘In France, frogs are considered a luxury, as any _bon vivant_ ordering
a dish of them at the _Trois Frères_, at Paris, may, by the long price,
speedily ascertain. Not wishing to try such an expensive experiment in
gastronomy, I went to the large market in the Faubourg St. Germain,
and enquired for frogs. I was referred to a stately-looking dame at
a fish-stall, who produced a box nearly full of them, huddling and
crawling about, and occasionally croaking as though aware of the fate
to which they were destined. The price fixed was two a penny, and
having ordered a dish to be prepared, the _Dame de la Halle_ dived her
hand in among them, and having secured her victim by the hind legs, she
severed him in twain with a sharp knife; the legs, minus skin, still
struggling, were placed on a dish; and the head, with the fore-legs
affixed, retained life and motion, and performed such motions that the
operation became painful to look at. These legs were afterwards cooked
at the _restaurateur’s_, being served up fried in bread crumbs, as
larks are in England; and most excellent eating they were, tasting more
like the delicate flesh of the rabbit than anything else I can think
of. I afterwards tried a dish of the common English frog, but his flesh
is not so white nor so tender as that of his French brother.’
The Chinese seem also to appreciate frogs, for Mr. Fortune, in
describing a Chinese market, says--
‘Frogs seemed much in demand. They are brought to market in tubs and
baskets, and the vender employs himself in skinning them as he sits
making sales. He is extremely expert at this part of his business. He
takes up the frog in his left hand, and with a knife, which he holds
in his right, chops off the fore part of its head. The skin is then
drawn back over the body and down to the feet, which are chopped off
and thrown away. The poor frog, still alive, but headless, skinless,
and feetless, is then thrown into another tub, and the operation is
repeated on the rest in the same way. Every now and then the artist
lays down his knife, and takes up his scales to weigh these animals
for his customers, and make his sales. Everything in this civilised
country, whether it be gold or silver, geese or frogs, is sold by
weight.’
According to Seba and Madame Merian, the negroes eat the flesh of the
Surinam toad (_Pipa Surinamensis_).
Frogs or toads of an enormous size (_Crapaux_) are very numerous
in Dominica, and much esteemed as an article of food; the flesh,
when fricasseed, being preferred by the English, as well as French,
to chickens; and, when made into soup, recommended for the sick,
especially in consumptive cases.
Wallace, in his _Travels on the Amazon_, tells us, ‘his Indians went
several times early in the morning to the gapo to catch frogs, which
they obtained in great numbers, stringing them on a sipo, and boiling
them entire, entrails and all, and devoured them with much gusto. The
frogs are mottled of various colours, have dilated toes, and are called
jui.’
The eating of frogs seems to be indulged in in the Philippines, for a
traveller tells us that--
‘After the rains there may generally be procured, by those who like
them, frogs, which are taken from the ditch round the walls in great
numbers, and are then fat and in good condition for eating, making a
very favourite curry of some of the Europeans, their flesh being very
tender.’[19]