Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1885-03-20

and shipped it to New York in two
boxes, but, unfortunately, the one con-
tanning the claws was lost, and have
only the she'll to tell the story. There
are, however, several good specimens
in this country. Harvard college has
a fair specimen, but not as large as
these l have mentioned. What are
they good forP Well, in Japan they
are eaten just as we eat crabs here.
The great claws are the only really
valuable parts, and one crab will pro-
duce meat enough to supply whole
family. Then, again, the shell is
broken up and made into curious
medicine taken by the natives, and,
curiously enough, they also make a
medicine out of fossil crab that they
get in the back country.
Though this crab is the largest, it
is not as powerful as the famous
| palm-tree crab of the islands south of
Japan and in the Indian archipelago.
The crab is called the birgos and is
relative of the hermit crab, only it has
no shell, the plates on the abdomen
being extremely hard and effectively
taking the place of the shell that is
worn by others of the kind. The
birgos is not water crab, living en-
tirely upon land and going down to
the sea once a day, it is said, for the
purpose of moistening it's gills. They
are generally found in the near
proximity of palm trees, upon the
fruit of which they live, and their bur-
rows are generally placed at the foot
of the trees. To give you an idea of
the amount of cocoanuts that the
creatures eat, the Malay natives came
about twice year and dug up their
holes to get the cocoanut husks that
the crabs took to make their nests of.
Hundreds of pounds were thus OBJ
tanned and made into mats, beds. and
many other articles of household use
In appearance the birgos was ex-
tremely repulsive. They were about
as big as mans head, if it was a
very big man and he had very big
head; the claws were very heavy,
short, colored red, and covered with
sharp points, SO that when the claws
were struck together, as they were
when the animals were enraged, there
was loud, clacking sound that could
be heard quite distance. The first
time l ever saw one was at the Spice
islands. After dinner one day the
German counsul asked me if didn't
want to see Spice island pig. l said
yes, and he led me out back of the
hotel, and there, in wooden inclos-
ure, were two of the largest of these
crabs, eating rice out of trough
actually being fattened for the market
like hogs. We afterward had then
| /
: very good.
, 1.-The most remarkable feature abou
, these crabs was their enormous
strength. One was placed in an or
dinary tin cracker-bOX, where Their,
was no opportunity of taking hold; bu
the next morning the box was founC
completely punctured with holes, ac
tually bitten through by the sharp bit
ing claws of the crab, and in anOthe
confined in the same way the top o
= the box was fairly twisted off. Having
so much muscular power, native
! naturally approached them with som
5 caution in attempting their capture
| was informed that on one occasion
party went out to place somewha
1 famous for them, and, arriving a
= night, went into camp with the eXpec
Z tation OF frying the crabs the next day
But, during the night, the party wa
: awakened by the most terrific screams
e and, rushing into the wood near a
, hand with rushlights, they found on
4 of the natives swinging partly from
| huge leaf of a cocoanut, and Screamin!
G as if he was being hanged. For som
Y moments they could not make on
; what the trouble was, but finally wa
G sure that the man was in the grasp o
/ an enormous birgos. The native ha'