Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-01
SIGHTS IN MEXICO.
Jumbo Snails - Wonderful Butterflies -
Armadillos as Food-The Iguana.

The trees are covered with orchids,
lovely in form and hue, exquisite of
/ odor, infinite in variety. says Xalapa
correspondent of the San Francisco
/ Chroaicle. In the course of one after
| noon | gathered more than one dozen
| species besides q whole fiower-press
/ full of ferns and blossoms. as an Incl
/ dental in the collection of butterflies
/ and land shells.
/ OF the latter there are over 100 va
rieties in the neighborhood of Xalapa.
from the tiny strebeling, newly dis
covered by my hostess, who is full
/ blooded Totonac Indian, to the great
hermaphrodite glandina sowerbyana,
whose shell reaches length of IL cent?
meters or 3 inches, while the extended
snail not infrequently measures 81 or
inches. And the butterfiesi oh, the
butterflies! l remember once caviling
at Edwin Arnold's simile in The
Light of ASIA wherein he speaks of
butterflies as ''jeweled objects" The
term seemed inappropriate to the
velvety textures of the butterfly; but
bow to its accuracy, having seen the
butterflies of Xalapa. White, black,
red, purple, brown, golden they shine,
and many of them glitter with the
brilliancy of gems. One particularly
beautiful variety is Familiarity known
as ''the figures" from the mark on the
under side of its wings. The spread
of wing of some of these gorgeous
creatures is often eight or ten inches,
and the night moths have wings larger
than those of doves in many species.
Armadillos are, if not abundant, not
rare hereabouts and they find ready
purchasers at from 80 to so cents. The
flesh is very delicate and savory. The
favorite mode of cooking is by a sort
is slightly object, with its graduated
bosses and corrugatiOns, and it has
been utilized by def needle-women
for the groundwork of many pretty
bags and boxes. The poems employed
in field labor use these shells to hold
the seed for sowing. To meet these
purposes the lateral edges are bent to-
gether while green and laced fast by
cords or hide-thongs. Although it would
appear to be a cleaner animal than
the armadillo the oppossum. it seems,
is disdained as a food element by the
Mexicans, although it is so plentiful
hereabouts that it is largely trapped
for it's depredations in the poultry
yard. Strange that this discrimina-
ton should exist, for the armadillo is
somewhat omnlvorous and it is assert
ed that it has been known to make
ghoulish raids on graveyards. while
the favorite of the southern darkies is
a mora 70 ti6jnuc o1soa +I1ra
There exists hereabouts belief that
the tail of the oppossum, dried and
pnlyerized and drunk in wine, is, a
sovereign remedy for chills and fever
Another animal considered a tidbit bv
the people of the lowlands makes de-
cidedly repulsive impression upon I'M
accustomed strangers. This is an
iguana, or lizard, which the natives
catch and confne III the matched
rooted peaks of their houses. Some
people declare that in order to fatten
properly the mouth of the iguana
must be closed by few stitches to
prevent st from eating. The truth
probably is that the wider the poor
creatures mouth is left open the SOON
er it completes the process of fatten-
ing. as it doubtless lives on the various
Larvae and beetles bred in the straw or
palm of the thatching. Another of the
resources of the cOmmissary Depart
ment is shrub which is called be-
quinite, or else pitos (whistles), from
the shape of the flowers, which are of
deep scarlet, some three inches in
length, growing in clusters. These
eonical heads are cooked either as
in no oh Of nnt
balls, and they have, it is said, ali the
flavor of good meat. Ihave not tasted
them-
1t is we'll that there are to be had
such to0thsome varieties in the food
line, for the Xalapa market is dear
and poor, and on Fridays in Lent the
question of butchers meat is a. VeXed
one. Xalapa is closely akin to some
places III California in the matter of
the lively flea, his tenure of office and
antics. There are also mosquitoes in
abundance and vicious little. gnat
called rodador or ''rounder," whose
sting burns like fire and leaves tinv
speek of scarlet in the flesh of its
victim. Happily this pest is not COM
mon. There are scorpions and other
fehohouS IHSecGs, Out Inett sung Is
only painful, not fatal. There is also
rattlesnake which is not veaomous,
and horned serpent, and another
snake which the wiseacres were fain to
find realization of the tabled am
phisboena, which was said to have
head at each end and to run with equal
facility in either direction. The pres
ent variety has been shown. however.
to have the customary head and tail
end. the two being markedly alike in
appearance.