The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-01-04
STRANGE DELiCACIES.
People Who Eat Bats, Foxes, Dogs, Rat
and Picked Elephants Feet.

People Who Eat Bats, Foxes, Dogs, Ratf
and Picked Elephants Feet.
species CT bat is considered good eat
ing by the natives of the islands of the
Indian Archipelago, Malabar, ETC.; it is
called by naturalists the edible bat, and
is said to be white, tender and delicate,
but for all that it is hideous beast like
weasel, with ten-inch body, covered
with close and shining black hair, and
with four-feet wings, when stretched to
their full extent.
In some countries even the fox is con-
sidered delicacy: in the Arctic regions,
where fresh meat is scarce, when iudic-
lously made into pie, it is considered
equal to any rabbit, under the same con-
ditions, ever bred on the Sussex downs
But strange to say, the Esquimaux dogs,
which will devour almost any thing
else, will not touch fox Cats and dogs
readily find purchasers and consumers
in China, where they are hung up in the
butchers shops, together with badgers
tasting like wild boar-and other
oddities of food. In the South Seas,
too, dog is a favorite dish, and a puppy
stew is royal feast in Zanzibar; but
it is only fair to say that where dog is
eaten it is especially fattened for the
table, and'fed only on milk and such
like clearly diet.
The Australian native dog, or dingo,
is eaten by the blacks, but by no one
else; and South African will give a
cow for good-sized mastiff. The Amer
lean panther and the wild cat of Louis
lana are said to be excellent eating; so
is the puma, which is so like veal in
flavor that one hardly knows the differ
ence. Lions flesh, too, is almost iden-
teal with veal in color, taste and tex
ture. Bears paws were long German
delicacy; and the flesh is held equal or
superior to pork, the fat being as white
as snow. The tongue and hams are
cured, but the head is accounted worth
less and thrown away.
The badger tastes like wild boar; the
Australian kangaroo is not much inferior
to venison, and kangaroo-tail soup is
better than half the messes which pass
in London under the name of ox-tail
soup. flashed wallaby is dish no one
need disdain, and there is small species
of kangaroo as good as any hare ever
cooked.
An Australian native banquet is an
odd mixture. Kangaroos and wallabies,
opossums and flying squirrels, kangaroo
rats, wombats and bandicoots represent
the pieces de resistance; while rats, mice,
snakes, snails, large white maggots,
worms and grubs form the little dishes
and most favored entrees A nice fat
| 10, n,,1 h. NtD
are pure feeders.
The muskrat of Martinique is eaten,
though indescribably loathsome to a
| European; but the sleek rats of the
| sugar-cane plantations make one of the
most delicate fricassees Imaginable; so
| tender, plump, clearly and luscious are
they. The Chinese are in a rat paradise
in California, where the rats are enor-
mously large, highly-favored and very
abundant, rat soup being considered by
all right-minded Celestials to beat OK
tail or gravy soup hollow. The Indians
eat the beaver, which is said to be like
pork, and porcupine is fine favorite
with the Dutch and Hottentots of the
Cape and with the Hudson's Bay trap
pers, and, indeed, with the inhabitants
of all the countries where the creature
is found, the flesh being good and deli
cate, and, moreover, accounted exceed
ingly nutritious.
Elephants feet, picked in strong
toddy vinegar and cayenne pepper, are
considered in Ceylon an Apician luxury.
The trunk is said to resemble buffalo's
hump; and the fat is SO highly priced by
the bushmen that they will go almost
any distance for it.
Hippopotamus fat is also considered
treat; when sailed it is thought superior
to our best breakfast bacon; and the
flesh is both palatable and nutritious,
the fat being used for all the ordinary
uses of butter.-N. Y. journal.