The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-14
ECCENTRICITIEs IN FOOD.
No Snake Is Agreeable Except to a
Savage Taste.
From the New York Sun.


From the New York Sun.
If, as was Shakespeare's opinion, mis-
cry acquaints a man with strange bed
fellows, travel makes him familiar with
strange food. Even IN civilized countries
there are national dishes, and dishes
famous in certain localities, of whose
composition no one knows anything
certain, except the cook as, for example,
a Spanish ollapodrida or a Florentine
pie. These instances, however, do not
come under the head of uncanny edibles,
and the intention is to give some illlststra-
lions of eCcentriCitieS in eating.
No snake is suCcuent. An anaconda
outlet looks nice. but it is distressingy
dry. So with other species, and it Is
probable that all the wandering race will
agree with DIR. Lumhattz in saying that a
man might as well eat chips as serpents.
They are relished by savages in many
places, but savage opinions upon gastron-
omy do not count. Primitive taste is a
very undeveloped sense and when bar
barians have good things they generally
spoil them.
There is q lizard in equatorial America
that is one of the uglest extant, but
steaks cut from its tail are not to be sur
passed. Nevertheless, it makes a diaer-
ence whether a Tupi Indian offers one
favored with ashes on the end of sharp
stick, or an ingratiating waiter at
breakfast BILE in the West Indies says
conhdentially:
'You try lilly bit dis igurna, massa
him VERY fine, sab" This reptile is the
/ only member of its family that has any
merit except first cousin with a long
Greek name. Both are terrible fighters
when reused by natives with grass ropes.
They also present rather a horrible APP
/ pearance in process of preparation. But
] brOiled, and with cayenne and lime Juice
iguana should be classed with the dia-
mond backed terrapin aud the green tur-
/ tie.
An armadillo is a degenerate little
/ beast, naturaiists say, and they despise
! 1t because its teeth are defective. This
/ is very limited view TO take, for it is eX-
| ceedingly good TO eat. In habits of life,
/ and the general appearance of its head
this animal is not unlike pig. Its nose,
however, is wanting III character, being
weak, like its nina and besides that
there are African armadillos much more
swinish than any living in America.
IL has always seemed to the writer
( who has been intimate with armadillos
I that one of these creatures, with it's ears
cooked and tail up, prancing along side
ways on the tips of its fore claws, was an
exquisite caricature of a Medieval war
/ horse in full panoply. There are those
/ who contend that the old smile of "a hog
in armour is the most opposite compari-
son, but there are aesthetic objections to
such parallel. Any one who rememb ers
how armadillos taste must recall with a
certain regret the fact that zoologists
call them "brutesn These loricates are
/ likewise said TO be utterly incapable Of
/ learning anything. Now this is not the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth, because, for an example, if you
/ go into any house in the interior of Mica
ragua, there will be found armadillos who
/ have acquired a coherent idea that they
are at home and comport themselves ac-
/ cordingly. They are semi-domesticated
/ To keep down the ants that make life a
burden, and they do so with some success,
being very partial 10 these insects 1t is
+ eXecrable taste TO like ants, which, even
when parched, ground up, and baked in
thin cakes, are the most abominable
things that anybody can eat. But fat
/ young Iatuslidae, baked in their own
armor, might be rejoiced over by "A gas
/ tronome, This is the best way TO cook
! them, and they have the flavor of a par
/ ticularly good little black pig from the
mountains Of Spain. with some suggestion
| OF that SAVIOR given by the chestnut stuff
I ing which those people know so well how
/ TO insert into a small porker
HabituaIly armadillos are vegetal feed
I ers, still, like swine, they have tendency
/ TO be omnivorous. There is no difficulty
] IN killing one with an ordinary charge OF
heavy shot. Nevertheless they DISPLAY a
| good deal Of deXterity in avoiding an ac-
/ cident of this kind. If come upon sud
/ denly, they curl themselves up and pre-
| tend TO be knots OF dry wood or nests
/ that have fallen from trees Very often
/ the stratagem succeeds, and anyway if il
/ were not for its greed, an armadillo would
/ be tolerably safe. BY rights IL is a noe.
turnal creature, aud II it stayed at home
/ and slept during the dav, as il ought to
| 90, very few of the species would be-
| come the victims Of mankind. But this
] little glutton is always hungry, and in