Some crustaceans, however, adopt a vegetable diet. The Robber Crab of the Polynesian Islands can not merely open a cocoa-nut, but also enjoy its contents. The crab begins by tearing off the fibre at the extremity where the fruit is, always choosing the right hand. When this is removed, it strikes it with its great claws until an opening is made; it then inserts its slender claws, and by wriggling and turning itself about removes the contents of the nut.
CRABS (Cancer pagurus).
The proper mode of boiling crabs has long been a subject on which doctors have disagreed. Who, then, shall decide? That there is cruelty associated with the taking away of life it would be hard to deny, but the correctness of choice between gradual stewing in slowly-heated water and being plunged at once into the seething, bubbling cauldron requires “the revelations of a boiled crab” to clear up; and until a crustacean production under that or a like title appears, we shall continue to plunge our armour-clad victims in water at 212 degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and leave the question as to the propriety of our so doing to those who are disposed to grapple with the subject for its own sake.
The West India Islands possess in the Land Crab (Gecarcinus ruricola) a kind of crustacean highlander, who retreats into the uplands at certain times in the year. “As the spawning season approaches a mighty gathering of the clans takes place, and whole legions, unwarned by fiery cross or blazing beacon, hasten forth to join the living tide flowing onward towards the sea. Through the tangled jungle, down the rock-strewed ravine, over fallen tree-trunks, and among the dense undergrowth of the forest, in ceaseless, creeping, crawling, scuttling thousands, still they come onward, and ever onward, as the bright stars shine out to light them on their way. Banks, hedges, walls, and even houses, are passed straight over in this crustacean steeplechase, no flags being needed to keep the mail-clad competitors to the true course. Instinct the guide, and the blue sea for a goal, nothing stops the race.
“Cuffee and his companions, who have been gossiping and story-telling beneath their cocoa-leaf roofs until half asleep, appear to become most violent and incurable lunatics, on suddenly becoming aware of the nocturnal exodus. They leap high in the air, shout, scream, and dance like fiends, whilst the most ready-witted of the crew dash off to ‘de massa’ with the startling news. ‘Hi, golly, sa! de crab! de crab! He come for sure, this time, sure ’nuff. Plenty catch um bime by;’ and Cuffee keeps his word to the letter, and captures the pilgrims by the basketful, in spite of their claws. And black-faced, woolly-headed Aunt Lilly, the cook, shows her teeth, like ivory dominoes in an ebony box, as visions of white-snow-like rice, cocoa-nut milk, capsicum-pods, and stewpans, pass in pleasing and appetising review before her; and ‘massa’ himself takes an extra pull at the cold-sangaree jug, sleeps pleasantly, and dreams of the crab-feast on the morrow.”
THE WEST INDIAN LAND CRAB (Gecarcinus ruricola).
The King Crab of the eastern seas grows sometimes to an enormous size, while the lance-shaped spear with which he is furnished is used by the Malays as a warlike instrument. Then, for a contrast, there’s the little nut-crab, with his queer little legs tucked up under his [pg 153]body, which rambling jack-tars sometimes gather for their friends at home, under the idea that their shells, when cut and polished, will make handsome brooches and shirt-pins. Major Lord tells a good story of a dry old salt of a quartermaster, on the Indian station, who “chanced one day, when on shore for a cruise, to become possessed of a goodly number of these lucky stones, as he called them, and by way of securing his treasures, placed them in an old silk handkerchief, and stowed them away, with a few dollars and sundry cakes of cavendish, in the corner of his chest. It so happened that some piratical shipmate, not proof against the allurements of honeydew and silver, but totally indifferent to natural history, seized his opportunity and spirited off the tobacco and money, but left the lucky-stones behind. The next day, when our old friend came for his accustomed supply of the weed, he, to his horror, astonishment, and indignation, found the supposed pebbles in active motion, performing foot-races over his best jacket, the handkerchief spread open, and, alas! empty. ‘Well!’ exclaimed he; ‘blow me if this aint too much of the monkey! Why, look ye here, messmates! These here blessed stones have come to life, every man Jack of ’em. They’ve chawed up all my bacca, and spent every mag of my money! and now I’ll [pg 154]heave the beggars to Davy Jones’s locker. Overboard is where I means to pitch ’em.’ And so he did, no doubt to the intense gratification of the falsely-accused crabs.”
