The prairie wolf is eaten by the Indians of North America. The flesh of the sloth is devoured with great avidity by the natives of Demerara; and that of the lion by the Hottentots, while a tribe of Arabs between Tunis and Algeria, according to Blumenbach, live almost entirely upon its flesh.
The natives of the Malay Peninsula eat the flesh of the tiger, believing it to be a sovereign specific for all diseases, besides imparting to him who partakes of it the courage and sagacity of the animal.
Some people have ventured to eat the cujuacura or American panther, and say it is very delicate food; and the flesh of the wild cat of Louisiana is said to be good to eat.
The flesh of the cougar or puma (Felis concolor), a fierce carnivorous animal, is eaten in Central America, and is said to be agreeable food. The injunction of St. Paul, ‘to eat what is set before us, and ask no questions for conscience sake,’ would hardly be a safe maxim in Central America, at an entertainment given ‘under the greenwood tree’ by the ‘Ancient Foresters’ of Honduras. The sylvan dainties would not be composed of precisely the same materials as a petit diné at the Trois Frères, or the Café de Paris.
Mr. Darwin, in his Journal of a Naturalist, tells us that ‘once at supper, from something which was said, I was suddenly struck with horror at thinking I was eating one of the favourite dishes of the country, namely, a half formed calf, long before its proper time of birth. It turned out to be puma; the meat is very white, and remarkably like veal in taste. Dr. Shaw was laughed at for stating that the flesh of the lion is in great esteem, having no small affinity with veal, both in colour, taste, and flavour. Such certainly is the case with the puma. The Gauchos differ in their opinion, whether the jaguar is good eating, but are unanimous in saying that cat is excellent.’
Mr. Wallace, when travelling up the Amazon, writes—‘Several jaguars were killed, as Mr. C— pays about 8s. each for their skins. One day we had some steaks at the table, and found the meat very white and without any bad taste. It appears evident to me that the common idea of the food of an animal determining the quality of its meat, is quite erroneous. Domestic poultry and pigs are the most unclean animals in their food, yet their flesh is most highly esteemed, while rats and squirrels, which eat only vegetable food, are in general disrepute. Carnivorous fish are not less delicate eating than herbivorous ones, and there appears no reason why some carnivorous animals should not furnish wholesome and palatable food.’
Bears’ paws were long reckoned a great delicacy in Germany, for some authors tell us, that after being salted and smoked, they were reserved for the tables of princes. In North America, bears’ flesh was formerly considered equal to pork, the meat having a flavour between beef and pork; and the young cubs were accounted the finest eating in the world. Dr. Brooke, in his Natural History, adds—‘Most of the planters prefer bears’ flesh to beef, veal, pork, and mutton. The fat is as white as snow, and extremely sweet and wholesome, for if a man drinks a quart of it at a time, when melted, it will never rise on his stomach! It is of very great use for the frying of fish and other things, and is greatly preferred to butter.’
Tastes have naturally altered since this was written, nearly a century ago, and it would be somewhat difficult to carry on the sport of bear hunting on the extensive scale then practised, when we are told 500 bears were killed in two of the counties in Virginia in one winter.
The Indians seem to have shared largely in the sport and spoils of the chase, for at their subsequent feast, the largest bear was served up as the first course, and they ‘roasted him whole, entrails, skin and all, in the same manner as they would barbecue a hog.’
As the paws of the bear were held to be the most delicious morsels about him, so the head was thought to be the worst, and always thrown away; but the tongue and hams are still in repute.