The poet Gay hath sung, that he must have been a bold man who first swallowed an oyster:
‘The man had sure a palate covered o’er
With steel or brass, that on the rocky shore
First ope’d the oozy oyster’s pearly coat,
And risked the living morsel down his throat.’
Yet neither turtle nor oyster looks so repugnant, yet tastes so delicious, as an iguana.
Although often roasted or fricasseed, a frequent native mode of cooking the iguana is to boil it, taking out the leaves of fat, which are melted and clarified, and put into a calabash or dish, into which they dip the flesh of the guana as they eat it.
It was long before the Spaniards could conquer their repugnance to the guana, the favourite delicacy of the Indians, but which the former regarded with disgust as a species of serpent. They found it however to be highly palatable and delicate, and from that time forward, the guana was held in repute among Spanish epicures. The story is thus related by Peter Martyn:—
‘These serpentes are like unto crocodiles, saving in bygness; they call them guanas. Unto that day none of oure men durste adventure to taste of them, by reason of they’re horrible deformitie and lothsomnes. Yet the Adelantado being entysed by the pleasantnes of the king’s sister Anacaona, determined to taste the serpentes. But when he felte the flesh thereof to be so delycate to his tongue, he fell to amayne without al feare. The which thynge his companions perceiving, were not behynde hym in greedynesse: insomuche that they had now none other talke than of the sweetnesse of these serpentes, which they affirm to be of more pleasant taste than eyther our phesantes or partriches.’
Pierre Labat gives a minute account of the mode of catching this reptile, and if the reader has no objection to accompany the good father à la chasse, he may participate in the diversion as follows:—‘We were attended,’ says he, ‘by a negro who carried a long rod; at one end of which was a piece of whipcord with a running knot. After beating the bushes for some time, the negro discovered our game basking in the sun on the dry limb of a tree. Hereupon he began whistling with all his might, to which the guana was wonderfully attentive, stretching out his neck, and turning his head as if to enjoy it more fully. The negro now approached, still whistling, and advancing his rod gently, began tickling with the end of it the sides and throat of the guana, who seemed mightily pleased with the operation, for he turned on his back and stretched himself out like a cat before the fire, and at length fell fairly asleep; which the negro perceiving, dexterously slipt the noose over his head, and with a jerk brought him to the ground; and good sport it afforded to see the creature swell like a turkey-cock at finding himself entrapped. We caught others in the same way, and kept one of them alive seven or eight days; but,’ continues the reverend historian, ‘it grieved me to the heart to find that he thereby lost much delicious fat.’