In Dongola, at the present day, the crocodile is caught for the sake of its flesh, which is regarded as a delicacy. The flesh and fat are eaten by the Berbers, who consider them excellent. Both parts, however, have a smell of musk so strong that few strangers can eat crocodiles’ flesh without violent sickness following.
The Rev. Mr. Haensel, in his Letters on the Nicobar Islands, tells us that ‘part of the flesh of the crocodile, or cayman, is good and wholesome when well cooked. It tastes somewhat like pork, for which I took it, and ate it with much relish, when I first came to Nancauwery, till, on inquiry, finding it to be the flesh of a beast so disgusting and horrible in its appearance and habits, I felt a loathing, which I could never overcome; but it is eaten by both natives and Europeans.’ The aboriginal natives of Trinidad considered a broiled slice of alligator as a dainty morsel; and Mr. Joseph, the historian, records having tasted it, and found it very palatable. Tastes in this, as in other matters, differ.
Mr. Henry Koster, in his Travels in Brazil, says—‘I have been much blamed by my friends for not having eaten of the flesh of the alligator, and, indeed, I felt a little ashamed of my squeamishness when I was shown by one friend a passage in a French writer, whose name I forget, in which he speaks favourably of this flesh. However, if the advocate for experimental eating had seen an alligator cut into slices, he would, I think, have turned from the sight as quickly as I did.’ The Indians of South America eat these creatures, but none of the negroes will touch them.
Dr. Madden, in his Travels in Egypt, appears to have experimentalized on the saurians as food—
‘I got’ (he says) ‘a small portion of a young crocodile, six feet long, broiled, to ascertain its taste. The flavour a good deal resembles that of a lobster, and, though somewhat tough, it might certainly be considered very excellent food.’
The spectacled cayman (Alligator sclerops) is known under the name of yacaré, or jacquare, in South America. Azara, the naturalist, tells us that the eggs of this animal are white, rough, and as large as those of a goose; they are deposited, to the number of sixty, in the sand, and covered with dried grass. The Indians of Paraguay, and other districts, esteem them as food, and also relish the white and savoury flesh of this alligator, although it is dry and coarse. Cayman is the Spanish word for alligator, and, according to Walker, alligator is the name chiefly used for the crocodile in America.
Mr. Wallace thus describes an alligator hunt, as pursued on the lakes in Mexiana, an island lying off the mouth of the Amazon:—‘A number of negroes went into the water with long poles, driving the animals to the side, where others awaited them with harpoons and lassos. Sometimes, the lasso was at once thrown over their heads, or, if first harpooned, a lasso was then secured to them, either over the head or the tail, and they were easily dragged to the shore by the united force of ten or twelve men. Another lasso was fixed, if necessary, so as to fasten them at both ends; and, on being pulled out of the water, a negro cautiously approached with an axe, and cut a deep gash across the root of the tail, rendering this formidable weapon useless; another blow across the neck disabled the head; and the animal was then left, and pursuit of another commenced, which was speedily reduced to the same condition.
‘Sometimes the cord would break, or the harpoon get loose, and the negroes had often to wade into the water among the ferocious animals in a very hazardous manner. They were from ten to eighteen feet long, sometimes even twenty, with enormous mis-shapen heads and fearful rows of long, sharp teeth. When a number were out on the land, dead or dying, they were cut open, and the fat, which accumulates in considerable quantities about the intestines, was taken out, and made up into packets in the skins of the smaller ones, taken off for the purpose. After killing twelve or fifteen, the overseer and his party went off to another lake at a short distance, where the alligators were more plentiful, and by night had killed nearly fifty. The next day they killed twenty or thirty more, and got out the fat from the others. In some of these lakes 100 alligators have been killed in a few days; in the Amazon or Para rivers it would be difficult to kill as many in a year. The fat is boiled down into oil and burned in lamps. It has rather a disagreeable smell, but not worse than train-oil.’
The flesh of the land alligator, as it is termed by the Malays (the Hydrosaurus salvator), which occasionally attains the length of five or six feet, makes, it is said, good eating, and is much esteemed by the natives for its supposed restorative and invigorating properties. At Manila, these creatures are regularly sold in the markets, and fetch a good price; the dried skin is readily bought by the Chinese, who use it in some of their indescribable messes of gelatinous soup.
Another species eaten is the Hydrosaurus giganteus. Like that of the Iguanæ of the New World, the flesh of these saurians is delicate eating, and has been compared to that of a very young sucking pig.