Mr. Buckland, in his interesting volume, Curiosities of Natural History, says, he once had the opportunity of tasting a boa-constrictor, that had been killed by an accident, and came into his possession.
‘I tried the experiment,’ he observes, ‘and cooked a bit of him; it tasted very like veal, the flesh being exceedingly white and firm. If I had had nothing else, and could have forgotten what I was eating, I could easily have made a dinner of it.’
The flesh of serpents was held in high repute by the ancients, medicinally; and, when properly prepared, seems to have made a very agreeable article of diet, corresponding with the turtle soup of the present day. Even now, in the French tariff, vipers are subject to a duty of 4s. the cwt.
In Guatemala, there is a popular belief, that lizards eaten alive cure the cancer. The Indians are said to have made this important discovery; and in 1780, the subject was investigated by European physicians. I do not find the remedy in the modern pharmacopœias, nevertheless, the inhabitants of Amatitlan, the town where the discovery was first made, still adhere to their belief in its efficacy. The man who first eat a live oyster or clam, was certainly a venturous fellow, but the eccentric individual who allowed a live lizard to run down his throat, was infinitely more so. There is no accounting for taste.
Probably some of our learned physiologists and medical men may be able to explain the therapeutic effects.
Some of the tribes of Southern Guinea, eat the boa-constrictor, or python, and consider it delicate food. The more informed among them, however, regard the practice as peculiarly heathenish. In Ceylon, the flesh of the anaconda, which is said to devour travellers, is much esteemed as food by some of the natives.
Who shall determine what is good eating? When we have gone over so many delicacies, we must not be surprised at men’s eating rattlesnakes, and pronouncing them capital food. An English writer, who has recently published a work entitled A Ride over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon and California, in describing the journey across the great desert, says:—
‘12th July.—Shot two prairie dogs. Jem killed a hare and rattlesnake. They were all capital eating, not excepting the snake, which the parson cooked, and thought it as good as eel!’
The Australian aborigines, and some of the Kafir tribes, commonly eat snakes roasted in the fire—and stewed snakes may, for aught I know, be as good as stewed eels.
The Italians regale themselves with a jelly made of stewed vipers.