Part 10
Sheep’s milk is a common beverage in Toorkistan, where the sheep are milked regularly three times a day. Goats are very scarce; cows not to be seen; but the sheep’s milk affords nourishment in various forms, of which the most common is a kind of sour cheese, being little better than curdled milk and salt.
If we think ox tails a delicacy, Australians (as we have seen) like kangaroo tails, and the Cape colonists have fat sheep’s tails requiring a barrow or a cart on which to support them. The broad fat tail, which often composes one-third of the weight of the animal, is entirely composed of a substance betwixt marrow and fat, which serves very often for culinary purposes instead of butter; and being cut into small pieces, makes an ingredient in various dishes.
The dried flesh of the argali, or wild sheep, is in Kamtschatka an article of commerce.
The domestic goat’s flesh is not in much favour anywhere, although that of a young kid, three or four months old, is very tender and delicate. Some of the goats are eaten in the Cape Colony, but the flesh is generally lean and tough. The Malabar goat is a delicate animal, that browzes on the rocks. It is more sought after than any game in Ceylon, for, contrary to the general nature of the goat, its flesh is tender and excellent when broiled.
Bison beef, especially that of the female, is rather coarser grained than that of the domestic ox, but is considered by hunters and travellers as superior in tenderness and flavour. The hump, which is highly celebrated for its richness and delicacy, is said, when properly cooked, to resemble marrow. The flesh of the buffalo, as it is misnamed, is the principal, sometimes the only, food of numerous tribes of North American Indians. It is eaten fresh on the prairies during the hunt, and dried in their winter villages.
The musk-ox (_Ovibos moschatus_) is of much importance from its size and palatable rich meat. It has occasionally furnished a rich meal to arctic explorers. When they are fat, the flesh is well flavoured, but smells strongly of musk.
CETACEA.
The flesh of the manatus is white and delicate, and tastes like young pork eaten fresh or salted, while the fat forms excellent lard. The cured flesh keeps long without corruption, and it will continue good several weeks, even in the hot climate of which it is a native, when other meat would not resist putrefaction for as many days. The fibres and the lean part of the flesh are like beef, but more red; it takes a very long time boiling. The fat of the young one is like pork, and can scarcely be distinguished from it, while the lean eats like veal. The fat, which lies between the entrails and skin has a pleasant smell, and tastes like the oil of sweet almonds. It makes an admirable substitute for butter, and does not turn rancid in the sun. The fat of the tail is of a firmer consistence, and when boiled is more delicate than the other.
Manatees, or sea calves, are found in certain parts of British Honduras in great numbers. They are, according to my friend, Chief Justice Temple, frequently caught and brought to the market of Belize, where they are snapped up with the greatest avidity. He states the flesh to be white and delicate, something between pork and veal. The tail, which is very fat, is most esteemed. This caudal luxury is generally soused or pickled. I do not, myself, fancy the flesh of this brute, for it is so inhumanly human--it reminds one so much of a mermaid, or of one of the fifty daughters of Nereus, that to eat it seems to me to be an approximation to cannibalism. It appears horrible to chew and swallow the flesh of an animal which holds its young (it has never more than one at a litter) to its breast, which is formed exactly like that of a woman, with paws resembling human hands. But these notions would be considered highly fantastic by those who masticate a monkey with the greatest relish, partake with gusto of rattlesnake soup, and voraciously devour an alligator stew. The manatus is commonly found in shallow water, at the mouths of rivers, where it feeds upon the marine herbage which there grows in great luxuriance. It has no teeth, but two thick, smooth, hard, unserrated bones run from one side of the mouth to the other. I am inclined to think that these bones might be used as a substitute for ivory.[11]
Mr. P. H. Gosse, in his interesting little manual on the _Natural History of the Mammalia_, remarks:--
‘From personal experience we can confirm Hernandez’s statement of the excellence of the flesh of the manatee; he truly compares it to well fatted pork, of pleasant flavour. The pursuit of it, on this account, has rendered it scarce in many localities, where it was formerly numerous; in the vicinity of Cayenne, it was at one time so common, that a large boat might be filled with them in a day, and the flesh was sold at 3_d._ per pound. About the middle of the last century it fetched, at Port Royal in Jamaica, 15_d._ currency per pound.’
The tongue of the sea-lion (_Phoca jubata_) is very good eating, and some seamen prefer it to that of an ox or calf. Thus Dr. Pernetty (_Voyage to the Falkland Islands_) says,--‘For a trial we cut off the tip of the tongue hanging out of the mouth of one of these lions which was just killed. About sixteen or eighteen of us ate each a pretty large piece, and we all thought it so good that we regretted we could not eat more of it.
‘It is said that their flesh is not absolutely disagreeable. I have not tasted it, but the oil which is extracted from their grease is of great use. This oil is extracted in two ways; either by cutting the fat in pieces and melting it in large caldrons upon the fire, or by cutting it in the same manner upon hurdles or pieces of board, and exposing them to the sun, or only to the air. This grease dissolves of itself and runs into vessels placed underneath to receive it. Some of our seamen pretended that this last sort of oil, when it is fresh, is very good for kitchen uses. It is preferred to that of the whale; is always clear, and leaves no sediment.’
Walrus meat is strong, coarse, and of a game-like flavour. Seal flesh is exceedingly oily, and not very palatable; but by practice, residents in the northern regions learn to relish both exceedingly.
The large tongue, the heart, and liver of the walrus (_Trichecus rosmarus_), are often eaten by whalers for want of better fresh provisions, and are passably good.
Commodore Anson’s party killed many sea-lions for food, using, particularly, the hearts and tongues, which they thought excellent eating, and preferable even to those of bullocks. The flesh of the female sea-bear (_Phoca ursina_, Lin.) they found very delicate, having the taste of lamb; while that of the cub could scarcely be distinguished from roasted pig.
Sir Edward Parry was once asked, at a dinner where Lord Erskine was present, what he and his crew had lived upon when they were frozen in in the Polar Seas. Parry said they lived upon seals. ‘A very good living, too,’ exclaimed the Chancellor, ‘if you keep them long enough.’
One of the ordinary acts of hospitality and civility on the part of the Esquimaux ladies, is to take a bird, or piece of seal-flesh, chew it up very nicely, and hand it to the visitor, who is expected to be overcome with gratitude, and finish the operation of chewing and digesting the delicate morsel.
The carcase and blubber of the whale at Bahia, in Brazil, are reduced to food by the poor.
To most of the rude littoral tribes of Northern Asia and America, the whale and seal furnish, not only food and clothing, but many other useful materials. The Esquimaux will eat the raw flesh of the whale with the same apparent relish, when newly killed, or after it has been buried in the ground for several months.
The whales on the coasts of Japan not only afford oil in great abundance, but their flesh, which is there considered very wholesome and nutritious, is largely consumed. No part of them, indeed, is thrown away; all is made available to some useful purpose or another. The skin, which is generally black, the flesh, which is red and looks like coarse beef, the intestines and all the inward parts, besides the fat or blubber, which is boiled into oil, and the bone, which is converted into innumerable uses,--all is made available to purposes of profit.
Both sperm and black whales abound on the coast of Western Australia. Sometimes a dead whale is thrown on the shore, and affords luxurious living to the natives. They do not, however, eat the shark.
The natives of New Zealand, when short of food, will not scruple to eat the flesh of the whale, when caught in their vicinity.
The deep has many food dainties as well as the land, as we shall shortly have to notice, and among these is the porpoise, which the reader may probably have seen dashing up our rivers, or, during a long voyage, disporting itself amid the briny waves, and rolling gracefully near the sides of the ship. This sea pig sometimes serves for a feast. When caught, it is cut into steaks, dried, and put into the ship’s coppers, with a _quantum suf._ of spices and condiments which nearly overpower the oily taste. The steaks turn blackish on being exposed to the air, but this is ‘a matter of nothing’ to those whose daily diet is usually limited to hard biscuits and salt junk. Landsmen may question the niceness of the palate which partakes of this dainty, but the old adage holds true everywhere, ‘de gustibus non disputandum.’ There is no disputing about tastes.
According to ancient records, salted porpoises were formerly used for food in this country.
In the olden times, when glass windows were considered an effeminate luxury, and rushes supplied the place of carpets, the flesh of the porpoise constituted one of the standard delicacies of a public feast. It was occasionally served up at the tables of the old English nobility as a sumptuous article of food, and eaten with a sauce composed of sugar, vinegar, and crumbs of fine bread. But tastes have altered, and even sailors will scarcely touch the flesh now. M. de Bouganville, in his voyage to the Falkland Islands, writes--‘We had some of the porpoise served up at dinner the day it was taken, which several others at the table besides myself thought by no means so ill-tasted as it is generally said to be.’
Porpoises are rather dangerous enemies to the shoals of fish. A porpoise, before taking in a barrel of herrings for its dinner, will often whet its appetite with a cod’s head and shoulders, leaving the tail part for some poor fisherman.
BIRDS.
Leaving now our passing survey of the food supplies derived from animals, we come next to birds, and, in the first order, we do not find that any are eaten, at least, as far as my knowledge extends; indeed, these carnivorous birds, from their habits and their food, would not be very tempting. This, however, as we have seen in the case of predatory animals, is no safe criterion to judge from. Probably, the man who would feast on the flesh of a lion, or a polecat, would have a stomach strong enough to digest slices of a John Crow carrion vulture, an eagle, or a hawk.
In the order of INSESSORES, or perching birds, I may mention first--
The becafico, or fig-eater (_Sylvia hortensis_), a bird about the size of a linnet, which is highly prized by the Italians for the delicacy of its flesh, particularly in autumn, when it is in excellent condition for the table.
There is a curious food product obtained, (not exactly, however, from the bird,) which is in high repute in China; and that is the edible nest of a species of swallow extensively obtained in some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
These nests are attached to the sides of rocks like those of our martin and swallow to walls, and look like so many watch-pockets. The eggs are white, with a slight pinkish tinge, and are generally two in number. The nests are either white, red, or black, and the natives maintain that these are built by three distinct species, with a white, red, and black breast, but this is erroneous. The Malays assert frequently, moreover, that the nests are formed from the bodies of certain sea snakes, but the food is, without doubt, insects. The subjoined accounts furnish the most detailed information known respecting the collection and trade in these birdsnests.
The following description of the birdsnests’ rocks, in the district of Karang Bollong, on the southerly sea-coast of Java, is given in the first volume of the _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, published at Singapore.
‘The gathering of these nests takes place three times a year--in the end of April, the middle of August, and in December. The yearly produce is commonly between 50 and 60 piculs of 133⅓ lbs. The business of collection is opened with great ceremony by the natives. By the assistance of ladders and stages made of rattan, the collectors descend the rocks and cliffs, provided with the requisite bags to contain the nests, which are taken from the wall by the hand, and those which are on the roof by an iron hook made fast to a long bamboo. The birds feed upon different kinds of bloodless insects, hovering above the stagnant waters, for which their wide open beak is very useful. They form their nests by vomiting the strongest and best fragments of the food which they have eaten. The nests are weighed and packed in hampers (of 25 catties each), and labelled with the net weight, mark of the overseer, &c., and then further preserved and secured with strips of bark, leaves, and matting.
‘The edible birdsnests, which owe their celebrity only to the whimsical luxury of the Chinese, are brought principally from Java and Sumatra, though they are found on most of the rocky islets of the Indian Archipelago. The nest is the habitation of a small swallow, named (from the circumstance of having an edible house) _Hirundo esculenta_. They are composed of a mucilaginous substance, but as yet they have never been analyzed with sufficient accuracy to show the constituents. Externally, they resemble ill-concocted, fibrous isinglass, and are of a white colour, inclining to red. Their thickness is little more than that of a silver spoon, and the weight from a quarter to half an ounce. When dry they are brittle and wrinkled; the size is nearly that of a goose’s egg. Those that are dry, white, and clean, are the most valuable. They are packed in bundles, with split rattans run through them to preserve the shape. Those procured after the young are fledged, are not saleable in China. The quality of the nest varies according to the situation and extent of the caves, and the time at which they are taken. If procured before the young are fledged, the nests are of the best kind; if they contain eggs only, they are still valuable; but if the young are in the nests, or have left them, the whole are then nearly worthless, being dark-coloured, streaked with blood, and intermixed with feathers and dirt. These nests are procurable twice every year; the best are found in deep, damp caves, which, if not injured, will continue to produce indefinitely. It was once thought that the caves near the sea-coast were the most productive; but some of the most profitable yet found are situated 50 miles in the interior. This fact seems to be against the opinion that the nests are composed of the spawn of fish, or of _bêche-de-mer_. The method of procuring these nests is not unattended with danger. Some of the caves are so precipitous, that no one but those accustomed to the employment from their youth can obtain the nests, being only approachable by a perpendicular descent of many hundred feet, by ladders of bamboo and rattan, over a sea rolling violently against the rocks. When the mouth of the cave is attained, the perilous task of taking the nests must often be performed by torchlight, by penetrating into recesses of the rock; where the slightest slip would be instantly fatal to the adventurers, who see nothing below them but the turbulent surf, making its way into the chasms of the rock--such is the price paid to gratify luxury. After the nests are obtained, they are separated from feathers and dirt, are carefully dried and packed, and are then fit for the market. The Chinese, who are the only people that purchase them for their own use, bring them in junks to this market, where they command extravagant prices; the best, or _white_ kind, often being worth four thousand dollars per picul (a Chinese weight, equal to 133⅓ lbs. avoirdupois), which is nearly twice their weight in silver. The middling kind is worth from twelve to eighteen hundred, and the worst, or those procured after fledging, one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per picul. The majority of the best kind are sent to Pekin, for the use of the court. It appears, therefore, that this curious dish is only an article of expensive luxury amongst the Chinese; the Japanese do not use it at all, and how the former people acquired the habit of indulging in it, is only less singular than their persevering in it. They consider the edible birdsnest as a great stimulant, tonic, and aphrodisiac, but its best quality, perhaps, is its being perfectly harmless. The labour bestowed to render it fit for the table is enormous; every feather, stick, or impurity of any kind is carefully removed; and then, after undergoing many washings and preparations, it is made into a soft, delicious jelly. The sale of birdsnests is a monopoly with all the governments in whose dominions they are found. About two hundred and fifty thousand piculs, of the value of one million four hundred thousand dollars, are annually brought to Canton. These come from the islands of Java, Sumatra, Macassar, and those of the Sooloo group. Java alone sends about thirty thousand pounds, mostly of the first quality, estimated at seventy thousand dollars.’[12]
Mr. J. H. Moor, in his notices of the _Indian Archipelago_, published at Singapore some years ago, states, that ‘one of the principal and most valuable articles of exportation is the edible birdsnests, white and black. These are found in much greater abundance in and about the Coti, more than any other part of Borneo, or from what we at present know on the subject, all parts put together. On the western coast they are scarcely known to exist; about Banjermassin and Bagottan there are none; at Bataliching and Passier they are found in considerable quantities. At Browe there is abundance of the black kind of a very superior quality, but little of the white. At Seboo, and all the parts to the north of Borneo, we know there is none, as I have seen many letters from different Rajahs of those countries averring the fact, and begging the Sultan of Coti to exchange his edible nests for their most valuable commodities, and at his own price. Nor ought this to create surprise, when we consider, not only the large consumption of this article by the Cambojans, who almost exclusively inhabit some of the largest Sooloo Islands, and the northern parts of Borneo, but the amazing demand on the whole coast of Cambodia, particularly of Cochin China, the principal inhabitants of which countries are as partial to this luxury as their more northern neighbours--the Chinese. There are in Coti and adjacent Dyak countries perhaps eighty known places, or what the natives term holes, which produce the white nests. I have seen the names of forty-three. There can, however, be no doubt there are many more likewise known to the Dyaks, who keep the knowledge to themselves, lest the Bugis should dispossess them, which they know from experience is invariably the case.
‘According to the accounts of the Sultan, rendered by Saib Abdulla, the bandarree in 1834 yielded 134 piculs. The usual price in money to the Coti traders is 23 reals per catty from the Dyaks, and 25 in barter. The black nests may be procured in great abundance. The best kinds come from Cinculeram and Baley Papang. The latter mountain alone yields 230 piculs (of 113⅓ lbs.). Cinculeram gives nearly as much. There are several other parts of Coti which produce them, besides the quantity brought down by the Dyaks. Last year, 130 piculs paid duty to the Sultan; these left the large Coti river. Those from Cinculeram and Bongan were taken to Browe and Seboo. The bandarree’s book averages the annual weight of those collected in the lower part of Coti at 820 piculs (about 1,025 cwts.)
‘The Pangeran Sierpa and the Sultan say they could collect 2,700 piculs of black nests, if the bandarree and capella-campong would behave honestly. The Sultan, however, seldom gets any account of what is sent to Browe, Seboo, and the Sooloo Islands, the quality of which is far superior to any sent to European ports.’
The exports of birdsnests from Java, between 1823 and 1832, averaged about 250 piculs a year; in 1832, 322 piculs; but of late years the exports have not averaged half that amount; and in 1853 and 1854 there were only about 35 or 40 piculs shipped.
In the third order, SCANSORES, there are very few edible birds.
In the mountain of Tumeriquiri, in the government of Cumana, is the immense cavern of Guacharo, famous among the Indians. It serves as a habitation for millions of nocturnal birds (_Steatornis caripensis_, a new species of the _Caprimulgis_, of Linnæus), whose fat yields the oil of Guacharo.
Once a year, near midsummer, this cavern is entered by the Indians. Armed with poles, they ransack the greater part of the nests, while the old birds hover over the heads of the robbers as if to defend their brood, uttering horrible cries. The young which fall down are opened on the spot. The peritoneum is found loaded with fat, and a layer of the same substance reaches from the abdomen to the vent, forming a kind of cushion between the hind legs. Humboldt remarks that this quantity of fat in frugivorous animals, not exposed to the light, and exerting but little muscular motion, brings to mind what has been long observed in the fattening of geese and oxen. ‘It is well known,’ he adds, ‘how favourable darkness and repose are to this process.’
At the period above mentioned, which is generally known at Carissa by the designation of ‘the oil harvest,’ huts are built by the Indians, with palm leaves, near the entrance and even in the very porch of the cavern. There the fat of the young birds just killed is melted in clay pots, over a brushwood fire, and this fat is named butter or oil of the Guacharo. It is half liquid, transparent, inodorous, and so pure that it will keep above a year without turning rancid.[13]
There is a curious bird met with in caves in the West India Islands--as at Dominica, and the gulf of Paria, the diablotin or goat-sucker, which, if eaten when taken from the nest, is pronounced by epicures unrivalled; and the flesh is also considered a delicacy when salted.
It has received its popular cognomen from its ugliness, but I have not been able to trace its scientific name.
The bird is nearly the size of a duck, and web-footed, with a big round head and crooked bill like a hawk, and large full eyes like an owl; the head, part of the neck, and chief feathers of the wing and tail, are black, while the other parts of its body are covered with a fine milk-white down; the whole appearance being very singular. The diablotin only leaves its haunts at night time, flying with hideous screams like the owl, which it resembles in its dislike to day-light. The nests are made in holes in the mountains. When the palms are in fruit, the bird becomes one lump of fat. The hideous appearance of the bird and the strong scent once got over, it is said to be a delicious morsel.