72 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



in the most extraordinary places during the day- 

 time, and are always turning up where least 

 expected. 



The right eye of a hedgehog, boiled in oil, 

 and preserved in a brazen vessel, was formerly 

 supposed to enable a person to see in the dark. 

 What did they not believe in former days ! Pallas 

 the naturalist states that a hedgehog is able to eat 

 the cantharides, or Spanish beetle, with impunity. 

 The effects of this insect, when dried and used 

 for blistering purposes, are well known, so the 

 statement is therefore corroborative of the asser- 

 tion that hedgehogs can eat anything. The hedge- 

 hog is also probably proof against the poison of 

 an adder. As is well known, gipsies consider them 

 a great delicacy, and not so very long ago I was 

 informed by a person who had tasted one that 

 they do so with good reason. The gipsy method 

 of cooking a hedgehog is to envelop the body in 

 clay, and bake it in the embers. When the clay 

 breaks open the cooking is complete. A some- 

 what similar manner of preparing fowls is practised 

 by the native cooks in India. The fowl (when 

 killed) is plunged immediately into a vessel of 

 boiling water, which process enables the skin to 

 be readily removed. The carcase is then covered 

 with a thick paste made of common flour and 

 water, tied up in a cloth, and boiled. When 

 brought to table the shell is removed, and the 

 fowl covered with white sauce. This latter is 

 necessary, for if omitted the appearance is far 



