EEPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 235 



two days. They are cut open, and the fat, which ac- 

 cumulates in considerable quantities about the intestines, 

 is removed, and made up into packets in the skins of 

 the smaller ones, taken off for the purpose. The fat is 

 boiled down into oil and burned in lamps. It has rather 

 a disagreeable smell, but not worse than train oil. 



These various products render this animal much more 

 valuable than it was supposed to be in the days of 

 Eomeo, when stax-ved apothecaries, to show that learning 

 and not beef was their aliment, hung up in their 

 " meagre repertories " alligators stuffed. 



Leaving the Eeptiles we come now to Lizards and 

 Snakes, which one would suppose to be the least accept- 

 able of flesh food. 



Lacerta. — Lizards are eaten by the natives of New 

 Zealand, and the great Cyclodus (C gigas, Bodd.) is 

 prized by the Australian natives as a choice article of 

 food. Lizards are dried and sent in packages to be 

 used by the Chinese physicians in their practice. 



The larger kind of lizards seem to have disappeared 

 from parts of New Zealand. They appear to have been 

 eaten in former times by the Maories. The Kev. J. W. 

 Stack, in a paper in the " Transactions of the New Zea- 

 land Institute," records the following anecdote. 



" Hakopa, a well-known Kaiapoi chief, who was taken 

 prisoner by Te Rauparata, and spared on account of his 

 great valour, while in captivity at Otaki, was invited 

 one day by his masters to share the afternoon meal. 

 When seated by the basket containing the food, his 

 master asked him whether he would have some fish. 

 ' Yes,' he replied, ' but where did you obtain it ? ' ' Ask 

 no questions,' was the answer, ' taste and see how you 

 like it.' He did taste it, and found it very good. When 

 the meal was over his master told him he had eaten the 

 flesh of a lizard." 



He often joined afterwards in lizard hunts, when as 

 many as forty were sometimes caught and eaten. 



Kelaart says that the natives of Ceylon are partial to 

 the flesh of the common Indian water lizard (Monitor 



