REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 239 



Ophidians. — We now come to snakes and serpents, which 

 one would suppose to he even more repulsive and ob- 

 jectionable as food than alligators and lizards, but tastes 

 diflfer, and we are told of an innkeeper in some tropical 

 country who used to inquire of his guests which they 

 would have served, land eels or water eels. Snakes are 

 frequently, however, "eaten by civilised and savage man, 

 but not always from choice. Seeing the loss of human 

 life occasioned by snak^es, any means of destroying them 

 is useful. Official accounts state that 19,519 persons 

 were killed by snakes in India in 1882, and 3,000 by wild 

 animals ; 212,776 snakes were killed in 1880, and 59,488 

 in 1882. 



Mr. Frank Buckland tells us that he once ate a piece of 

 a boa-constrictor ; it tasted, he says, like veal, the flesh 

 being exceedingly white and firm. A narrative in the 

 " Penny Magazine " describes a supper off fried rattle- 

 snake, which was served up under the name of "Musical 

 Jack." The flesh of serpents was held in high repute 

 by the ancients medicinally, and when properly prepared 

 seems to have been a very agreeable article of food, 

 corresponding with the turtle soup of the present day. 

 Vipers are much used on the Continent, whether for 

 food or for medicine, I cannot tell. The Italians, 

 however, regale themselves with a jelly made of stewed 

 "vipers. 



There is a large edible snake spoken of as found in 

 Kiang-se, China, which being dried and smoked is pared 

 off in thin slices, like smoked beef, and is found a con- 

 venient condiment by travellers. Several kinds of snake 

 wines are sold in the apothecaries' shops, and used in 

 palsy. The snake thus employed appears to be peculiar 

 to the mountains of Kiang-se, To assure purchasers that 

 the article is genuine, a strip of the skin of the animal is 

 fastened to the top of the containing vessel. This wine 

 is in high esteem as an anthelmintic, and is an antidote 

 to malaria. Wulu, on the Yang-tse, produces a snake 

 wine which is in high repute. An adder wine is also 

 used in paralysis and insanity, 



