302 The Animal-Lore of ShaTcspeare’s Time. 
but breed only upon the shore, by making a great pit, wherein they lay 
eggs, to the number of three or four hundred, and covering them with 
sand, they are hatched by the heat of the sun; and by this means, 
cometh the great increase. Of these, we took very great ones, which 
have both back and belly all of bone of the thickness of an inch ; the 
fish whereof we proved, eating much like veal: and finding a number 
of eggs in them tasted also of them, but they did eat very sweetly.” 
{Hakluyt , Arber’s English Garner , vol. v. p. 121.) 
Another notice of these reptiles may be quoted, 
chiefly interesting as showing how opinions may vary in 
the matter of articles of food. Sir Thomas Herbert 
writes, in the year 1626 :— 
“ Suffer me (whiles in memory) to tell you of a fish or two which, in 
these seas [round Madagascar] were obvious. The sea tortoise is one, 
a fish not differing from those at land, her shell only being something 
flatter ; by overturning they are easily taken; some we took, for pas¬ 
time more than food, and upon trial found that they taste waterish; 
they have neither tongue nor teeth, superabound in eggs, in those we 
took some having near 2000, pale and round, and not easily made 
hard though extreamly boiled: they cover their eggs with sand, and 
are hatched by the heat of the sun, as some affirm ; such as have strong- 
appetites eat them and the flesh (or fish as you please to call it), but by 
the Levitical law it was forbidden; and though our religion consists not 
in ceremonies (ending in the prototype) yet except famine or noveltie 
invite, with such cates my pallat craves not to be refreshed.” ( Travels , 
p. 26, ed. 1677.) 
The bad taste manifested in this long-winded sentence 
may be due to the w^ant of culinary skill on the part of 
the ship’s cook; we must remember also that the worthy 
knight was a most fastidious traveller, and seldom ex¬ 
pressed approval of any novelty. The city magnates 
had perhaps learned in the time of Muffett, about 1646, 
that the turtle by judicious manipulation might be ren¬ 
dered palatable, for in that author’s work we read that— 
“ tortoises are likewise no usuall meat amongst us: yet I see no 
reason but that riot may bring them in, and make them as familiar 
unto us as turkies are ; their flesh nourishes plentifully, and recovers 
men out of consumption.” ( Healths Improvement , p. 190.) 
