|
Garrard,
in his journal, describes how he was
tricked by his companions into eating dog meat, sometime after claiming he
would never be able to eat dog. Garrard was told that the meat he
was eating was terrapins (land tortoise). Here is his story; "I
listened, of course, with much interest to their account of the savage
dish, and waited, with impatience, for a taste of that, the recital of
whose merits sharpened my already keen appetite. When the squaw
transferred the contents of the kettle to a wooden bowl and passed it to
us, our butcher knives were in immediate requisition. Taking a
piece, with hungry avidity, which Smith handed me, without thought as
to what part of the terrapin it was, I ate it with much gusto, calling
"for more." It was extremely good, and I spoke of the delicacy
of the meat, and answered all their questions as to its excellency in the
affirmative, even to the extent of a panegyric on the whole turtle
species. After fully committing myself, Smith looked at me a while
in silence, the corners of his mouth gradually making preparations for a
laugh, and asked: "Well, hos! How do you like dog meat?" and
then such hearty guffaws were never heard."
Garrard also describes preparation of dog. "First, a pup of four months' sojourn in this world of sorrow, so fat he could scarcely waddle, was caught by the affectionate squaw and turned, and felt, and pinched, to see whether it would do. Then it's neck was invested with one end of a buckskin strap, and the other tied short up to the projecting coupling pole of our wagon, while the poor victim to savage appetite, dangling between earth and sky, ki-ed until his little canine spirit departed for the Elysium where neither squaws molest nor dog meat is eaten, to the very apparent satisfaction of the laughing women, and delighted children... After hanging for half an hour, the pup was taken down and laid on the fire. What! thought I, they are not so heathenish as to offer sacrifices? He was kept on the blaze, with constant turning, until the hair was well singed off, and then cleaned, beheaded, and divided into all imaginable shapes and sizes, and cooked in water for six hours. It was then fished out, and a portion set before us - slimey, glutinous mass, uninviting to the eye, but, nevertheless, most delicate and sweet."
Garrard, who assisted a trader amongst the Cheyenne Indians, notes that during a hungry time: "Snow was deep; "fat cow" a luxury not to be thought of; horses too poor to "run" meat; and a scant supply of "poor bull" was all the provision with which to satisfy hunger. In this emergency, the inroads upon the dog population were most alarming and destructive."
Back to Everyday Life
|