This photo is not to show that we allow pets up on the table – nor that we enjoyed a yummy lasagne the other night along with a delicious Uruguayan red….

No, this is a contemporary Paraguyan indan carved artefact that leapt at me and said ‘take me home’. The large dark area of his back has been pierced by some tool in a random dot pattern; the band over his back is slivers cut out by some chisel, and the linear patterns on his tail on his head are pokerwork. So anyway, I brought him home, but not without some difficulty – made of solid wood, it is heavy, and had to be well wrapped in a carry one bag with particular attention to the fairly long tail to protect it and other passengers against accidental injury by prodding. My dear friend Kitty though, managed deliberately to goose me with it having pretended to care to lighten my load a little. She’ll keep.

This is one of several models in my collection of these creatures found up and down the americas – several species and sizes include armadillos, melitas and tatus. All of them have the same basic shape, poor eyesight, highly sensitive sense of smell and long snouts for probing ant nests, and all are covered by a hard segmented articulating sheet of ‘armour’ or shell like material, which protects them when they roll into a ball in the presence of danger. Certainly here in Uruguay they are fully protected, but you occasionally see one offered for sale beside the road. And it is quite common to see shoulder bags made from the shell covering, rolled up with the head flap forming the closing flap of the bag – how one could use a bag made from one of these innocent creatures that lives out its days harmlessly snuffing around through roots and leaves, I don’t know.
Q: has anyone ever noticed that if something is protected it is actually delicious eating? I claim no knowledge of any these particular creatures, but ‘they’ tell me they taste very good. But I have once knowlingly prepared and eaten meat of a protected bird.
Back in the nickel boom days, the ’60’s, one of the camp bosses on one of the projects managed by DH finally carried out his frequently made promise to supply DH with a bustard. These large birds, almost turkey size, are an easy mark as they slowly wander and flap around their open grassland and light savannah habitats throughout much of Outback Australia. Then as now they are fully protected under Western Australia’s fauna protection laws. DH had always said “No, I don’t want one, Jim” but Jimmy was persistent, and on this day would not take no for an answer. The 200mi drive home was anxious despite the bustard being well hidden deep down in the clobber in the back of the ute. DH rushed in that evening, not stopping to say hi, dashed into the laundry and slammed the lid of the freezer down… and was still looking agitated when he emerged. He’d managed to avoid being pulled over by the wildlife inspectors who patrolled the roads – but this was only the start, really – we couldn’t leave it in the freezer for ever, and we’d have to very carefully dispose of the bones and feathers once we did cook it – the fines were horrendous if caught. The major problem was, where do you find a recipe or cooking instructions? People claimed from time to time that the breast was very similar to roast lamb, and quite delicious, but we were not sure who we could safely ask. I don’t recall how that was solved but we did cook and eat it and it was perfectly delicious, as ‘they’ claimed it would be.
And in one way I don’t feel guilt about our bustard – we did eat it all( well not the innards), as primitive hunters and fishers eat what they catch and don’t waste anything; but I still feel a bit guilty about breaking the law in WA, and since I don’t know the statute of limitations on such matters, I have my fingers X that I’m not arrested at the border next time I go into Australia. 

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