finless eel
Monopterus albus, also known as eel, is slender and snake-shaped, with a body length of about 20-70 cm, the longest 1 m, yellowish brown, scaleless and slippery mucus all over. Usually in paddy fields, eels dig holes. Monopterus albus often lives in the mud bottom of rice fields, rivers, streams, ponds, canals and lakes. , and it is produced in all parts of China, especially in the Yangtze River valley of China, Liaoning and Tianjin. The production period is 6- 10, and it is the most fertile from June to August. Widely distributed in eastern Asia and nearby islands, starting from Southeast Asia in the west, reaching the Philippine Islands in the east, reaching Japan in the north and east indies in the south.
Monopterus albus likes to dig holes in humus mud or in cracks with water on the embankment during the day. Little activity during the day, foraging at night. Night activities, oral skin folds can breathe, so you can breathe air directly. In winter and dry season, caves will be dug to a depth of 1-2 meters, where several kinds of fish live. Gills are underdeveloped, but they can breathe air directly with the help of the epidermis on the inner wall of oral cavity and laryngeal cavity as an auxiliary organ for breathing; It can survive with little oxygen in water. After coming out of the water, as long as you keep your skin moist, you won't die in a few days.
Full moon eel
The full moon eel is also a kind of legendary eel, which is relatively rare. It likes to eat dead dogs, dead cats and carrion, and its body is relatively strong, and its appearance is not obviously different from that of ordinary eels. When the full moon is bright on the 16th of every month, it often swims out of the cave and looks up at the moon with its head held high. This kind of eel is called full moon eel, which is highly toxic and inedible. If eaten, it will be poisoned.
The related story of the full moon eel.
Ji Xiaolan skillfully solved this strange case.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a small farmhouse in Zhaojiazhuang, south of Zhenjiang. Her husband is a simple, honest and frank person, and her wife Li is a hardworking and virtuous person. The couple are very affectionate and love each other. Although their life is hard, they live happily.
In the rural areas of Zhenjiang, there are quite a lot of eels, which are often caught by villagers and steamed and fried. It is a delicious dish. One day, her husband Zhao Tianli bought an eel more than 3 feet long and took it home. The wife saw that her husband worked hard all day and seldom ate meat, so she put some oil and salt seasoning and cooked it carefully. She was reluctant to eat, so she prepared a pot of rice wine and sent it to the ground to comfort her husband. Who knows, after eating, Zhao Tian suddenly had a stomachache, 7 bleeding, and fell to the ground and died.
The clan went to the government and examined the corpse. Zhao Tian was poisoned. As a result, the government arrested Li, beat him to confess to murdering his husband, and asked him to cut him down in the autumn.
At this time, it happened that Ji Xiaolan stayed in Zhenjiang and asked about the case in detail. He felt rather suspicious. After autopsy sampling, I couldn't find out what poison Li used. Moreover, Li and her husband are very loving on weekdays, and everyone in the village knows it. It is obvious that there must be something hidden in this case, so I am determined to find out the truth.
Ji Xiaolan sent a thorough investigation, which lasted for more than half a month, with no result. One day, he came back to your house gloomily and happened to see a folk medical book, and a record caught his attention. It is said that there is a strange eel in the south of the Yangtze River, which is dormant in the field. Every mid-autumn full moon, it will look up at the moon until the moon sets, hence the name "full moon eel". Although this kind of eel is rare, it is one in ten thousand, but it is extremely poisonous. Seeing this scene, he pondered for a long time and finally realized.
The next day, I ordered my family to send a notice to buy eels from the villagers at a high price. The villagers rushed to catch it. A month later, they bought 10,000 eels, put them in jars and put them in the yard. On a full moon night, if you see an eel standing upright and looking at the moon until it sets. While catching it, I got into the eel pile. Ji Xiaolan has always been clever, so he ordered people to carry several tanks, divide the eel into tanks, see which tank it is in on a moonlit night, divide it again, and repeat it several times, and then separate the "full moon eel" and keep it at home.
A few days later, it coincided with a big gathering in the countryside. The plaintiff came from the government and publicly examined the case in the market. Ji Xiaolan claimed that Li was innocent, while Zhao Tian ate the poisonous eel by mistake and died of poisoning. People don't believe it and talk about it, because villagers often prey on eels and have never been poisoned. Ji Xiaolan preached "Full Moon Eel" in public, and took out the caught "Full Moon Eel", slaughtered it and fed it to the dog. The dog food stopped bleeding and fell to the ground and died. Everyone believed it.
Since then, Jiangnan people have been very cautious about eating eels, and Ji Xiaolan's ingenious mystery has also been passed down as a beautiful story.