Description

The Ya-Te-Veo, or Man Eating Tree, Armand Welcker, from original wood engraved plate, 1887

Illustrator: Armand Welcker
Engraver: Philadelphia Wood Engraving Co.
From: J.W. Buel, Sea and Land,page 476.
Published: Philadelphia, Standard Publishing Company, 1887.
Image size: Approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches.
Page size: 8½ x 11 inches
Condition: Excellent; crisp print, fine quality, professional photo paper, matte finish

Comments: The Ya-Te-Veo (“Now-I-See-You”) is the infamous “Man-Eating Tree of Madagascar” that has inspired scores of tales in novels, movies and musicals.  In his book Buel relays a tale from travelers about the “marvelous vegetable Minotaur” that a first, resembles a comfortable couch, but quickly ensnares its resting victim. “The moment his feet are set within the circle of the horrid spines, they rise up, like gigantic serpents, and entwine themselves about him until he is drawn upon the stump, when they speedily drive their daggers into his body and thus complete the massacre. The body is crushed until every drop of blood is squeezed out of it and becomes absorbed by the gore-loving plant, when the dry carcass is thrown out and the horrid trap set again.”

A copy of the title page from Sea and Land and the descriptive pages are included, as well as a copy of another print from 1892 that surely provides collaborative evidence of the Ya-Te-Veo’s true existence. This item is a copy of a lithograph from the original text.