cascabel

A small, round, hot variety of chili pepper, Capsicum annuum, which rattles when dry.

The very pungent Mexican Cascabel looks a lot like the Cherry pepper when it is growing.[…]In the dry state the skin becomes translucent and the seeds are loose so that they rattle, hence cascabel, which means sleigh or jingle bells. Another cultivar, the elongate Catarina, is often called Cascabel because its dry seeds also make a noise within its translucent dry skin.

Cascabels are available dried in Latin American markets. Hot and nutty in flavor, cascabels are good in sauces, beans, and chilis.

A knob at the end of a cannon, cast onto the gun breech, to which a heavy rope is attached in order to control recoil.

The cascabel, instead of being permanently attached to the breech of the piece, is set into it by means of a screw, and thus in reality the bore extends the entire distance of the gun, so that when the cascabel is taken off one can look directly through the gun.

This iron cannon with a single muzzle band, without trunnions and with an oversized cascabel is believed by many to be the original “Come and Take It” cannon and is displayed at the Gonzales Memorial Museum and occasionally elsewhere within Texas.

A bell attached to a sleigh or sleigh harness.