AN ACCOUNT OF The Ottamacs, who eat clay.

(From Humboldt’s Tableux de la Nature, vol 1.)

On the coaſt of Cumana, of New Barcelona, and of Caraccas, viſited by the Franciſcan monks of Guyana in returning from their miſſions, there was a tradition prevalent, that tribes inhabiting the banks of the Orinoco, eat earth.

On the 6th of June 1800, we ſpent a day in a miſſion, inhabited by the Ottamacs, who eat earth.

The village called La Conception of Uruana is ſituated in a very pictureſque manner, upon the declivity of a rock of granite.

Its latitude I determined to be 7° 8′ 3″ north, and its longitude 4° 38′ 38″ weſt of Paris.

The earth which the Ottamacs eat is a fat and unctous clay, a real potters earth, of a greyiſh yellow tint, coloured by a little oxide of iron.

They ſelect it with much care, and gather it on particular banks on the ſides of the Orinoco, and of the Meta.

They diſtinguiſh by the taſte, one kind of earth from another, for all kinds of clay are not agreeable to their palates.

They knead this earth into balls, of from four to ſix inches in diameter, and bake it at a ſlow fire, till its outer ſurface becomes reddiſh.

Before they eat theſe balls, they moiſten them anew.

Theſe Ottamacs are for the moſt part a very ſavage race, and have an averſion to improvement.

The nations on the Orinoco, that are fartheſt from that canton, ſay proverbially, when they wiſh to ſpeak of any thing very filthy, “It is diſguſting for an Ottamac to eat it.”

When the waters of the Orinoco and Meta are low, the Ottamacs ſupport themſelves on fiſh and tortoiſes.

When the fiſh appear at the ſurface of the water, they kill them by means of darts, with a dexterity which we have often admired.

When the rivers experience their periodical overflow the fiſhing ceaſes, for it is as difficult to fiſh in rivers become too deep, as in the open ſea.

During this inundation, which laſts two or three months, the Ottamacs ſwallow prodigious quantities of earth.

We have found in their huts immenſe ſtores of it, heaped up in pyramids.

Each individual conſumes daily three fourths or four fifths of a pound of earth, according to the account which Fray Ramon Bueno, a very intelligent monk, a native of Madrid, who has lived twelve years among theſe Indians, gave us.

The Ottamacs themſelves ſay, that, in the rainy ſeaſon, this earth is their principal food.

In addition, they eat little fiſhes, lizards, and fern roots, when they can procure them.

They are ſo fond of this earth, that every day they eat a little of it after their repaſt, to regale themſelves, even in the dry ſeaſons, and when they have abundance of fiſh.

Theſe people are of a very dark copper colour.

Their features are as ugly as thoſe of the Tartars.

They are fat, but they have not a large body.

The Miſſionary who reſides among them aſſured us, that he has remarked no difference in the health of theſe ſavages, during the time that they eat this earth.

Such is the ſimple narration of the facts.

The Indians eat great quantities of earth, without the health ſuffering from it.

They conſider it as a nouriſhing kind of food; that is to ſay, they find that this food ſatisfies them for ſome time.

They attribute this ſatiety to the earth, and not to the other very bad articles of diet which they are enabled to add to it.

It may be aſſerted, that, in all the regions of the torrid zone, this deſire for earth has been obſerved.

In Guinea, the negroes eat a yellowiſh earth which they call caouac.

The ſlaves which are brought into America, endeavour to procure a ſimilar gratification, but it is always to the detriment of their health; but the Ottamacs do not ſuffer in the leaſt from the practice.