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Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „Feeding upon Earth“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1807-Ueber_die_erdefressenden-21-neu> [abgerufen am 08.05.2024].
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| Titel | Feeding upon Earth | ||||
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| Jahr | 1849 | ||||
| Ort | Manchester | ||||
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Nachweis in: The Manchester Courier, And Lancashire General Advertiser 25:1481 (13. Oktober 1849), Supplement, S. 589.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen, Trennzeichen. | ||||
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—The earth which theOtomacs eat is a soft unctuous clay, a true potter’sclay of a yellowish-grey colour, due to a little oxideof iron. They seek for it in particular spots on thebanks of the Orinoco and the Meta, and select it withcare. They distinguish the taste of one kind of earthfrom that of another, and do not consider all clays asequally agreeable to eat. They knead the earth intoballs of about five or six inches in diameter, which theyburn or roast by a weak fire until the outside assumesa reddish tint. The balls are remoistened when aboutto be eaten. These Indians are generally wild uncul-tivated beings, and altogether averse to any kind oftillage. It is a proverb even among the most distantof the nations living on the Orinoco, when speaking ofanything very unclean, to say that it is “so dirty, thatthe Otomacs eat it.” As long as the waters of theOrinoco and the Meta are low, these Indians live onfish and river tortoises. They kill the fish with arrowswhen at the surface of the water, a pursuit in whichwe have often admired their dexterity. During theperiodical swelling of the rivers the taking of fishceases, for it is as difficult to fish in deep river wateras in the deep sea. It is in this interval, which is oftwo or three months’ duration, that the Otomacs swal-low great quantities of earth. We have found con-siderable stores of it in their huts, the clay balls beingpiled together in pyramidal heaps. The very intelli-gent monk, Fray Ramon Bueno, a native of Madrid,(who lived twelve years among these Indians,) assuredus that one of them would eat from three-quarters ofa pound to a pound and a quarter in a day. Accordingto the accounts which the Otomacs themselves give,this earth forms their principal subsistence during therainy season, though they eat at the same time occasion-ally, when they can obtain it, a lizard, a small fish, or afern root. They have such a predilection for the clay,that even in the dry season, when they can obtainplenty of fish, they eat a little earth after their mealsevery day as a kind of dainty. These men have a darkcopper-brown complexion, and unpleasing Tartar fea-tures. They are fat, but not large-bellied. The Fran-ciscan monk who lived among them as a missionary,assured us that he could perceive no alteration in theirhealth during the earth-eating season. * * *
In all tropical countries, human beings show an extra-ordinary
and almost irresistible desire to swallowearth; and not
alkaline earths, which they might besupposed to crave to
neutralise acid, but unctuous andstrong-smelling clays. It is
often necessary to confinechildren to prevent them from running
out to eatearth immediately after a fall of rain. I have
observedwith astonishment the Indian women in the village
of
Banco on the Magdalena River, whilst engaged
inshaping earthen vessels on the potter’s wheel, put
greatlumps of clay into their mouths. The same thing wasremarked at an early period by Gili. Wolves also eatearth, and especially
clay, in the winter. With theexception of the Otomacs,
individuals of all otherraces who indulge for any length of
time the strangedesire of earth-eating, have their health
injured byit.—
Humboldt’s Aspects of
Nature.
Feeding upon Earth.