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Alexander von Humboldt: „Earth-eating Indians“, 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-25-neu> [abgerufen am 29.03.2024].

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Titel Earth-eating Indians
Jahr 1850
Ort Ennis
Nachweis
in: The Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser (31. Januar 1850), S. [4].
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: II.58
Dateiname: 1807-Ueber_die_erdefressenden-25-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 1
Zeichenanzahl: 3089

Weitere Fassungen
Ueber die erdefressenden Otomaken (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1807, Deutsch)
Ueber die erdefressenden Otomaken (München, 1807, Deutsch)
Sur les peuples qui mangent de la terre (Paris, 1808, Französisch)
Dei Popoli che mangiano terra (Mailand, 1808, Italienisch)
Berigt Aangaande Zekere Volken, die Aarde Eten (Haarlem, 1808, Niederländisch)
Sur les Peuples qui mangent de la Terre (London, 1808, Französisch)
Sur les peuples qui mangent de la terre (Brüssel, 1808, Französisch)
Die Gewohnheit der Indianer Erde zu essen (Hamburg, 1808, Deutsch)
Die Gewohnheit der Indianer, Erde zu essen (Berlin, 1808, Deutsch)
Gummi und Erde genießende Völker (Basel, 1809, Deutsch)
Sur les peuples qui mangent de la terre (Paris, 1809, Französisch)
Account of the Ottomacs, a People who eat Clay (Edinburgh, 1810, Englisch)
Sur les peuples qui mangent de la terre (Köln, 1810, Französisch)
An Account of The Ottomans, who eat clay (Lancaster, 1810, Englisch)
An Account of the Ottomacs, who eat clay (London, 1810, Englisch)
Отрывокъ изъ Обозрѣнiя степей, соч. славнаго Путешественника Гумбольдта [Otryvok iz Obozrěnija stepej, soč. slavnago Putešestvennika Gumbolʹdta] (Moskau, 1818, Russisch)
Die Otomaken oder Erde fressenden Menschen in Cumana und Caraccas (Brünn, 1818, Deutsch)
Die Otomaken oder erdefressenden Menschen in Cumana und Caraccas (Wien, 1818, Deutsch)
M. de Humboldt (Paris, 1823, Französisch)
Отомаки, питающiеся землею и камедью [Otomaki, pitajuščiesja zemleju i kamedʹju] (Sankt Petersburg, 1834, Russisch)
Feeding upon Earth (Manchester, 1849, Englisch)
Aard-Eters (Amsterdam, 1849, Niederländisch)
Das Erdessen der Indianer (Stuttgart, 1852, Deutsch)
Aard-eters (Zierikzee, 1850, Niederländisch)
Earth-eating Indians (Ennis, 1850, Englisch)
Earth-eating Indians (Hereford, 1850, Englisch)
Des populations se nourrissant de terre glaise (Paris, 1851, Französisch)
Clay-Eaters of South America (Boston, Massachusetts, 1851, Englisch)
Delle genti che si nutriscono d’argilla (Mailand, 1851, Italienisch)
Erdeessende Menschen (Hildburghausen; New York City, New York, 1853, Deutsch)
|4|

Earth-eating Indians.

—It was a very prevalentreport on the coast of Cumana, New Barcelona, andCarracas, visited by the Franciscan monks of Guiana,on their return from the missions, that there were menon the banks of the Orinoco who ate earth.—When, in returning from the Rio Negro, we descendedthe Orinoco in 36 days, we passed the day of the 16thJune, 1800, in the Mission inhabited by the earth-eating Otomacs. This little village is called La Con-cepcion de Uruana, and is very picturesquely situatedat the foot of a granite rock. I found its geographi-cal position to be 7 degs. 8 mins. 3 secs. N. lat., 67degs. 18 mins. W. long. from Greenwich. The earthwhich the Ottomacs eat is a soft unctuous clay; a truepotter’s clay, of a yellowish grey colour, due to alittle oxide of iron. They seek for it in particularspots on the banks of the Orinoco and the Meta, andselect it with care. They distinguish the taste of onekind of earth from that of another, and do not consi-der all clays as equally agreeable to eat. Theyknead the earth into balls of about five or six inchesdiameter, which they burn or roast by a weak fireuntil the outside assumes a reddish tint. The ballsare remoistened when about to be eaten. TheseIndians are generally wild, uncultivated beings, alto-gether averse to any kind of tillage. It is a proverbeven among the most distant of the nations living onthe Orinoco, when speaking of anything very uncleanto say, that it is “so dirty that the Otomacs would eat it.” As long as the waters of the Orinocoand Meta are low, these Indians live on fish and rivertortoises. They kill the fish with arrows when at thesurface of the water, a pursuit in which we have oftenadmired their great dexterity. During the periodicalswelling of the rivers the taking of fish ceases, for it isas difficult to fish in deep river water as it is in thesea. It is in this interval, which is of two or threemonths’ duration, that the Ottomacs swallow greatquantities of earth. We have found considerablestores of it in their huts, the clay balls being piledtogether in pyramidal heaps. The very intelligentmonk, Fray Ramon Bueno, a native of Madrid (wholived twelve years among those Indians), assured usthat one of them would eat from three-quarters of apound 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 occa-sionally, when they can obtain it, a lizard, a smallfish, or a fern root. They have such a predilectionfor the clay that even in the dry season, when theycan obtain plenty of fish, they eat a little earth aftertheir meals every day as a kind of dainty. Thesemen have a dark copperbrown complexion, and unpleas-ing Tartar features. They are fat, but not largebellied. The Franciscan monk, who lived amongthem as a missionary, assured us that he could per-ceive no alteration in their health during the earth-eating season.— Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature.