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Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „Clay-Eaters of South America“, 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-28-neu> [abgerufen am 24.04.2024].
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| Titel | Clay-Eaters of South America | ||||||
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| Jahr | 1851 | ||||||
| Ort | Boston, Massachusetts | ||||||
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Nachweis in: Boys’ and Girls’ Magazine, and Fireside Companion 7 (1. Februar 1851), S. 52–55.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||||
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Statistiken
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|52|
|Spaltenumbruch|
|Spaltenumbruch|
It is currently reported through thecoasts of Cumana, New Barcelona, andCaraccas, that there are men living onthe
banks of the Orinoco who eat earth.On the 6th of June, 1800, on
our re-turn from the Rio Negro, when we de-scended the Orinoco in thirty-six days,we spent the day at
the mission inhab-ited by these people, (the Otomacs.)The earth which they eat is an unctu-ous,
almost tasteless, clay,—true potters’earth, of a
yellowish gray color, in con-sequence of a slight admixture of
oxide
|53|
|Spaltenumbruch| of iron. They select it with great care,and seek it on
certain banks on theshores of the Orinoco and Meta. Theydistinguish the flavor of one kind ofearth
from that of another; all kinds ofclay not being alike
acceptable to theirpalate. They knead this earth intoballs, measuring from four to six inchesin
diameter, and bake them before aslow fire, until the outer
surface as-sumes a reddish color. Before theyare eaten, the balls are again moistened.These Indians are
mostly wild, uncivil-ized men, who abhor all tillage. Thereis a proverb current among the mostdistant of
the tribes living on theOrinoco, when they wish to speak ofanything very unclean, — “So dirtythat the Otomacs eat of it.”
As long as the waters of the Orinocoand the Meta are low, these
people liveon fish and turtles. They kill the for-mer with arrows, shooting the fish, asthey rise
to the surface of the water,with a skill and dexterity that
have fre-quently excited my admiration. At theperiodical swelling of the rivers, thefishing is stopped, for
it is difficult tofish in deep river water as in the deepsea. It is during these intervals, whichlast
from two to three months, that theOtomacs are observed to
devour anenormous quantity of earth. We foundin their huts considerable stores of theseclay balls, piled
up in pyramidal heaps.An Indian will consume from three-quarters of a pound to a pound and aquarter
of this food daily, as we were
|Spaltenumbruch| assured by the intelligent monk, Fray
Raymon Bueno, a native of Madrid,who had lived among these Indians fora period
of twelve years. Accordingto the testimony of the Otomacs
them-selves, the earth constitutes their mainsupport in the rainy season. In addi-tion, however, they eat,
when they canget them, lizards, several small speciesof fish, and the roots of a fern. Butthey are
so partial to clay, that even inthe dry season, when there is
an abun-dance of fish, they still partake of someof their earth-balls, by way of a bonnebouche after their regular meals.
These people are of a dark, copper-brown color, have unpleasant,
Tartar-like features, and are stout, but notprotuberant. The Franciscan, who hadlived
amongst them as a missionary,assured us that he had observed no
dif-ference in the condition and well-beingof the Otomacs during the period inwhich they lived on
earth.
In all tropical countries, men exhibita wonderful and almost
irresistible desireto devour earth—unctuous, strong-smelling clay. It is often found neces-sary
to shut children up, in order toprevent their running into the
openair to devour earth after recent rain.The Indian women, who are engaged inthe river Magdalena, in
the small vil-lage of Banco,
in turning earthen-warepots, continually fill their mouths
withlarge lumps of clay, as I have frequentlyobserved, much to my surprise. Wolveseat
earth, especially clay, during the
|54|
|Spaltenumbruch| winter. Individuals of all other tribesexcept the Otomacs
lose their health, ifthey yield to this singular propensityfor eating clay. In the mission of SanBorju,
we found the child of an Indianwoman, which, according to the
state-ment of its mother, would hardly eatanything but earth. It was, however,much emaciated, and
looked like a mereskeleton.
In Guinea, the negroes eat a yellow-ish earth, which they call
caouac; andwhen they are carried as slaves to theWest Indies, they even endeavor toprocure for
themselves some similarspecies of food, maintaining that theeating of earth is perfectly harmlessin their
African home. The caouacof the American islands, however, de-ranges the health of the slaves who par-take of
it; for which reason the eatingof earth was long since
forbidden in theWest Indies, notwithstanding which aspecies of red or yellowish tuff was se-cretly
sold in the public market of Mar-tinique, in the year 1751.
The negroes of Guinea say, that intheir own country they habitually eat acertain earth, the
flavor of which is mostagreeable to them, and which does notoccasion them any inconvenience.Those who have
addicted themselves tothe excessive use of caouac are so
par-tial to it that no punishment can pre-vent them from devouring this earth.In the island of Java,
between Soura-baya and Samarang, Labillardiere sawsmall
square reddish cakes publicly sold
|Spaltenumbruch| in the villages. On examining themmore closely, he found
that they werecakes made of a reddish clay, and in-tended for eating. The edible clay ofSamarang
has recently, (1847,) beensent by Mohnike to Berlin, in the
shapeof rolled tubes, like cinnamon, and hasbeen examined by Ehrenberg.
The natives of New Caledonia, toappease their hunger, eat lumps
of fria-ble steatite, as large as the fist, in which
Vauquelin detected an appreciable
quan-tity of copper. In Popayan, and manyparts of Peru, calcareous earth is soldin the streets, as an
article of food forthe Indians. We thus find that thepractice of eating earth is commonthroughout
the whole of the torrid zone,among the indolent races, who
inhabitthe most beautiful and fruitful regionsof the earth. But accounts have alsocome from
the north, through Berzeliusand Retzino, from which we learn thatin the most
remote parts of Sweden,hundreds of cartloads of earth,
contain-ing infusoria, are annually consumed asbreadmeal, more from fancy (like thesmoking of
tobacco) than from necessity.In some parts of Finland, a
similar kindof earth is mixed with the bread. Itconsists of empty shells of animalcules,so small and soft
that they break be-tween the teeth, without any percepti-ble noise, filling the stomach, withoutyielding
any actual nourishment. Chron-icles and archives often make
mention,during times of war, of the employmentas food of infusorial earth, which is
|55|
|Spaltenumbruch| spoken of under the indefinite and gen-eral term of
“mountain meal.” Such,for instance, was the case
in the thirtyyears’ war at Camin, in Pomerania,Muskan in the Lausiz, and Klecken inthe Dessau
territory; and, subsequently,in 1719 and 1733, at the fortress
ofWittenberg. —
|Spaltenumbruch|
Clay-Eaters of SouthAmerica.
Humboldt.
|Spaltenumbruch|