Clay-Eaters of South America.

It is currently reported through the coasts of Cumana, New Barcelona, and Caraccas, that there are men living on the banks of the Orinoco who eat earth.

On the 6th of June, 1800, on our return from the Rio Negro, when we descended the Orinoco in thirty-six days, we spent the day at the mission inhabited by these people, (the Otomacs.)

The earth which they eat is an unctuous, almost tasteless, clay,--true potters' earth, of a yellowish gray color, in consequence of a slight admixture of oxide of iron.

They select it with great care, and seek it on certain banks on the shores of the Orinoco and Meta.

They distinguish the flavor of one kind of earth from that of another; all kinds of clay not being alike acceptable to their palate.

They knead this earth into balls, measuring from four to six inches in diameter, and bake them before a slow fire, until the outer surface assumes a reddish color.

Before they are eaten, the balls are again moistened.

These Indians are mostly wild, uncivilized men, who abhor all tillage.

There is a proverb current among the most distant of the tribes living on the Orinoco, when they wish to speak of anything very unclean, -- "So dirty that the Otomacs eat of it."

As long as the waters of the Orinoco and the Meta are low, these people live on fish and turtles.

They kill the former with arrows, shooting the fish, as they rise to the surface of the water, with a skill and dexterity that have frequently excited my admiration.

At the periodical swelling of the rivers, the fishing is stopped, for it is difficult to fish in deep river water as in the deep sea.

It is during these intervals, which last from two to three months, that the Otomacs are observed to devour an enormous quantity of earth.

We found in their huts considerable stores of these clay balls, piled up in pyramidal heaps.

An Indian will consume from threequarters of a pound to a pound and a quarter of this food daily, as we were assured by the intelligent monk, Fray Raymon Bueno, a native of Madrid, who had lived among these Indians for a period of twelve years.

According to the testimony of the Otomacs themselves, the earth constitutes their main support in the rainy season.

In addition, however, they eat, when they can get them, lizards, several small species of fish, and the roots of a fern.

But they are so partial to clay, that even in the dry season, when there is an abundance of fish, they still partake of some of their earth-balls, by way of a bonne bouche after their regular meals.

These people are of a dark, copperbrown color, have unpleasant, Tartarlike features, and are stout, but not protuberant.

The Franciscan, who had lived amongst them as a missionary, assured us that he had observed no difference in the condition and well-being of the Otomacs during the period in which they lived on earth.

In all tropical countries, men exhibit a wonderful and almost irresistible desire to devour earth--unctuous, strongsmelling clay.

It is often found necessary to shut children up, in order to prevent their running into the open air to devour earth after recent rain.

The Indian women, who are engaged in the river Magdalena, in the small village of Banco, in turning earthen-ware pots, continually fill their mouths with large lumps of clay, as I have frequently observed, much to my surprise.

Wolves eat earth, especially clay, during the winter.

Individuals of all other tribes except the Otomacs lose their health, if they yield to this singular propensity for eating clay.

In the mission of San Borju, we found the child of an Indian woman, which, according to the statement of its mother, would hardly eat anything but earth.

It was, however, much emaciated, and looked like a mere skeleton.

In Guinea, the negroes eat a yellowish earth, which they call caouac; and when they are carried as slaves to the West Indies, they even endeavor to procure for themselves some similar species of food, maintaining that the eating of earth is perfectly harmless in their African home.

The caouac of the American islands, however, deranges the health of the slaves who partake of it; for which reason the eating of earth was long since forbidden in the West Indies, notwithstanding which a species of red or yellowish tuff was secretly sold in the public market of Martinique, in the year 1751.

The negroes of Guinea say, that in their own country they habitually eat a certain earth, the flavor of which is most agreeable to them, and which does not occasion them any inconvenience.

Those who have addicted themselves to the excessive use of caouac are so partial to it that no punishment can prevent them from devouring this earth.

In the island of Java, between Sourabaya and Samarang, Labillardiere saw small square reddish cakes publicly sold in the villages.

On examining them more closely, he found that they were cakes made of a reddish clay, and intended for eating.

The edible clay of Samarang has recently, (1847,) been sent by Mohnike to Berlin, in the shape of rolled tubes, like cinnamon, and has been examined by Ehrenberg.

The natives of New Caledonia, to appease their hunger, eat lumps of friable steatite, as large as the fist, in which Vauquelin detected an appreciable quantity of copper.

In Papayan, and many parts of Peru, calcareous earth is sold in the streets, as an article of food for the Indians.

We thus find that the practice of eating earth is common throughout the whole of the torrid zone, among the indolent races, who inhabit the most beautiful and fruitful regions of the earth.

But accounts have also come from the north, through Berzelius and Retzino, from which we learn that in the most remote parts of Sweden, hundreds of cartloads of earth, containing infusoria, are annually consumed as breadmeal, more from fancy (like the smoking of tobacco) than from necessity.

In some parts of Finland, a similar kind of earth is mixed with the bread. It consists of empty shells of animalcules, so small and soft that they break between the teeth, without any perceptible noise, filling the stomach, without yielding any actual nourishment.

Chronicles and archives often make mention, during times of war, of the employment as food of infusorial earth, which is spoken of under the indefinite and general term of "mountain meal."

Such, for instance, was the case in the thirty years' war at Camin, in Pomerania, Muskan in the Lausiz, and Klecken in the Dessau territory; and, subsequently, in 1719 and 1733, at the fortress of Wittenberg. --

Humboldt.