BOI-HKK.] EARTH-EATING. 539 



The Jaguaces of Florida ate earth (tierra). 1 



At the trial of Vnsco Pocallo de Figueroa, iu Santiago de Cuba, jn 

 1522, for cruelty to the natives,&quot; he sought to make it appear that the 

 Indians ate clay as a means of suicide: &quot;el abuso de los Indies en 

 comer tierra . . . seguian matandose de intento comiendo tierra.&quot; 2 



The Muiscas had in their language the word &quot;jipetera,&quot; a disease 

 from eating dirt. vl Whether the word dirt&quot; as here employed means 

 filth, or earth and clay, is not plain; it probably means clay and earth. 



Venegas asserts that the Indians of California ate, earth. The tra 

 ditions of the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, California, and vicinity 

 show that they had fed upon a kind of clay,&quot; which they often used 

 upon their heads by way of ornament.&quot; 4 



The Tatu Indians of California mix &quot;red earth into their acorn bread 

 . . . to make the bread sweet and make it go further.&quot; 



Long 6 relates that when the young warrior of the Oto or Omaha 

 tribes goes out on his first fast he &quot;rubs his person over with a whitish 

 clay,&quot; but lie, does not state that he ate it. 



Sir John Franklin 7 relates that the banks of the Mackenzie I liver in 

 British North America contain layers of a kind of unctuous mud, prob 

 ably similar to that found near the Orinoco, which the Tinneh Indians 

 &quot;use occasionally as food during seasons of famine, and even at other 

 times chew as an amusement. ... It has a milky taste and the 

 flavour is not disagreeable.&quot; 



Father de Smet &quot; says of the Athapascan : &quot; Many wandering families 

 of the Carrier tribe . . . have their teeth worn to the gums by the 

 earth and sand they swallow with their nourishment.&quot; This does not 

 seem to have been intentionally eaten. 



&quot;Some of the Siberian tribes, when they travel, carry a small bag of 

 their native earth, the taste of which they suppose will preserve them 

 from all the evils of a foreign sky.&quot; 9 



We are informed that the Tunguses of Siberia eat a clay called &quot; rock 

 marrow,&quot; which they mix with marrow. &quot;Near the Ural Mountains, 

 powdered gypsum, commonly called rock meal, is sometimes mixed 

 with bread, but its effects are pernicious.&quot; &quot; 



&quot;The Jukabiri of northeastern Siberia have an earth of sweetish and 

 rather astringent taste, to which they &quot; ascribe a variety of sanatory 

 properties.&quot; 1 



1 Goimira. Hist, de las India*, p. 182. 



3 lluekin^hum Smith, Coleceiou de Yarios Dociimcntos para la Uistori.i de Florida. London, 1857, 

 vol. 1. ]&amp;gt;. 40. 



MioJlaert, Researches in South America. London. 18&amp;lt;iO, p. 0:1. 



Boseana, Chinigrhinich, pp. 245. 2&quot;&amp;gt;:i. 



Powers, Contrib. to X. A. Etlinol.. vol. :;, IP. Ho. 



Long s Expedition, vol. 1. p. 2411. 



Second Expedition to the Polar Sra. p. I .l. 



Oregon Missions, p. 192. 



Gnielin, quoted by Southey, iu Common place Hook, 1st ser., London, 1849, p. 239. 

 &quot;Malte-Hnm. Univ. Geog., Philadelphia, 1827, vol. 1, lib. 37, p. 483. 

 11 Von Wrangel, Polar Expedition. New York, 1842, p. 188. 



