498 EARTH-EATING lls" ASIA, 





from the coast of Guinea, eat earth ; not from a depraved 

 taste, or in consequence of disease, but from a habit con- 

 tracted at home in Africa, where they eat, they say, a par- 

 ticular earth, the taste of which they find agreeable, without 

 suffering any inconvenience. They seek in our islands for 

 the earth most similar to this, and prefer a yellowish red 

 volcanic tufa. It is sold secretly in our public markets ; 

 but this is an abuse which the police ought to correct. The ( 

 negroes who have this habit are so fond of caouac, that no 

 chastisement will prevent their eating it." 



In the Indian Archipelago, at the island of Java, Labil- 

 lardiere saw, between Surabaya and Samarang, little square 

 and reddish cakes exposed for sale. These cakes called 

 tanaampo, were cakes of clay, slightly baked, which the 

 natives eat with relish. The attention of physiologists, 

 since my return from the Orinoco, having been powerfully 

 directed to these phenomena of geopTiagy, M. Leschenault, 

 (one of the naturalists of the expedition to the Antartic re- 

 gions under the command of captain Baudin) has published 

 some curious details on the tanaampo, or ampo, of the Java- 

 nese. "The reddish and somewhat ferruginous clay," lie 

 says " which the inhabitants of Java are fond of eating oc- 

 casionally, is spread on a plate of iron, and baked, after 

 having been rolled into little cylinders in the form of the 

 bark of cinnamon. In this state it takes the name of ampo 

 and is sold in the public markets. This clay has a peculiar 

 taste, which is owing to the baking : it is very absorbent, 

 and adheres to the tongue, which it dries. In general it is 

 only the Javanese women who eat the ampo, either in the 

 time of pregnancy, or in order to grow thin ; the absence 

 of plumpness being there regarded as a kind of beauty. 

 The use of this earth is fatal to health ; the women lose 

 their appetite imperceptibly, and take only with relish a 

 very small quantity of food ; but the desire of becoming thin, 

 and of preserving a slender shape, induces them to brave 

 these dangers, and maintains the credit of the ampo." The 

 savage inhabitants of New Caledonia also, to appease their 

 hunger in times of scarcity, eat great pieces of a friable Lapis 

 ollaris. Vauquelin analysed this stone, and found in it, 

 beside magnesia and silex in equal portions, a small quantity 

 of oxide of copper. M. Groldberry had seen the negroes in 



