189 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE FOOD OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 



EARTH EATEN BY THE OTTOMACOS, PEOPLE OF NEW GUINEA, NEW 

 CALEDONIA, PERU, JAVA, ETC. STEINBUTTER. GIRDLE OF FAMINE. 



ERMINE HUNTERS. GUM ARABIC. TARTAR'S CURD. FISH- 

 BREAD OF BABYLONIANS AND SOUTH AMERICANS. FOOD OF ANTS, 

 BEES, SPIDERS, LOCUSTS, AND BOAS. BUGONG MOTH. GOAT MOTH. 

 PALM WORMS. CHINESE. SHARK'S FINS. BICHE DE MER. 



SNAILS. ESCARGATOIRES. SIR K. D1GBY. ISRAELITES. 



HYBERNATION OF THE SNAIL. SAW-DUST. SHELL OF THE 



SNAIL. 



Requiring each to gratify his taste 

 With different food. 1 



FRANCIS'S HORACE. 



MRS. F. 



I HAVE just been reading a curious account of the Ottoma- 

 cos, the earth-eating tribe of the Orinoco.* 



HENRIETTA. 



Pray, aunt, tell us what you have read. 



MRS. F. 



These people collect, from the shores of the rivers Meta 

 and Orinoco, upon which they live, a fat, unctuous clay of a 

 grayish, yellow hue (a true potter's clay, colored by a little 

 oxide of iron). This they select with great care, being able 

 readily to distinguish, by the taste, one clay from another. 

 They then form it into balls of from five to six inches in diame- 



* Humboldt, Tableaux de la Nature. 



