190 EARTH USED AS FOOD. 



ter, and bake them slightly, until the upper surface becomes 

 reddish. It is again moistened when they wish to eat it. 

 The Ottomacos devour immense quantities of earth; Hum- 

 boldt found it in their huts piled up in pyramids, and he says, 

 that each individual will consume daily, three-quarters, of a 

 pound, or even more. 



ESTHER. 



But is it their sole food? 



MRS. F. 



During the rainy season, they also eat small fish, lizards, 

 or the root of a fern, but these clay bullets form their chief 

 aliment. At other times of the year they subsist on tortoises 

 and fish, which they shoot with their arrows with admirable 

 address; but so fond are they of this clay, that even then, 

 they eat a little of it, as a treat after their repasts. 



ESTHER. 



But surely, their health must suffer from such unnatural 

 food? 



MRS. F. 



No; the Missionaries who live among them, assert that it 

 causes no illness whatever, and that they observe no difference 

 in their health during the time that they live upon it. But 

 this extraordinary propensity to eat earth, is by no means 

 uncommon in all the countries of the torrid zone; and children 

 are often tied up in the house to prevent them from going out, 

 after the rainy season, to eat earth. De Humboldt, in a vil- 

 lage, on the river Magdalena, saw women, who were making 

 earthen pots, put large lumps of the clay into their mouths. 



ESTHER. 



And I have heard that the negroes of New Guinea eat a 

 yellowish earth, and that the slaves when brought to America 

 try to procure a similar enjoyment, and that it is sold secretly 

 in the markets; but though their health always suffers in con- 

 sequence, no punishment can induce them to relinquish the 

 gratification. 



