EARTH USED AS FOOD. 191 



MRS. F. 



Bat it were almost tedious to enumerate the various people 

 who eat earth. The inhabitants of New Caledonia devour 

 pieces as large as the hand, of a species Oolite. In several 

 parts of Peru, the natives buy in the markets a calcareous 

 earth, which they reduce to a line powder, and mix with their 

 Coca. 



HENRIETTA. 



What is Coca? 



MRS. F. 



The leaves of Erythroxylon Peruvianum; and it is known 

 that the Indian messengers do not take, for many days, any 

 nourishment but this. 



ESTHER. 



But chalk has not been yet found in either North or South 

 America.* 



MRS. F. 



No, it is all imported; but it was a calcareous earth, not 

 chalk, upon which I stated, that these people subsist. In 

 Java, little rolls of a reddish clay are sold in the market-place 

 under the name of Ampo. Many eat it to become thin, which 

 is reckoned a great beauty among the Javanese; and even in 

 Germany, the workmen in the free-stone quarries of Kiffhau- 

 sen spread upon their bread, instead of butter, a very fine clay 

 which they term steinbutter (stone butter). Thus we see this 

 vitiated taste widely diffused; but more particularly among 

 those indolent races of the torrid zone, upon whom Providence 

 has lavished her greatest treasures. 



ESTHER. 



Animals, when reduced by famine, will eat earth. 



MRS. c. 

 Yes, wolves have been known to devour clay; but did you 



* Conybeare and Phillips. 



