192 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



of fish ceases, for it is as difficult to fish in deep river water 

 as in the deep sea. It is in this interval, which is of two 

 or three months' duration, that the Otomacs swallow great 

 quantities of earth. We have found considerable stores of 

 it in their huts, the clay balls being piled together in pyra- 

 midal heaps. The very intelligent monk, Pray Eamon 

 Bueno, a native of Madrid (who lived twelve years among 

 these Indians), assured us that one of them would eat from 

 three quarters of a pound to a pound and a quarter in a 

 day. According to the accounts which the Otomacs them- 

 selves give, this earth forms their principal subsistence 

 during the rainy season, though they eat at the same time 

 occasionally, when they can obtain it, a lizard, a small fish, 

 or a fern root. They have such a predilection for the clay, 

 that even in the dry season, when they can obtain plenty 

 of fish, they eat a little earth after their meals every day 

 as a kind of dainty. These men have a dark copper-brown 

 complexion, and unpleasing Tartar features. They are fat, 

 but not large-bellied. The Franciscan monk who lived 

 among them as a misssionary, assured us that he could 

 perceive no alteration in their health during the earth-eating 

 season. 



The simple facts are therefore as follows : The Indians eat 

 large quantities of earth without injury to their health ; and 

 they themselves regard the earth so eaten as an alimentary 

 substance, i.e. they feel themselves satisfied by eating it, and 

 that for a considerable time ; and they attribute this to the 

 earth or clay, and not to the other scanty articles of subsist- 

 ence which they now and then obtain in addition. If you 



