EARTH-EATING AND THE EARTH-EATING HABIT IN INDIA. 253 



people living their own life in villages, whether Assamese or others. How far this may 

 be due to the conditions of constant work prevalent on tea estates is a matter for further 

 study. 



Mughs are not much addicted to the habit, and frequently gives it up after having 

 acquired it. 



(b) Bengal— In Bengal the habit is widespread, and though it prevails in some dis- 

 tricts to a greater extent than in others, yet its use, more or less, seems quite general. 

 It is said to affect Hindus of all castes as well as Muhammadans, but it is more common 

 among the middle and lower classes. Our information leads us to believe that there is 

 no caste or tribe free from the habit. As a rule it is confined to pregnant women and 

 girls of tender age; the former usually employ the patkholas, or the burnt earth sold in 

 the market in the form of khupris (tiles). Only occasionally have men been seen to eat 

 earth, as a habit, though its use as a medicine is not uncommon. 



{c) Bombay — In Bombay women of all communities, including Parsees, are earth- 

 eaters, but only to a limited extent. As far as is known it is confined to women when 

 they are enceinte or during menstruation. As is the case in other parts of India, men 

 rarely eat it in this Presidency. 



In Baroda no tribes or castes enjoy immunity from the evil. The custom generally 

 prevails among pregnant women and young children. Cases of male adults acquiring 

 the habit are rare. 



(d) Punjab and Frontier Province — There is no special class of people in Delhi ad- 

 dicted to earth-eating ; they are found in all states and grades of society. The very rich 

 and the very poor are not free from it. The time of life at which this habit is indulged 

 in varies. Some eat it in childhood extending to the age of 10 or 12 years, while others 

 eat it occasionally all their lives. Fakirs and religiously retired people eat it without any 

 special motive, but we have not come across an instance in which it has been used with 

 the purpose of imposing on the charitable. 



Not only in the cities of the Panjab but also among the peasantry the habit seems 

 to be common. Swynnerton says : [ "A few miles to the north of (the little village of) 

 Ghazi (on the river Indus), where the hills begin to close in, we can almDst see the col- 

 lection of hamlets known as Torvela, the inhabitants of which are addicted to the curious vice 

 of eating clay, as people in other parts are given to the consumption of opium." 



According to Air. Hughes-Buller the habit is said to prevail among all the tribes 

 in British and Administered Areas of Baluchistan, with the exception of the Musa Khel 

 tahsil of the Loralai District and Dalbandin sub-tahsil of the Chagal District. In the 

 Kalat State the habit is prevalent among some of the Brahui women and among a few of 

 the Alakranis during pregnancy. In Las Bela it is common among nearly all pregnant 

 women The tribes are chiefly the Afghans, Baloch Brahuis and Lasis. From Ouetta 

 the information is added that the habit of earth-eating is universal among the women in 

 Afghanistan during the period of their pregnancy. It is, however, almost entirely con- 

 fined to pregnant women, though in Las Bela a few men are also addicted to it. One 



1 The Adventures of the Panjab Hero Raja Rasalu, and other Folk-tales of the Panjab, 1884. 



