256 MESSRS. D. HOOPER AND H. H. MANN ON 



ounce (Fig. i). In the Hooghly district, the prepared material consists of a round cake 

 of clay of light-red colour, two inches in diameter by half an inch in thickness, weighing 

 about 40 grams or one and a half ounce (Fig. 2). In Chittagong, plates of a larger size 

 are made from the clay obtained from Bibirhat and Badderhat; these are half-baked 

 plates, about 8 or 9 inches in diameter ; and cost three pies each. In other parts of 

 Bengal burnt earth is sold in the market in the form of kupris or tiles. 



In Madras we have been supplied with two kinds of prepared edible clay sold in the 

 bazars. One is a fine white variety made into square sticks of about four inches in length, 

 used by Vishnavites to mark their foreheads (Fig. 3). The other is a greyish -coloured 

 clay made into square sticks of about two inches long by half an inch in thickness (Fig. 

 4). The latter are used by the Saivites for grinding and mixing with the first sip of water 

 taken just before meals, after the daily worship of the household god is over. It is also 

 the kind consumed by women suffering from the earth-eating habit in Madras and Banga- 

 lore. This prepared clay is sometimes sold in the temples. We have received a sample 

 from Bangalore said to have been offered to devotees attending the Nanjangud Temple 

 during the Dasara festival. 



Throughout the city of Bombay, a peculiar, partly-burnt clay, blackish externally 

 and white within is sold by petty tradesmen and hawked about in the streets, and is used 

 for edible purposes. The raw clay is not found in Bombay, but is imported and baked 

 by professional bakers called Chanakurmuriwallas , who roast gram and rice. It is known 

 by some as khadi matti, and is supposed to be a form of limestone, but as will be seen 

 from its analysis it is similar to cimotite. 



The best-known material used in Northern India is the grey or drab-coloured shale 

 known as Multani matti. This is excavated to a large extent at the village of Meth, near 

 Kolath in Bikanir. Major Pawlett states that from here it is exported to the Panjab at 

 the rate of two thousand camel-loads a year. T. La Touche l reporting on the occur- 

 rence of coal at Palana village in Bikanir in 1897, states that he found below the coal a 

 band of unctuous clay called Multani matti belonging to the nummulitic series, establish- 

 ing the age of the coal as nummulitic or lower eocene. We have received samples from 

 Baluchistan, Panjab, Barodaand Bengal. Ball mentionsthat under the name of Rajmahal 

 matti, a comestible earth was sold in Calcutta, the precise source of which was not known. 

 We are inclined to believe this article is Multani matti, since this has been sent to us 

 from Birbhum. The distribution of Multani matti as an earth-eating material extends, at 

 least, from Baroda to Baluchistan and from Baluchistan to Bengal. 



Mr. R. Hughes-Buller furnishes the following information on the clays used for 

 eating in Baluchistan : " In Ouetta, Nushki, the Bolan Pass, and Nasirabad, the edible 

 clay is bought in the bazar; in Pishin, any clay which does not contain sand is used and 

 the plaster of old walls is preferred ; in Chaman the Achakrai women eat the clay 

 deposited by floods which is called kark, and in Killa Saifulla, the clay dug out of karezes 

 (underground water channels) is also eaten. In other tahsils the clay occurs on the hill 



1 La Touche, Records, Geological Survey of India, Vol. XXX, Pt. Ill, p. 123. 



