EARTH-EATING AND THE EARTH-EATING HABIT IN INDIA. 259 



Earth from St. Ulric's grave, near Augsburg, endowed with wonderful properties in 

 ancient times, 1 might be entered in the same category. 



The dust from the tomb of the Prophet is an auspicious article said to be a cure for 

 every disease. Lane 2 describes the prepared earth, specimens of which were presented 

 to him by a pilgrim from Mecca. They were oblong flat cakes of a kind of greyish 

 earth, each about an inch in length, and stamped with Arabic characters: "In the 

 name of God. Dust of our land (mixed) with the saliva of some of us." These were 

 composed of the earth from over the grave of the Prophet and were sold in the tomb at 

 Mecca. A cake of dust from the Prophet's tomb is sometimes served up in a leather 

 case and worn as an armlet. It is also formed into lumps of the shape and size of a 

 small pear and hung to the railing which surrounds the monument over the grave of a 

 saint. 



In various parts of India, this custom of eating small quantities of sacred earth is 

 frequently followed, as it is supposed to have healing properties. The Vaishnavas or fol- 

 lowers of the priests of the Vallabhacherya family, who are found all over India, keep in 

 their houses the earth of the sacred river Jumna called chamamrita. At the end of the 

 puja or daily worship, a pinch of the earth is placed on the tip of the tongue and swal- 

 lowed. It is considered purifying (Fig. 5). 



There is a hill a few miles from Madras, and one particular spot in it is considered 

 sacred, and the earth from this is said to possess miraculous and curative properties. It 

 is the custom for all those who visit the hill on pilgrimage to bring away a handful of 

 the earth and make pills of it to be used for various internal disorders as occasion arises. 



The custom of eating small quantities of earth from holy places is prevalent 

 throughout India, and it would be beyond the limits of the subject of this paper to multi- 

 ply instances of this nature. 



A few remarks may be made on the earth and mineral substances in India consumed 

 in times of scarcity and famine, a subject quite different to that of satisfying a depraved 

 appetite when ordinary food is available. 



Among such cases we might call attention to the habit of the mountain tribes of 

 Travancore, where the men (not the women) are said to eat the earth of white-ants' nests. 

 The cells of these are constructed of soft, fine earth, which is generally of a reddish- 

 black colour. The people eat this earth with the white-ants inside the cells. They 

 sometimes even eat it with honey. Such earth is not taken, as one would imagine, in 

 small medicinal doses, but in pretty large quantities. No evil effects have been noticed 

 to follow its use. 



A similar record relates to the Cussavars, a jungle tribe living on the Segur plateau, 

 Nilgiris, who eat ashes made from the bark of a tree mixed with ripe tamarinds. Both 

 men and women eat this in the form of uncooked dough, called boothi pulli, when grain is 

 scarce. 



During an investigation into the nature of food-stuffs used in India in times of scar- 

 city and famine, undertaken by the Reporter of Economic Products in 1903, specimens 



1 Briickmann, Epistolaria Itineraria, 6 Cant. I. 



2 An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 1846, Vol. II, p. 76. 



