654 



ployed in the quarries of sandstone worked at 

 the mountain of Kiffhseuser spread a very fine 

 clay upon their bread, instead of butter, which 

 they call steinbutter*, stone butter ; and they 

 find it singularly filling, and easy of digestion*^. 



When in consequence of the changes, that 

 are now preparing in the system of the Spanish 

 colonies, the missions of the Oroonoko shall 

 become more frequented by enlightened tra- 

 vellers, the number of days will be determined 

 with precision, during which the Otomacs can 

 subsist without adding to the clay they swallow 

 any other aliment from the vegetable or animal 

 kingdom. A considerable portion of gastric and 

 pancreatic juice must be employed, to digest, or 

 rather to envelope and expel with the fecal mat- 

 ter, so great a quantity of clay. We may con- 

 ceive, that the secretion of these juices fit to 

 enter into the mass of the chyle is augment- 

 ed by the presence of earths in the stomach 

 and intestines ; but how does it happen, that 

 such abundant secretions, which, far from fur- 

 nishing the body with new matter, only produce 

 the removal of substances already acquired by 

 other means, do not cause at length a feeling of 



* This steinbutter must not be confounded with the moun- 

 tain butter, bergbutter, which is a saline substance, owing to a 

 decomposition of aluminous schists. 



t Freieskben, Kupferschiefer, vol. iv, p. 118. Keskr, in 

 Gilbert's Annalen, B. 28, p. 492. 



