643 



fishing is most abundant, he scrapes his balls of 

 poya, and mingles a little clay with his other 

 aliment. What is most surprising is, that the 

 Otomacs do not become lean by swallowing such 

 quantities of earth : they are, on the "contrary, 

 extremely robust, and far from having the belly 

 tense and puffed up. The missionary Fray 

 Ramon Bueno asserts, that he never remarked 

 any alteration in the health of the natives at the 

 period of the great risings of the Oroonoko. 



The following are the facts in all their sim- 

 plicity, which we were able to verify. The Oto- 

 macs during some months eat daily three quar- 

 ters of a pound of clay slightly hardened by fire, 

 without their health being sensibly affected by 

 it. They moisten the earth afresh, when they 

 are going to swallow it. It has not been possi- 

 ble to verify hitherto with precision how much 

 nutritious vegetable or animal matter the Indians 

 take in a week at the same time ; but it is cer- 

 tain, that they attribute the sensation of satiety, 

 which they feel, to the clay, and not to the 

 wretched aliments which they take with it occa- 

 sionally. No physiological phenomenon being 

 entirely insulated, it may be interesting to ex- 

 amine several analogous phenomena, which I 

 have been able to collect. 



I observed every where within the torrid zone, 

 in a great number of individuals, children, wo- 

 men, and sometimes even full-grown men, an 



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