647 



4m) has published some curious details on the 

 tanaampo, or atnpo, of the Javanese. " The red- 

 dish and somewhat ferruginous clay/ he says*, 

 u which the inhabitants of Java are fond of eat- 

 ing occasionally, is spread on a plate of iron, 

 and baked, after having been rolled into little 

 cylinders in the form of the bark of cinnamon. 

 In this state it takes the name of ampo, and is 

 sold in the public markets. This clay has a 

 peculiar taste, which is owing to the torrefac- 

 tion ; it is very absorbent, and adheres to the 

 tongue, which it dries. In general it is only the 

 Javanese women who eat the ampo, either in 

 the time of their pregnancy, or in order to 

 grow thin; the want of plumpness being a 

 kind of beauty in this country. The use of 

 this earth is fatal to health ; the women lose 

 their appetite imperceptibly, and no longer 

 take without disgust a very small quantity of 

 food ; but the desire of becoming lean, and of 

 preserving a slender shape, can brave these dan- 

 gers, and maintains the credit of the ampo? 

 The savage inhabitants of New Caledonia also, 

 to appease their hunger in times of scarcity, eat 

 great pieces of a friable lapis ollaris^. Mr. 

 Vauquelin analysed this stone, and found in it 3 



* Letter from Mr. Leschenault to Mr. de Humboldt 

 on the Kind of Earth which is eaten at Java. (See Tableaux 

 de la Nature, vol; i, p. 299.) 



t Labillardiere, vol. ii, p. 205. 



