346 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
never seen them do the like and does not believe 
the custom exists. 
But on the Alto Rio Negro, for example at 
Marabitanas, Indians occasionally eat the white 
clay (called tabatinga) exposed in some places on 
the banks of the rivers when the water is low. 
The clay is kneaded in the hand into a small ball 
and roasted by fire until it begins to turn red, when 
Fig. 32. — PlEDRA DEL COCUI, FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE 
Rio Negro. (R. S.) 
it is eaten without being again melted in water. 
This is only an occasional practice, and the Indians 
do not consider clay sufficient to sustain life. 
Children on the Rio Negro are much addicted 
to eating earth, and numbers die from that cause. 
To cure them of this practice some are hung up to 
the roof in a basket and only let down to meals, etc. 
April I i^Friday). — Left Marabitanas for San 
Carlos. On the afternoon of 3rd we reached the 
frontier, where is a detachment of three soldiers on 
the right bank exactly opposite Piedra del Cocui 
or Hawk's Rock, which rises directly out of the 
plain at a short distance from the left bank. Its 
height is perhaps 1000 feet. . . . 
