498 
EABTH-EATIKG IK ASIA, 
from the coast of Guinea, eat earth ; not from a depraved 
taste, or in consequence of disease, but from a habit con- 
tracted at home in Africa, where they eat, they say, a par- 
ticular earth, the taste of which they find agreeable, without 
suffering any inconvenience. They seek in our islands for 
the earth most similar to this, and prefer a yellowish red 
volcanic tufa. It is sold secretly in our public markets; 
but this is an abuse which the police ought to correct. The 
negroes who have this habit are so fond of caouac, that no 
chastisement will prevent their eating it.” 
In the Indian Archipelago, at the island of Java, Labil- 
lardiere saw, between Surabaya and Samarang, little square 
and reddish cakes exposed for sale. These cakes called 
tanaampo, were cakes of clay, slightly baked, which the 
natives eat with relish. The attention of physiologists, 
since my return from the Orinoco, having been powerfully 
directed to these phenomena of geophagy, M. Leschenault, 
(one of the naturalists of the expedition to the Antartic re- 
gions under the command of captain Baudin) has published 
some curious details on the tanaampo, or crnpo, of the Java- 
nese. “The reddish and somewhat ferruginous clay,” he 
says “ which the inhabitants of Java are fond of eating oc- 
casionally, is spread on a plate of iron, and baked, after 
having been rolled into little cylinders in the form of tho 
bark of cinnamon. In this state it takes the name of crnpo. 
and is sold in the public markets. This clay has a peculiar 
taste, which is owing to the baking: it is very absorbent, 
and adheres to the tongue, which it dries. In general it is 
only the Javanese women who eat the crnpo, either in the 
time of pregnancy, or in order to grow thin ; the absence 
of plumpness being there regarded as a kind of beauty. 
The use of this earth is fatal to health ; the women lose 
their appetite imperceptibly, and take only with relish a 
very small quantity of food ; but the desire of becoming thin, 
and of preserving a slender shape, induces them to brave 
these dangers, and maintains the credit of the cmpo . ” The 
savage inhabitants of New Caledonia also, to appease their 
hunger in times of scarcity, eat great pieces of a friable Lapis 
ollaris. Yauquelin analysed this stone, and found in it, 
beside magnesia and silex in equal portions, a small quantity 
of oxide of copper. M. Goldberry had seen the negroes in 
