114 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. VIII.—B. S. 
Many of the miners are natives of the neighbouring 
Republic of Honduras. They are better workmen than 
the Nicaraguans, but enjoy the reputation of being 
great thieves. Amongst them are some who practise 
the revolting habit of earth-eating. These earth-eaters 
do not constitute a separate tribe, but are principally 
negroes and half-castes, seldom Indians, never pure 
whites. They are easily recognized by their pecu¬ 
liarly livid and sickly colour. Their nickname, “toros” 
(bulls), must have been given them, not on account of 
their bodily strength, for they are poor emaciated 
people, but more probably because they lick the 
ground, as bulls are sometimes wont to do. The 
earth which they eat may be compared with the edible 
earth of Syria, to which Ehrenberg’s researches apply, 
and with that mentioned some time back by the 
1 Pharmaceutical Journal.’ It is a Steatitic clay, and 
called “jabonada,” because when moist it has a certain 
soapiness, and causes some foam when brought into 
contact with the saliva. It is cream-coloured, often 
tinged with pink, and has a slightly fatty taste. 
When well selected there is no sand in the pieces, 
the whole substance dissolving on the tongue; but, 
as tit-bits of this kind are not always obtainable, a 
slight admixture of sand is not objected to. Earth¬ 
eating is a vice which, like any other vice, grows 
upon people, and when carried to excess kills its 
victims without mercy. The same arguments which 
are applied to the suppression of drunkenness are 
applied, generally with as little success, to earth¬ 
eating. One of the miners in the Javali gave me 
