“Alexander died. Alexander was buried. Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth: of earth we make loam. And why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?”——Hamlet.
The fact, at one time doubted, but now established beyond dispute, that some tribes indulge in the habit of dirt-eating, is one which, from its singularity, claims notice. The Malayan uses lime as an ingredient in compounding his favourite masticatory, and the coquero of the Andes mixes it with his leaves of coca. The Nubians mingle the saline natron with their quid of tobacco, and the blacks of Gesira the same material to compound their “bucca.” The Ottamacs and Omaguas avail themselves of the assistance of shell lime to give pungency to their intoxicating snuffs. The tribes on the coast of Paria, according to Gomara, stimulated the organs of taste by caustic lime, as other races employ tobacco, coca, or betel. In our own days this practice exists among the Guajiros at the mouth of the Rio de la Hacha. Here the still uncivilized Indians carry small shells, calcined and powdered, in a box made from the husk of a fruit. This box is suspended from their girdle, and serves305 a variety of purposes. The powder used by the Guajiros is an article of commerce, as formerly was that of the Indians of Paria. What could first have induced these people to use by itself, or other races to mingle with vegetable substances, a mineral only known to us as a whitewash, or for somewhat similar vulgar uses, and to metamorphose it into a luxury, is difficult to understand. We comprehend the value of lime when stirred about in a pail, with sufficiency of water to reduce it to the consistence of cream, and then by the aid of a broad flat brush transferred to the ceilings of our dwellings. We cannot so well comprehend or appreciate the luxury of rolling it into a pellet, and transferring it to our mouths, as a whitewash for regions where the curious eye of man does not penetrate.
River scene
The residents at the fur-posts on the Mackenzie River, have a mineral in use among them, known by the appellation of white mud, which is used for whitewashing, and, when soap is scarce, it supplies the place of that article for washing clothes. It resembles pipe-clay, and exists in beds from six to twelve inches in thickness. It is of a yellowish white colour, sometimes with a reddish tinge. On the Arkansas also a similar substance has been met with, called pink clay. The clay of the Mackenzie is smooth, and, when masticated, has a flavour, we are told, resembling the kernel of a hazel nut. Sir John Richardson obtained some of this clay in his journey to Prince Rupert’s Land, and had it examined, but could not discover in it any nutritious properties, or detect the remains of infusorial animalcul?, such as are found in other edible clays. The natives of the locality in which this substance is found, eat it in times of scarcity, and suppose that by its use they prolong their lives. There are certain306 physiological reasons known to us whereby we account for fowls, and other winged bipeds indulging in the singular propensity of swallowing small pebbles, fragments of lime or mortar, sand and clay; but as we cannot apply these same arguments to the cases of other “bipeds without feathers” who indulge in the same propensity, we naturally seek for some signs of nutritious value in the substance itself. In this instance the remote probability of its containing decayed animal matter does not apparently exist, for the microscope detects no infusoria. And unless we argue, as did Hamlet with his friend Horatio, that in this clay are the remains of a previous generation, we can scarce account for its being a good article of food.
“Imperial C?sar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away;”
or dead Indians turned to clay to appease the hunger of their living descendants. Thus, if the imagination may trace the noble dust of Alexander, till we find it stopping a bunghole, may it not also follow this same clay from the bunghole into the veins of a new Alexander?
Richardson states that the above is a kind of pipe-clay. If made into pipes for smoking, Hamlet might argue still further, “may we not trace the dust of the dead Indian, till we find a man smoking his weed from the leg or arm of his great grandfather.”
Clay eating exists in South America, among the Guamos, and by the tribes between the Meta and the Apure. The natives here speak of the custom as one of great antiquity. The Ottomacs are, however, great clay-eaters. Humboldt found amongst them heaps of earth-balls, piled up in pyramid three or four feet high, and these balls307 five or six inches in diameter. This clay was of a yellowish grey colour, and did not contain magnesia, but silex and alumina, and three or four per cent. of lime, no trace of organic substance, either oily or farinaceous, could be found mixed with it. If the Ottomac is asked what he lives upon during the two months of the inundation of the rivers, he shows you his balls of clayey earth. It is asserted that far from becoming lean at that season, they are, on the contrary, extremely robust.
At the village of Banco, on the Rio Magdalena, the same traveller found Indian women making pottery, who continually swallowed great pieces of clay.
On the coast of Guinea, the negroes eat a yellowish earth, which they call caouac, the taste of which is said to be agreeable, and to cause no inconvenience. When these Africans are carried to the West Indies, they still indulge in the custom, for which purpose Chanvalon states that it is sold in the markets, but that the West-Indian clay does not agree with them so well as that of their native country.
Labillardière saw between Surabaya and Samarang little square reddish cakes, called tanaampo, exposed for sale, which were slightly baked, and eaten with relish.
Leschenault states that the reddish clay (ampo) which the Javanese are fond of eating occasionally, is spread on a plate of iron and baked, after being rolled into little cylinders in the form of cinnamon bark. In this state it is sold in the markets. It has a peculiar taste, which is owing to the baking, is very absorbent, and adheres to the tongue. The Javanese women eat the ampo in order to grow thin, the absence of plumpness being there regarded as a kind of beauty.
In times of hunger or scarcity, the savages of308 New Caledonia eat great pieces of a friable stone, which contains magnesia and silex, with a little oxide of copper.
The African negroes of Bunck and Los Idoles eat a kind of white and friable steatite, or soapstone, from which custom they are said to suffer no inconvenience.
At Popayan and several of the mountainous parts of Peru, finely-powdered lime is sold in the public markets with other articles of food. This powder is, however, generally mixed with the leaves of the coca, and used as a masticatory. In other parts of South America, lime is swallowed alone, the Indians carrying with them a little box of lime, as other people carry their tobacco-box, snuff-box, or siri-box.
In the kingdom of Quito, the Tigua natives eat from choice, and without any ill consequences, a very fine clay mixed with sand. This clay, mixed with water, renders it milky. Large vessels filled with this mixture, called agua de llanka, water of clay, or leche de llanka, milk of clay, may be seen in most of their huts, where it serves as a beverage.
On the banks of the river Kamen-da-Maslo, there is produced a fossil, or an earthy substance, called in Russian kamennoye maslo, stone butter, which is eaten in various ways, as well by the Russians as the Tongousi, it is of a yellowish cream colour, and not unpleasant in taste, but it is forbidden as pernicious in its e............