The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-10-25
CLAY THEIR DAILY FOOD.
SUCH is THE DIET OF A CURIOUS
SET OF PEOPLE IN ALABAMA.

Only Bad Eheet-How the Clay Eaters
Live and Get Their Daily Clay-one of
Them interviewed to Little Purpose.
Those people are clay eaters"
The people referred to were a group of
men and women of various ages who
had gathered at a country store in Win
ston county, Ala, to barter a few eggs
and chickens for coffee and tobacco.
They were poorly clad, men and women
were ~barefooted, and three children in
the party were also bareheaded. Their
faces were pale and haggard, and in their
eyes was a dull, hopeless look, showing
that they were not only densely ignor-
ant, but without ambition to better their
condition in any way. The storekeeper,
alter attending to the wants of these
strange customers, informed the writer
that they belonged to the poorest class
Of mountaineers who inhabited that Sec
ton, and that white clay was a part OF
their regular diet.
The writer spent several days in Win
ston county recently and visited the
homes of a number of these people who
eat clay as a part of their daily food.
They live in small log cabins of the rud-
est kind, and exc out a miserable exist
ence by farming, hunting and fishing.
Their farms, or. patches as they call
them, are small clearings around their
cabins, and are never more than a few
acres in extent. Their crops consist of
corn, peas, potatoes, and a few who are
fortunate enough to own a horse attempt
to raise a little cotton. The land is very
poor, and as the crops receive little work
the yield is always very poor. Men,
women and children are slaves to the
tobacco habit. The women chew and
smoke, aud most of them also use snuff
when they a obtain it.
THE ABODE OF A CLAY EATER.
The interior of the cabin of a clay eat
er is rude in the extreme. The cabin is
usually built of small pine logs, from
which the bark is sometimes removed.
There are no windows and usually only
one door. There are no pictures on the
walls, no ornaments of any kind and
often no furniture worthy of the name.
If there are bedsteads they are of the
crudest kind, made by the head of the
family with no other tools than a saw
and an AK. Usually the cabin is too
small for bedsteads if the family is large,
and they 'sleep on quilts and mattresses
spread on the floor. The entire family,
often ten or more persons, eat n sleep
in one small room. The cooking is done
in the one fireplace, the utensils consist
ing of a frying pan, a kettle, an oven
and possibly a few pots. Cooking stoves,
sewing machines and all modern conven-
fences are unknown.
The clay eaten by these people is found
along the banks Of the small mountain
streams in i~nexhaustible quantities. Its
of a dirty white color usually; sometimes
a pale yellow. 1t has a peculiarly oily
appearance, and this oil keeps it from
sticking to the hands or mouth. When
dry it does not crumble, and a few drops
of water will easily soften it until it can be
rolled into any shape desired. 1t is almost
without taste, but must possess some
nourishment, as these people declare they
can subsist upon it for days. They place
a small piece in the mouth and hold it
there until it gradually dissolves, and is
swallowed in small quantities at a time.
The quantity eaten at one time varies
from a lump as large as a pea for the
child or beginner to a lump as large as
a hens egg for those who have eaten it
for years.
A CLAY EATER INTERVIEWED
How did you learn to eat clay?'I
asked of a man whose face was almost
the color of the stuff he was eating.
Dunno" he answered. Il seen pap
and t'others eatin' it, an l got at it."
"Does the habit grow until you acquire
a taste for the stuff"
HUH
Gan you quit eating clay
Dunno; never tried"
HAS the stuff a pleasant taste:'
IF 'twant good l wouldn't be eatin' it,"
and the native drew a second lump from
his pocket and began to eat it with a
relish.
The only bad effect of clay eating seems
to be the peculiar appearance it gives the
skin of those who become addicted to the
habit. The skin turns pale, so pale, in
fact, as to give the face the pallor of
death, and then, later on, it turns a Pc
culiar pale yellow, a color closely re-
sembling some of the clay eaten. Chill
dren who become addicted to the habit
grow old, at least in appearance, prema-
turely, and their faces lose forever the
bright glow of youth and health. There
is little sickness among the clay eaters,
and they live as long as the average of
mankind, SO it is conclusive that the
habit is not fatal in its effects.
1t may or may not be the result of clay
eating, but these people are as supersti-
tious as the black followers of a voodoo.
They have signs for everything and al
most worship the moon Corn is planted
when the moon is full and potatoes are
planted in the dark of the MOON. They
will not start on a journey or begin a job
unless the moon is right, and they fore
tell storms and all kinds of disasters by
the appearance of the moon. If one end
of a new moon is lower thar the other it
will rain before the moon changes again,
say the clay eaters, but if the moon is
level there will be no rain until another
change occurs.-Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. .
On Their Heads.
In France, when a patient is under
chloroform, on the slightest symptom
appearing of failure of the heart, they
turn him nearly upside down. that
is, with his head downward and his
heels in the air. This, they say, always