The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-04
FAMILIES OF CLAY EATERS.
A Valley in Which, at Times, Clay is
the Only Food of the Inhabitants.
From the St. Louis Republic,

| A valley in Which, at Times, Clay is
the Only Food of the Inhabitants.
From the st. Louis Republic.
Parkersburg, w. Va, Jan. 23.-The
correspondent, who was attached to a
corps of engineers, biologists, and natu-
ralists who were making tour of inves-
| tigation through the wilderness of the
| Smoky Mountain region of North Caro-
| lima several years since, when near the
watershed which drains westward into
| the New River in West Virginia and the
head waters of the Big Sandy, was in
| formed by resident mountaineers that
| about twenty miles away there was
neighborhood in which every resident
was said to be clay eater Accompa-
MED by Capt. Denton, mountain guide,
and negro servant, we crossed the range
through narrow gap and descended, af-
ter ten-mile ride, upon a narrow creek
which subdivided a little valley between
two parallel mountains. Here we struck
the first cabin in strung-out settlement
| of perhaps forty or fifty families.
| Every pusson on this yer crick is a
clay eater,' said the guide, as we APP
preached low rooted log cabin, the door
of which stood wide open, facing the
stream.
| A tall, sallow, stoop- shouldered man of
| 40 or 80 stood near the door, from which,
on our approach, streamed nearly dozen
bareheaded, barefooted children, ranging
| from 2 to Is years Of age. The man was
| clad in a coarse, hempen shirt and pants.
| Like the children, he was bareheaded and
| barefooted.
Our guide spoke to the man, calling him
| by name, "Dinker" and abruptly intro
| duced the subject of our call.
"Dinker," said he, "they-uns have rid
over the mount'n jes to see sum Wv you-uns
| eet clay. They-uns SEE they-uns don't
bleev we-uns kin eet it,"
! "You-uns lite and kun rite in" said
| Dinker. "Morg," turning to one of the
| largest boys, tick of'n they-uns' saddl's
an brides an turn they-uns' bosses inter
! the paster." 4ii+ i@i .'j
The boy took charge of the animals and
led them into small patch of ground
fenced in with brush fence. jl
| We declined to enter the house, giving
as an excuse that it was much pleasanter
under the shade of a big tree which stood
near the door. At our request Dlnker
sent one Of his boys, sallowfaced, tow
| headed boy of Is or 10, after some of the
clay which was said to be edible. The
guide and myself accompanied him to the
creek, where he stopped in front of a
! layer or ledge of blush gray clay several
inches in thickness. The stuff, when
taken in hand and moistened, felt pliable,
soft, and oily, like putty. and bore much
the same general appearance. The boy
| carried a handful of the clay to his
father, who, after taking it, gave it
another wetting; then, rolling it into a
ball, began manipulating it as painter
| preparing putty for use. He rolled
pressed it out, and manipulated it until
the greasy, slippery mass became soft,
| pliable and tenacious. Then he separated
it into pills, or boluses, from the size of a
bullet to that of an ordinary marble, with
| fUn n n three c In alrnnGt n inf
He gave the smaller children several of
the smallest balls or pills and the larger
| ones the balance, reserving to himself two
of the biggest balls of clay
The boys, girls, and the man then put
the balls of clay in their mouths, when,
by constant chewing and the aid of the
| secretionS, they converted them into
soft, mucilaginous masses, which, with
no apparent difficulty, they swallowed.
For fear that there might be some
| slight-of-hand hocus- pocus about the
affair determined to try the clay my
self. took piece about the size of a
bullet and put it into my mouth. In a
short time, without chewing or manipu-
| lating it al all, | found that the saliva
had completely dissolved the mass.
There were no gritty particles apparent,
but, on the contrary, the stuff left an
oily feeling, but without semblance of
taste. t.E
didn't swallow the stuff, but could
have easily done so but for the repugnance
l naturally felt towards eating dirt.
After the clay had all been swallowed
| by the man and children | said:
docs this stuff satisfy your hungeriD
"Sartin; they's why we-uns eet it. A
| Teller kin Get huff to las three or fob
days, but this yer bunchll only last till
tomorrow
Doesn't the stuff make you sick2
Doesn't it affect you some way when you
make what you call meal of it2"
Never heered NV nobody gettin' sick
on it, but thar's some ez say it makes
| theyun weak"
docs anybody else in this neighbor-
| hood eat clayl"
Bout all of,they-un do. We-uns don't
eet 1t all Nv the time We eet it when
| we-uns' short Nv grub an thar's no game.
| Summer an fall thar's plenty of grub. an,
then we don't tech the clay
Shortly after we left and continued our
ascent of the creek to another cabin. a
| prototype of the first, even to the appear
and number of the family. They were
all lank, cadaverous and blush looking
with dull, leaden eyes and physical APP
! pearance of partial paralyzation. They
| were slow in movement and obtuse. and
! to my mind apparently mentally deficient.
At this cabin the same questions were
asked and the same admissions made as
to the custom of clay eating, and the
same process of manipulation was gone
with in preparing the stuff.
We tried three or four other cabins. and
| found family of clay eaters in each one,
ana not one appeared TO think anything
strange or unusual in the custom. They
said that the habit had been inherited
/ from generation to generation, extending
so far back that the origin of the hab,t
was unknown TO them. l found by inter
rogation that wherever one clay eater
was found there were always others in
the same neighborhood. They were gen
orally found in little communities like
the one above mentioned. The explaua-
tion OF this lay probably in ostracism
by those 70 whom the habit was disgust
ing
What there is in the stun to support