The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-10-13
PEOPLEWHO EATCLAY
TALES or A TRAVELLER ABOUT SOME
QUEER POLK HE KNOWS OF.
Poor whites fn Georgia Who Are
Among Mexicans and Indians.


\ little. red-faced man, win a Dig black
beard sat in the corridor OF the Iroquois
Hotel last evening watching the sea of
faces surge 10 and fro. He wore a black
frock coat. PREDETERMINED SLOUGH hat AMI
a crutch- His LEFT leg was several inches
shorter than his right. He was DR.. James
Erskine Pendergraxs. well known as a trav-
eier and scientist.
I've been up in Canada" he said, ''and
am on my way to Atlanta. Stopped over
between trains 20 look at Bufals. Won
derfnl city. Growing faster than a weed.
Where am I going from Atlanta? Down
among the clay-eaters. Clay-eaters?
Most peculiar people in the world. In one
section Of Georgia, in the country surround
Ing Mllidgevile. TO tell a man his name
is mud is equivalent to declaring that he
IS food for his felBow-men. Not that his
~neighbors are cannibals. but that they eat
clay. Chew IL? Oh. yes; with as much
enjoyment as a COW gets out OF her cud.
Whole families have the habit. From the
father. and grandfather. too. IL he has
CHANGED TO survive, down to the skinny
faced little tot who cries for his share,
they all eat clay. eagerly and regularly.
This deprayed taste fixes itself upon
them In early childhood and as they grow
older the habit becomes stronger. until 1t
~ an utter inpossibility TO break of. 1t is
more powerful than the whisky. opium.
morphine, cocaine or any other habit yet
kIDwn. OF course, heredity has much to
do with 10, and the habit is transmitted
from generation unto generation with sin
ular precision. In some places the custom
has degenerated into a ceremonial, while
in others the eating OF this strange food
still prevails as a kind of necessity to the
ItUAA n fH2nA WEu - dtN n
The Mexican devogees picked up a piece
OF clay in the Temple OF Tezcatlipoca and
are IL with the greatest reverence, and also
ate a piece OF earth in swearing by the sun
and earth. But the use of clay by the
Mexicans was not merely a matter of cere-
mony. for IL seems 70 have been an esculent
In common use. Edible earth was sold
openly in the markets of Mexico, and APP
pears In the list of foods given by Gomara:
"Cabeza de Vaca says that the Indians or
Florida ate clay" continued the Doctor.
and that the natives offered him many
mesquite beans, which they ate mixed with
earth. venegas asserts that the Indians of
California ate earth. The traditions OF the
Indians OF San Juan, Capistrano and vi
cinity show that they had fed upon a kind
heads by way OF ornament The Tatu In
dams OF California, according to Powers.
mix red earth into their bread to make the
latter sweet and cause Ii 10 go further.
Sir John Franklin relates that the banks of
the Mackenzie river contain. layers of a
kind or unctuous mud which the Tinnah In
dams use as food during the seasons of
famine, and even at other times chew as an
amusement. 1t has a milky taste. and the
flavor IS not disagreeable- The Apache and
Navajo branches OF the Athabascan family
Of North American Indians are not unac-
9 f9h,s d%6lrn me use OF Gay as a comes
now rarely used, and among the latter Is
empl1yed only as a condiment to relieve
potato. In the same manner IL is known TO
both the Zuni and the Tussyan.'
All this information the Doctor poured
49, wnfeA I'D II 1-n-- a.
by heart, he explained. from arguing so
often that ~clayeaters are not myths.
IN SOUTH AMERICA
I'm South America, likewise" he con-
tinued. "the eating of clay prevails among
the Indians. on the banks Of the Orinoco,
throughout Brazil, and on the mountains of
Bolivia and Peru. In western Africa the
negroes OF Guinea have long been known
to eat a yellowish earth called by them
~'caouac.' and the flavor and taste Of which
is very agreeable to them and is said to
cause them no inconvenience. Some addict
themselves 50 excessively to the use of it
and no punishment is sufficient to restrain
them from the practice OF consuming it.
when the Guinea negroes were I'm
FORMER times carried as slaves TO the West
lrdla islands they were observed. accord
fsg TO Captain Bourke, to continue the
custom Of eating clay. But the 'caouac' of
N'~@1T VI IHC SQOStdAlCc
which the poor negroes e~ndeavored in their
new home to substitute for the African
earth; was found TO injure the health OF
the slaves who ate II, and so the practice
was long ago forbidden ana has now prac-
tlcally died out in the West India colonies.
In Martinique a species Of red earth or
yellowish tufa was formerly secretly sold
in the markets but the use Of il has prob
ably ceased in the French colonies also.
In eastern Asia a similar practice prevails
IN various places In the island OF Java,
between Sourabaya and Samarang, Iabil-
larulere saw small, square. reddish cakes
or earth sold In the village for the purpose
OF being eaten. These were found by
Ehrenoerg 10 consist, for the most part.
OF the remains of microscopic ANIMALS and
plants which had lived and been deposited
In fresh water.
Some of the japanese. too, are addicted
to the practice of eating earth. DIR. Love,
some time ago. published an analysis of a
clay which Is eaten TO a considerable extent
py the Amos; II occurs In a bed several feet
thick In the valley OF Tsietonai Eat-earth
Valley, on the north coast OF Yesso. III is
lght-gray in color and OF fine structure.
The people mix with the clay
principle il contains. They eat the earth
because they think ii contains some bene-
neiai sq2stapee; not because ii is a neces-
abundance Of vegetable food. The clay is
eaten In the form of a soup. Several
quantity of water and after ward strained.
The Amos pronounce the soup very palata-
n AUhJot .Ndttt9s III TIE -ikklm dlmdld-
vas. a red clay occurs which the natives
chew. especially as a cure for the goitre.
In Smiths Aborigines OF Victoria IL Is
stated that a kind of earth. pounded and
mixed With the root of the meme Ca species
OF Haemaocrlm), Is eaten by the natives of
West Australia In northern Europe. espe-
cially IN the remote northern part of Swe-
den. a kind OF earth known by the name
OF bread meal is yearly consumed by hun
dreds or carloads. A similar earth is COM
monty mixed with bread in Finland In
both these cases the earth employed con-
sists for the most part of the empty shells
OF minute infusoria. In which there cannot
exist any ordinary nourishment.
Some or the Siberian tribes whens they
travel, carry a small bag of their native
earth, the taste or which they suppose Will
preserve them from all the evils of a for
eign sky. We are told that the Tuuguses
OF Siberia eat a clay called rock marrow
which they use mixed with marrow. Near
the Jral mountains powdered gypsum.
commonly called .rcck meal is sometimes
mixed with bread. The Jukabiri of north
eastern Siberia have an earth OF a sweet
ish and rather astringent taste, to which
they ascribe a variety OF sanitary proper
ties when eaten.
BY OTHER NAMES.
IN north Germany on various occasions
where famine or necessity has urged it (as
IN long protracted sieges OF fortified
places. a substan - called mountain meal,