Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-05-24

winch they OFTEN used upon their heads by
way of ornament. The Tatu Indians of
California, according to Powers, mix red
earth into their acorn bread to make the
latter sweet and cause it to go further.
Sir John Franklin relates that the banks
Of the Mackenzie river contain layers of a
kind of unctuous mud, which the Tinneh
lrdians use as food during the seasons Of
famine and even at other times chew as an
amusement. It has a milky taste, and the
flavor is not disagreeable. The Apache
and Navajo branches of the A%thabascan
family of North American Indians are not
unacquainted with the use Of clay as a
comestible, although among the former it
is now rarely used and among the latter is
employed only as a condilnent to relieve
the bitterness of the taste Of the wild po-
tato. In the same manner it is known to
both the Zuni and the T~usayan.
In South America, likewise, 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 said to cause them no incon-
venience. Some addict themselves SO ex-
cessively to the use Of it that it becomes to
them a real necessity, and no punishment
Is sufficient to restrain them from the
practice of consuming it.
When the Guinea negroes were in former
times carried as slaves to the West India
islands, they were observed to continue the
custom of eating clay. But the s~.caouac"
Of the American islands, or the substance
which the poor negroes attempted to sub
stitute in their new homes for the African
earth, was found to injure the health OF
the slaves who ate it, and SO the practice
was long g forbidden and has possibly
now died out in the West India colonies. In
Martinique species of red earth or yellow
ish tufa vas formerly secretly sold in the
markets, but the use Of it has probably
ceased in the French colonies also.
In eastern Asia a similar practice pre-
wallis in various places. In the island of
Java, between Sourabaya and Samarang,
L~abillardiere saw small, square, reddish
cakes of earth sold in the village for the
purpose Of being eaten. These were found
by Ehrenberg to 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.
Dr.. Love, some time ago, published an
analysis Of q clay which Is eaten to a con-
siderable extent by the Amos. It occurs
In a bed several feet thick in the valley of
Tsietonai (Eat Earth Valley, on the north
coast Of Yesso.
1t is light gray in color and of ano
structure. The people mix with the clay
fragments Of the leaf of some plant for the
aromatic principle it contains. They eat
the earth because they think it contains
some beneficial substance, not because it
is a necessity with them. They have meat
and abundance of vegetable food. The clay
is eaten in the form of a soup. Several
pounds are boiled with lily roots in a
small quantity Of water and afterward
strained. The Amos pronounce the soup
very palatable.
In northern Europe, especially in the re-
mote northern parts Of Sweden, a kind of
earth known by the name Of "bread meal''
is yearly consumed by hundreds of cart
loads, it is said. 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 Of the Siberian tribes when they
travel carry a small bag Of their native
earth, the taste Of which they suppose win
preserve them from all the evils Of a for.
eign sky. We are told that the Tunguses
Of Siberia eat q clay called s'rock marrow
which they use mixed with marrow. Near
the Ural mountains powdered gypsum,
commonly called "rock meal is some
times mixed with bread. The Jukabiri Of
northeastern Siberia have an earth Of .
sweetish and rather stringent taste, to
which they ascribe a variety of sanitary
properties when eaten.
In north Germany on various occasions
where famine o. necessity has urged it, as
In long protracted sieges of fortified places,
q substance called 'tmountain meal, '',sim-.
liar to that used in Sweden and Finland,
has been employed as a means Of staying,
hunger.
According to Pliny, the Romans had a
dish called ''alica" or "frumenta, = made Of
the grain yea mixed with chalk from the
hills Of Puleoli, near Naples.
According to the myths of the Cinga-
lese, their Brahmans nee fed upon earth
for the space Of 10000 years.-Philadel-
phia Press.
Fond OF Adjournment.
The Germans in former times were fond.
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