The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-05-04
ABOUT EATING CLAY
The Disgusting Habit Is Common
in All Countries.
Tribes OF Indians Who Mix Mud with
Their Bread-Some Singular Rea-
sons for the AbomiDabIe
Practice.

| Among the extraordinary passions
| for eating uncommon things must be
| reckoned that which some people eXhib-
| it for eating earth or clay. Of this prac-
tee, which would appear to have once
prevailed all over the world, says the
Philadelphia Times, numerous exam
pies were cited by Capt. j. G. Bourhe,
United States army, in the ninth an
nual report of the bureau of ethnology.
In some places the custom has degen-
Grated into a ceremonial, while in
others the eating Of this strange food
still prevails as a kind of necessity to
the lives of those who are addicted to it.
The Mexican devotees picked up
piece of clay in the temple of Tezcatli.
poca and ate it with the greatest rever-
ence, 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 ceremony, for
the substance seems to have been an
esculent in common use. Edible earth
was sold openly in the markets of Mex
leo and appears in the list of foods
given by Gonara.
CabeZa de Vaca says that the Indians
of Florida ate clay, and that the natives
offered him many mesquite beans,
which they ate miXad with earth. Vene-
gas asserted that the Indians of Cali
fornia ate earth. The traditions Of the
Indians of San Juan Capistrano and
vicinity show that they had fed upon
kind of clay which they often used
upon their heads by way of ornament.
The Tatu Indians of California. accord
ing to Powers, mix red earth into their
acorn bread to make the latter sweet
and cause it to go further. Sir John
Franklin writes that the banks of the
Mackenzie river contain layers of a
kind of unctuous,mud which the Tin
neh Indians used 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 disa-
greeable. The Apache and Navajo
branches of the Athabascan family OF
North American Indians are not I'M
acquainted with the use of clay as
comestible, although among the former
it is now rarely used, and among the
latter is employed only as a condiment
to relievecthe bitterness of the taste OF :
the wild potato. In the same manner |
it is known to both the Zuni and tho |
Tusayan.
In South America, likewise, the eat !
ing of clay prevails among the Indians !
on the banks of the Orinoco, through |
out 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 Inconvenience. |!
Some addict themselves so excessively |
to the use of it that it becomes to them
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 ''caouac" of the American
islands, or the substance which the
poor negroes attempted to substitute in
their new homes for the African earth,
was found to in lure the health of the
slaves who ate it, and so the practice
was long ago forbidden and has posi-
bly, now died ont in the West India colo
MES In Martinique, a species of red
earth or yellowish tufa was formerly
- -.-el5 in the markets. but the