Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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They Are Men Of Very Robust Constitution; But
Ill-Looking, Savage, Vindictive, And Passionately Fond Of Fermented
Liquors.
They are omnivorous animals in the highest degree; and
therefore the other Indians, who consider them as barbarians, have a
common saying, nothing is so loathsome but that an Ottomac will eat
it.
While the waters of the Orinoco and its tributary streams are low,
the Ottomacs subsist on fish and turtles. The former they kill with
surprising dexterity, by shooting them with an arrow when they appear
at the surface of the water. When the rivers swell fishing almost
entirely ceases.* (* In South America, as in Egypt and Nubia, the
swelling of the rivers, which occurs periodically in every part of the
torrid zone, is erroneously attributed to the melting of the snows.)
It is then very difficult to procure fish, which often fails the poor
missionaries, on fast-days as well as flesh-days, though all the young
Indians are under the obligation of fishing for the convent. During
the period of these inundations, which last two or three months, the
Ottomacs swallow a prodigious quantity of earth. We found heaps of
earth-balls in their huts, piled up in pyramids three or four feet
high. These balls were five or six inches in diameter. The earth which
the Ottomacs eat is a very fine and unctuous clay of a yellowish grey
colour; and, when being slightly baked at the fire, the hardened crust
has a tint inclining to red, owing to the oxide of iron which is
mingled with it.
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