It is most surprising that the Ottomacs do not
become lean by swallowing such quantities of earth: they are, on the
contrary, extremely robust. The missionary Fray Ramon Bueno asserts
that he never remarked any alteration in the health of the natives at
the period of the great risings of the Orinoco.
The Ottomacs during some months eat daily three-quarters of a pound of
clay slightly hardened by fire, but which they moisten before
swallowing it. It has not been possible to verify hitherto with
precision how much nutritious vegetable or animal matter they take in
a week at the same time; but they attribute the sensation of satiety
which they feel to the clay, and not to the wretched aliments which
they take with it occasionally.
No physiological phenomenon being entirely insulated, it may be
interesting to examine several analogous phenomena, which I have been
able to collect. I observed everywhere within the torrid zone, in a
great number of individuals, children, women, and sometimes even
full-grown men, an inordinate and almost irresistible desire of
swallowing earth; not an alkaline or calcareous earth to neutralize
(as it is said) acid juices, but a fat clay, unctuous, and exhaling a
strong smell.
