498
EARTH-EATING IN ASIA,
from the coast o f G u i n e a , eat e a r t h ; n o t from a depraved taste, o r in c o n s e q u e n c e o f disease, b u t from a habit c o n tracted at home in Africa, where they eat, t h e y say, a particular earth, the taste o f which they find agreeable, w i t h o u t suffering any inconvenience. They seek in our islands for the earth most similar t o this, and prefer a yellowish red volcanic tufa. I t is sold secretly in o u r public m a r k e t s ; b u t this is an abuse which the police o u g h t to correct. The n e g r o e s w h o have this habit are so fond o f caouac, that n o chastisement will prevent their eating i t . " In the Indian Archipelago, at the island o f Java, L a b i l lardière saw, between Surabaya and Samarang, little square and reddish cukes exposed for sale. These cakes called tanaampo, were cakes o f clay, slightly baked, which the natives eat with relish. The attention of physiologists, since my return from the O r i n o c o , having been powerfully directed to these phenomena o f geophagy, M . Leschenault, ( o n e o f the naturalists o f the expedition to the A n t a r t i c r e gions under the c o m m a n d o f captain Baudin) has published some curious details on the tanaampo, or ampo, o f the Javanese. " T h e reddish and somewhat ferruginous c l a y , " he says " w h i c h the inhabitants o f Java are fond o f eating o c casionally, is spread on a plate o f iron, and baked, after having been rolled into little cylinders in the form o f the bark o f c i n n a m o n . In this state it, takes the name o f ampo, and is sold in the public markets. This clay has a peculiar taste, which is o w i n g to the b a k i n g : it is very absorbent, and adheres to the t o n g u e , which it dries. In general it is only the Javanese women who eat the ampo, either in the time o f pregnancy, or in order to grow t h i n ; the absence; o f plumpness being there regarded as a kind o f beauty. T h e use of this earth is fatal to health; the women lose their appetite imperceptibly, and take only with relish a very small quantity o f food ; but the desire o f b e c o m i n g thin, and of preserving a slender shape, induces them to brave these dangers, and maintains the credit o f the ampo." The savage inhabitants of New Caledonia also, to appease their hunger in times o f scarcity, eat great pieces o f a friable Lapis ollaris. Vauquelin analysed this stone, and found in it, beside magnesia and silex in equal portions, a small quantity o f oxide o f c o p p e r . M . Goldberry had seen the negroes in