In the mission of San Borja, Humboldt found the child of an Indian woman, which, according to the statement of its mother, would hardly eat anything but earth. It was very thin and emaciated. These instances are not, after all, so singular as those of habitual, national dirt-eating which we find amongst the tribes of South America and the negroes of Africa. Children are not always the most particular in the choice of their articles of food, or we should not read of such instances as occur in tropical America of these youngsters drawing immense centipedes out of their holes and eating them; or, as related by Captain Cochrane, of a child devouring several pieces of tallow candle, which was succeeded by a large lump of yellow soap, all of which he seemed to enjoy. Chroniclers often make mention of the employment, during times of war, of kinds of infusorial earth as food, under the general term of mountain meal. This was the case in the Thirty Years War, at Camin in Pomerania, Muskau in the Lausitz, and Kleiken in the Dessau territory; and subsequently in 1719 and 1733 at the fortress of Wittenberg. But in times of war and scarcity, one is prepared to hear of men satisfying their hunger by every legitimate means. M. S. Julien sent to the Academy of Sciences at Paris some few years since, specimens of a peculiar mineral substance from the province of Kiang-si in China, on which, in times of famine, the inhabitants have been said to be able to support themselves as a nutriment. It has a disagreeable taste, and produces dryness in the mouth. It is nevertheless used by the natives mixed with flour, and is even esteemed by them. It may appear somewhat singular to refer to these dirt-eating customs, in connection with those relating to narcotics. The connection is, however, more intimate than at the first glance might appear. Two kinds of substances are mostly resorted to, either to gratify these depraved tastes, or satisfy the cravings of hunger—lime and clay, or, as we have designated them—_clay_ and _whitewash_. It is, or has been matter of dispute, whether the stimulating properties of the betel and coca, and the intoxicating snuffs of the Orinoco, are to be attributed to the vegetable substances themselves, or to the lime used with them, or both in conjunction; hence the introduction of lime is not considered inappropriate. As for the clay, it is not only intimately associated with the other, from the similarity of the use to which it is thus strangely applied, but the connection of it in some of its forms with the consumption of one or two of the narcotics, as the means whereby they are indulged in, must serve as an apology, if such be needed. CHAPTER XXIII. PRECIOUS METALS. “The virtues of the noble metals are, moreover, of such a nature that they inspire respect even in those who do not seek these qualities in higher spheres, but ask after the common and every-day usefulness of a thing.”——VON KOBELL.