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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Voyaging the traditional way, Clay, venturing a bit off-topic
From: Marvin Sebourn
Date: 2004 Oct 31, 22:42 EST
From: Marvin Sebourn
Date: 2004 Oct 31, 22:42 EST
In a message dated 10/31/2004 8:51:39 PM Central Standard Time,
FrankReedCT@AOL.COM writes:
Fred H wrote:
"The tongue is much more sensitive to texture than the fingers, and could probably make an assessment of whether a bottom was sand, silt, clay, etc much more accurately than the eye and finger."
That rings a bell... I've definitely heard that before. Makes good sense, too!
Frank R
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
Geologists sometimes taste-differentiate minerals (NaCl / Sylvite, etc) and
probably more often rely on textural tests, although it isn't so much the tongue
that is used, as it is placing a bit of material between the upper and lower
front teeth, pressing them together and moving them back and forth--pure clay is
smooth, and there is a different textural feel for silt and sand.
There is a clay (advertised) toothpaste (Umbrian Clay?). A few years ago I
spoke to the author of a journal article, "Geophagy in a Mississippi
County" and he spoke of (as I remember) human consumption of clay as
much as two - four ounces a day there, mainly in infants and young women.
Marvin
N5CL
