Otomaks

Otomaks, aborigines of Venezuela, whose territory comprises the section of the middle Orinoco between the Apure and Meta confluences. During low water they live on fish and turtles, but during the great floods, when fishing is impossible, they consume large quantities of a fatty earth, a kind of potter's clay, which is collected on the banks of the rivers and stored in their huts. This diet, varied with a few frogs, lizards, and fern-fronds, appears to be in no way injurious, and even in the fishing season some of the earth is taken as a "dessert" after meals. The Otomaks have coarse Mongolic features and a deep coppery colour, being with their Guamo neighbours almost the darkest people of all the American aborigines.