Note 162 — A JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA IN 1497-99.
Ernest Georg Ravenstein translation
The “white earth” is a mixture of dust, cow-dung, sacrificial ashes, sandal wood, etc., cemented in rice-water (see Belnos, The Sundya or Daily Prayer of the Brahmans, Lond., 1851).