Desperate hunger drives even a spoiled boy to eat food that poisons him

Evidence

Before the boy came I had mistaken some faded cayenne pepper for ginger, and had make a cake with it. Last evening I put half of it into the cupboard and left the door open. During the night we heard a commotion in the kitchen and much choking, coughing, and groaning, and at breakfast the boy was unable to swallow food with his usual ravenousness. After breakfast he came to me whimpering, and asking for something soothing for his throat, admitting that he had seen the “gingerbread,” and “felt so starved” in the night that he got up to eat it. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 241

Categorization

• CANDY: A comic set-piece: the pepper-not-ginger mistake, the night groans, the confession at breakfast.
• XREF: connects to: Starvation can result from failing to detoxify staple foods even with full stomachs — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 126