Shown on the opposite page in its present condition. The entire structure is about 130 feet in height, and was erected under the rule of chieftains from the Mexican highlands during the Fourteenth Century. Chichen Itza was probably depopulated about 1400 A. D., but its great Well of Sacrifice was a shrine in later years A MODEL OF THE HOUSE OF THE GOVERNOR OF UXMAL This model, in the National Museum, in Washington, is carefully constructed as an exhibit of Mayan architecture. The original building is 330 feet in length, and is a perfect example of the palace type of Maya building, rising from a platform mound. Uxmal is situated in northern Yucatan. It flourished from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Century This is a famous temple of the Mayan renascence (950-1250 A.D.). From its lofty flat roof can be seen the ruins of a series of splendid courtyards enclosed by richly adorned buildings of cement and cut stone. On the cornice of the building at the left are three projecting serpent faces, a typical decoration. The civilization of the Mayas was a very great one, but it seems to have been terribly scourged by yellow fever, and ultimately this crowded country was entirely deserted, the frightened inhabitants migrating to the high, fever free country of central Mexico in animals lower than man. The minute parasitic plants and animals, mostly bacteria and protozoa, which cause most contagious and infectious diseases, are specialized forms of life with a long pedigree of evil ancestors. Some of them, as the malarial germs, live in two hosts, one being cold-blooded and the other warm-blooded. As warm-blooded animals developed into new genera and species it is not impossible that their parasites adjusted themselves to the changes by proper modifications. Man is one of the last animals to appear upon the horizon; some of his diseases may be older than he. In yellow fever we have a disease carried from man to man by a single species of mos quito, formerly called Stegomyia fasciata, now, by some triumph of scientific nomenclature, rechristened Aedes calopus. This mosquito is to all intents and purposes a domestic animal. It has perfectly adapted itself to human civilization and is practically dependent upon the conditions that surround human habitations. It lives in the houses of man, breeds in his water containers, and bites him by preference. It has been shown that the fastidious calopus will bite a white man or an Indian before it will bite a negro. But when hungry it will bite a rat or even a canary bird. The Aedes calopus is a common carrier of yellow fever germs, or perhaps we should say, a medium of exchange. It takes these germs A DETAIL IN THE NUNNERY QUADRANGLE AT UXMAL Mayan construction is of cement faced with cut stone. The chambers are vaulted. The architectural decorations often show elaborate faces, so highly conventionalized as sometimes almost to escape recognition as faces. The panel shown here has four faces, one above the other, which can be more readily recognized by the strange mouths and fantastic teeth than by anything else. Above the mouths are the projecting noses and the sunken eyes. These are the faces of reptile gods ruling over rain and sunshine At San Juan Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico. This overwhelming structure, the mere foundation of a temple, has a much greater volume than any pyramid in Egypt, although it is not so high. It has been stripped of a layer about twelve feet thick and repaired by the Mexican Government. Teotihuacan was one of the leading cities of the Toltecs and its downfall is recorded as having occurred in the Twelfth Century. Disease in epidemic form was doubtless present in the last years, and its presence may be explained by the conquests which the rulers of this city made in the lowlands. Yellow fever could not exist permanently in the highlands cisterns called chultuns which were ideal breeding places. Then there were always water jars and water gourds at hand. In its wild days the mosquito may have found its breeding place in the water pockets of the giant Bromelia (a plant something like a pineapple with trough-like leaves which conduct rain water into pockets at the base of the leaves). These are common throughout Yucatan, clinging to tree trunks and even to the walls of ruins. The water is generally clear, but often one finds a colony of black ants infesting the plant and not infrequently larvæ of mosquitoes. On hot thirsty trails I have taken many a refreshing drink from these cisterns of green leaves. The point is that a mosquito with the general breeding habits of the Aedes calopus could have thrived in Yucatan even before the age of civilized man. And there were plenty of rodents there, among others the tender tepisquintli (I venture this is the finest wild meat in the world). In many Indian houses one sees various rodents kept as pets. Some of these may once have been domesticated as the South American Indians domesticated the guinea pig and the West Indian natives the hutia. Now, if only it could be shown that the Leptospira icteroides exists in the blood of rodents in Yucatan, or that they have immunity from it, the stage for the entrance of yellow fever into human history would be set. And now for the proofs that yellow fever did make its dramatic entrance before the mailed soldiers of Spain. In the twenty year period extending from 1477 to 1497, which the Maya Indians called Katun 4 Ahau, in their remarkable system of counting time, there occurred in Yucatan a very severe plague or epidemic, resulting in thousands of deaths. It came after civil war had The Mayas stored water for the dry season in these vaulted reservoirs, which proved to be ideal breeding places for the yellow fever mosquito, and since the cisterns were ordinarily placed near habitations, the mosquito was almost ever present depopulated the last of the stone-built cities and had dragged the Mayas down to a kind of life which may have lacked sadly the oldtime sanitation. The epidemic is referred to in several chronicles written in the Maya tongue but in Spanish letters. While these date from some time after the Conquest, they are based, beyond the shadow of a doubt, upon original native records in hieroglyphs of the Indians. There are also a number of references and traditions of this epidemic in several early books written by Spaniards living in Yucatan. The entries in the Chronicle of Tizimin for Katun 4 Ahau (1477 to 1497) and Katun 2 Ahau (1497 to 1517) are: of Yucatan by the first Spaniards to arrive there, and another epidemic which took place before the discovery of America. Let us examine the names a little more closely. The word mayacimil or mayacimlal means literally "the Maya death", the second term ocnalcuchil means literally "when the buzzards enter the houses (to eat the dead who cannot be buried)" Oc, enter; nal, house; cuchil, buzzard. What a terrible picture of the devastation of an epidemic disease is contained in this one word. Small pox is called here noh kakil, which means great fire" but in other places it is sometimes called pom kak, "copal-incense Can Abau-uchi mayacimlal ocnalcuchil ich paa. fire." The eruptions, characteristic of the Cabil Abau-uchci nobkakil. These entries have been translated as follows. disease, are compared to burns made by the sputtering native incense. A similar reference is contained in the Maya "Four Ahau, the pestilence, the general historical record called the chronicle of Chudeath, took place in the fortress. "Two Ahau, the small-pox took place." We here see a clear distinction between smallpox which was introduced among the Indians mayel. I quote the original text and follow this with a literal translation. Can abau, uchci mayacimlal uchci ocnakuchil ych paa. |