180 THE CLIMATIC FACTOR AS ILLUSTRATED IN ARID AMERICA. 



predoniinates, while in the larger towns and their environs the proportion of Spanish blood 

 steadily rises. The degree of energy and initiative seems to vary in response to two 

 factors, namely, the amount of Spanish blood and the length of time that a given stock has 

 been in the country. As this point bears on our interpretation of the ruins a little ampli- 

 fication is needed. The pure Indian is a quiet, slow being, inoffensive and retiring unless 

 abused. He seems never to work unless compelled. As for storing up anything for the 

 future, the thought seems scarcely to enter his head. If he has enough to eat, he simply 

 sits still and enjoys life until hunger again arouses him to activity. His wants are few and 

 easily suppUed. His agriculture begins by cutting the small growths of the bush, or jungle, 

 girdhng the larger trees, leaving the brush to dry during the season of Uttle rain, and finally 

 burning it off. Then he goes around with a pointed stick, making holes into which he 

 drops corn, pumpkin seed, beans, and the seeds of one or two other vegetables. The corn 

 is his chief reliance. When the crop is ripe, he has no thought of gathering it all at once 

 and storing it away safely, perhaps in the form of flour or at least shelled. His method 

 is to go out to the field in the early part of the dry season after the corn is well ripe, and 

 half break each stalk in the middle so that it is bent over and the ears point downward. 

 Little by little he picks what ears he needs for daily use, caring nothing that insects, birds, 

 and beasts are also eating what they need. He knows that a quarter or a third of the ears 

 may be spoiled, but so long as there are some for him, he cares httle. The only thing that 

 ultimately stirs him up to gather the remainder of the crop is the end of the dry season. 

 Before the rains come he knows that he must harvest his crop and plant more seed or 

 else he will starve. Therefore he arouses himself for the one period of effort during the 

 year. He is hardlj^ to be blamed for his apparent laziness. He certainly is lazy according 

 to our standards, but he has httle to stimulate him, and it is easy to get a living without 

 much work. In good quahties, however, he is by no means lacking. He is extremely 

 courteous, and according to all accounts he excels in both honesty and morahty. 



As the amount of Spanish blood in the people of Yucatan increases, their energy and 

 resourcefulness increase. They also become more light-hearted and gaj- than the silent, 

 sober Indians, but at the same time honesty and morality are said to decrease markedly. 

 All classes of people, however, are decidedly slow compared with Americans or people of 

 western Europe. In this connection a fact as to the Spaniards is worth recording. In 

 Yucatan, as well as in other parts of Mexico, there is a surprisingly large number of recent 

 Spanish immigrants. According to almost universal testimony these inmiigrants are 

 better workers than the corresponding class of natives, no matter whether the natives are 

 Indians, Mestizos, or Spaniards who have been in the country a generation or two. Some- 

 thing in the new environments seems to make people slow. In part it may be contact with 

 an inferior race, but more probably it is a climatic matter. Doubtless the heat has much 

 to do with it, but there seems ground for believing that the uniformity of the temperature 

 is quite as harmful as its degree. 



The distribution of the human inhabitants of Yucatan is very uneven. Practically 

 all of the 400,000 who inhabit the peninsula five in the bush region, that is, Yucatan 

 proper and the coastal strip north of Campeche. The rest of the country, comprising 

 most of the province of Campeche and the federal district known as Quintana Roo, contains 

 only a few wild Indians numbering 4,000 to 5,000. The reason is not far to seek; the 

 tropical forest is too dense for them to conquer. This matter deserves emphasis, for it 

 seems to be more important than is generally reaUzed, and it may have a close bearing upon 

 the problem of changes of climate. The descriptions of tropical forests are usually couched 

 in such indefinite terms that it is hard to tell whether a given area in its pristine condition 

 would be covered with jungle or forest. Practically all of the tropical regions, however, 

 where the natives are at present in such a state of civiUzation that they five permanently 

 in good-sized villages and depend primarily upon agriculture for a living, seem to be located 



