216 



eyebrows, and all were so pulled down that even after a two days 'fever 

 with moderate pains (such as happened to myself), it was many days 

 before they would recover their strength. ... In the year 1650, on our 

 way to visit the province of Guatamala .... having to pass through an 

 extensive pine wood, .... we observed that since the year of 1648, in which 

 the epidemic had commenced, some pestilential air or other noxious influence 

 had dried up all the full-grown pine trees, . . . only the young ones 

 remained with life. I then reflected that of the young children who were 

 attacked by the peste in Yucatan only few had died, as compared with the 

 adults." (Cogolludo, Historia de Yucatan, Libro XII., Capítulos XII., 

 XIII., XIV.) 



The Rev. Bishop, after this quotation, remarks : ' ' The Spanish 

 historian, finding himself at a loss to classify or to name the curious malady 

 which, after the lapse of over a century, the Spaniards of Yucatan came 

 to suffer, is obliged to give a minute account of its symptoms and circum- 

 stances; whereas, the Chumayel manuscript only needs one single word, 

 both graphic and appropriate, in order to record the occurrence of the 

 epidemic, by its special name, in the corresponding chronological note 

 which it has been my good fortune to give to the learned world in the fac- 

 simile that accompanies my Philological Study on the names of "America" 

 and "Yucatan" — Vchci xélcik hoppci cimil toon 1648 años — which means: 

 "There was black vomit, which began to cause deaths among us in the 

 year 1648." 



"Even without knowing the Maya language, read carefully that line 

 of the text and observe the second word, "xékik". In the Dictionary of 

 Don Juan Pio Verez, you will find it rendered by "vomito prieto, vomitar 

 sangre" (black vomit, to vomit blood). The w r ords that follow mean: "And 

 we ourselves began to die" — referring to the Indians; for which reason 

 Cogolludo has said that at the commencement of the epidemic only the 

 Spaniards were attacked, but subsequently the Indians also began to suffer." 



This philological demonstration must be continued in the Bishop's 

 own words : — 



"Notwithstanding that from this statement alone of the "Chumayel 

 manuscript" I infer that the "vomito negro" was known to the indigenous 

 historians, though new to the Spaniards of Yucatan, this would only 

 constitute a conjecture, more or less grounded ; whereas, what is required, 

 as you say, is a decisive fact. This brings us to the essential and culminating 

 point of the present letter. 



The Maya manuscripts that I possess, like all the sacred books of the 

 ancient Yucatecos, or " Chilam-balam books as they are vulgarly known, 

 have precisely for their principal object the recording of chronological 

 notes concerning their feasts to their gods, wars, pestilences, famines, 

 and invasions by the Spaniards. They are chronicles and calendars. I 



