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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by T. Maler, courtesy Peabody Museum of Harvard University 



MAYA RUINS AT PALENQUK, MEXICO 



In pre-Columbian days the civilizations in Mexico and Central America reached a high 

 state and then died out. Records recently translated show that terrible epidemics occurred. 

 One affliction was known as the when-the-buzzards-entered-the-house disease — an eloquent 

 portrayal of an epidemic so fatal that there were none left to bury the dead. Yellow fever 

 or smallpox is believed to have been the malady thus described. 



