The Official MBA Handbook on the use of sunlamps: Use a sunlamp only on weekends. That way, if the office wise guy remarks on the sudden appearance of your tan, you can fabricate some story about a sun-stroked weekend at some island Shangri-La like Caneel Bay. Nothing is more transparent than leaving the office at 11:45 on a Tuesday night, only to return an Aztec sun god at 8:15 the next morning.
The language spoken by any tribe or nation is not of itself absolute evidence as to its race-affinities. This is clearly shown in extreme cases. Thus the Jews in Europe have almost lost the use of Hebrew, but speak as their vernacular the language of their adopted nation, whatever it may be; even the Jewish-German dialect, though consisting so largely of Hebrew words, is philologically German, as any sentence shows: "_Ich hab noch hoiom lo geachelt_," "I have not yet eaten to-day." The mixture of the Israelites in Europe by marriage with other nations is probably much greater than is acknowledged by them; yet, on the whole, the race has been preserved with extraordinary strictness, as its physical characteristics sufficiently show. Language thus here fails conspicuously as a test of race and even of national history. Not much less conclusive is the case of the predominantly Negro populations of the West India Islands, who, nevertheless, speak as their native tongues dialects of English or French, in which the number of intermingled native African words is very scanty: "_Dem hitti netti na ini watra bikasi dem de fisiman_," "They cast a net into the water, because they were fishermen." (Surinam Negro-Eng.) "_Bef pas ca jamain lasse poter cônes li_," "Le boeuf n'est jamais las de porter ses cornes." (Haitian Negro-Fr.) If it be objected that the linguistic conditions of these two races are more artificial than has been usual in the history of the world, less extreme cases may be seen in countries where the ordinary results of conquest-colonization have taken place. The Mestizos, who form so large a fraction of the population of modern Mexico, numbering several millions, afford a convenient test in this respect, inasmuch as their intermediate complexion separates them from both their ancestral races, the Spaniard, and the chocolate-brown indigenous Aztec or other Mexican. The mother-tongue of this mixed race is Spanish, with an infusion of Mexican words; and a large proportion cannot speak any native dialect. In most or all nations of mankind, crossing or intermarriage of races has thus taken place between the conquering invader and the conquered native, so that the language spoken by the nation may represent the results of conquest as much or more than of ancestry. The supersession of the Celtic Cornish by English, and of the Slavonic Old-Prussian by German, are but examples of a process which has for untold ages been supplanting native dialects, whose very names have mostly disappeared. On the other hand, the language of the warlike invader or peaceful immigrant may yield, in a few generations, to the tongue of the mass of the population, as the Northman's was replaced by French, and modern German gives way to English in the United States. Judging, then, by the extirpation and adoption of languages within the range of history, it is obvious that to classify mankind into, races, Aryan, Semitic, Turanian, Polynesian, Kaffir, &c., on the mere evidence of language, is intrinsically unsound. Entry: V
BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, CHARLES ÉTIENNE (1814-1874), Belgian ethnographer, was born at Bourbourg, near Dunkirk, on the 8th of September 1814. He entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, was professor of ecclesiastical history in the Quebec seminary in 1845, vicar-general at Boston in 1846, and from 1848 to 1863 travelled as a missionary, chiefly in Mexico and Central America. He gave great attention to Mexican antiquities, published in 1857-1859 a history of Aztec civilization, and from 1861 to 1864 edited a collection of documents in the indigenous languages. In 1863 he announced the discovery of a key to Mexican hieroglyphic writing, but its value is very questionable. In 1864 he was archaeologist to the French military expedition in Mexico, and his _Monuments anciens du Mexique_ was published by the French Government in 1866. Perhaps his greatest service was the publication in 1861 of a French translation of the _Popol Vuh_, a sacred book of the Quiché Indians, together with a Quiché grammar, and an essay on Central American mythology. In 1871 he brought out his _Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatemalienne_, and in 1869-1870 gave the principles of his decipherment of Indian picture-writing in his _Manuscrit Troano, études sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas._ He died at Nice on the 8th of January 1874. His chief merit is his diligent collection of materials; his interpretations are generally fanciful. Entry: BRASSEUR
Other modern dwarfs include Signor Hervio Nano, who played at the Olympic Theatre, London, in 1843; three Highlanders named MacKinlay, children of a Scots shepherd, the shortest of whom was 45 in.; a Spaniard, Don Francisco Hidalgo (29 in.); a Dutchman, Jan Hannema (28 in.); and Mary Jane Youngman (Australia), who at fifteen was 35 in. high. She was called the "dwarf-giantess" because she was 3 ft. 6 in. round the shoulders, 4 ft. 3 in. round the waist, and 2 ft. round the leg. Much interest was aroused by the so-called Aztec dwarfs who were exhibited in London in 1853. In 1867 the pair were married, the ceremony being publicly performed, and the bride's robes are said to have cost no less than £2000. The wedding-breakfast was held at Willis's Rooms. From time to time other dwarfs have been exhibited, among whom the most remarkable has been Che-mah, a Chinese, 42 years old and 25 in. high, who appeared in London in 1880. George Prout (1774-1851), who was less than 3 ft. high, was a well-known character in London in the early Victorian period, as a messenger at the Houses of Parliament. Entry: DWARF
This large, typically American family comprises more than 100 species which have been arranged in many genera. Some are entirely arboreal, dwellers in forests, while others, like _Cnemidophorus_ and _Ameiva_, are strictly terrestrial, with great running powers; a few dwell below the surface and are transformed into almost limbless worm-shaped creatures. The family is essentially neotropical. Of its several dozen genera only two extend through and beyond Central America: _Ameiva_ into the eastern and western Hot-lands of Mexico, _Cnemidophorus_ (monographed by H. Gadow, _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1906, pp. 277-375) through Mexico into the United States, where _C. sexlineatus_, the "swift," has spread over most of the Union. _Tupinambis teguixin_, the "teju" of South America and the West Indies, is the largest member of the family; it reaches a length of a yard, most of which, however, belongs to the strong, whip-like tail. _Teguixin_ is taken from the Aztec _teco-ixin_, i.e. rock-lizard, the vernacular name of _Sceloporus torquatus_ which is one of the _Iguanidae_ misspelt and misapplied. The tejus frequent forests and plantations and are carnivorous, eating anything they can overpower. They in turn are much hunted for the sake of their delicate flesh. They defend themselves not only with their powerful jaws and sharp claws, but also with lashing strokes of the long tail. They also use this whip for killing snakes which they are said to eat. Their long-oval, hard-shelled eggs are deposited in the ground. They retire into self-dug burrows. _Cophias_ and _Scolecosaurus_ have very much reduced limbs. In the genus _Tejus_ the teeth of the adult become molar-like; and in _Dracaena_ they are transformed into large, oval crushers, indicating strictly herbivorous habits, while most members of the family live upon animal food. Entry: III
1. From a psychological point of view the term cannibalism groups together a number of customs, whose only bond of union is that they all involve eating of human flesh. (a) Food cannibalism, where the object is the satisfaction of hunger, may occur sporadically as a result of real necessity or may be kept up for the simple gratification of a taste for human flesh in the absence of any lack of food in general or even of animal food, (i.) Cannibalism from necessity is found not only among the lower races, such as the Fuegians or Red Indian tribes, but also among civilized races, as the records of sieges and shipwrecks show. (ii.) Simple food cannibalism is common in Africa; the Niam-Niam and Monbuttu carry on wars for the sake of obtaining human flesh; in West Africa human flesh could formerly be seen exposed for sale in the market like any other article of commerce; and among some tribes it is the practice to sell the corpses of dead relatives for consumption as food. (b) In curious contrast to this latter custom is the practice of devouring dead kinsfolk as the most respectful method of disposing of their remains. In a small number of cases this practice is combined with the custom of killing the old and sick, but in the great majority of peoples it is simply a form of burial; it seems to prevail in most parts of Australia, many parts of Melanesia, Africa and South America, and less frequently in other parts of the world. To this group belong the customs described by Herodotus; we may perhaps regard as a variant form the custom of using the skull of a dead man as a drinking-cup. This practice is widely found, and the statement of Herodotus that the skull was set in gold and preserved by the Issedones may point in this direction; from the account given of the Tibetans some seven hundred years ago by William of Ruysbruck (Rubruquis) it appears that they had given up cannibalism but still preserved the use of the skull as a drinking vessel. Another modification of an original ritual cannibalism is the custom of drinking the ashes of the dead, which is practised by some African and South American tribes. The custom of holding burial feasts has also been traced to the same origin. More incomprehensible to the European than any other form of cannibalism is the custom of partaking of the products of putrefaction as they run down from the body. The Australians smoke-dry the bodies of tribesmen; here, too, it is the custom to consume the portions of the body which are rendered liquid by the heat. (c) The ritual cannibalism just mentioned shades over into and may have been originally derived from magical cannibalism, of which three sub-species may be distinguished. (i.) Savages are accustomed, on the one hand, to abstain from certain foods in order that they may not acquire certain qualities; on the other hand other foods are eagerly desired in order that they may by partaking of the flesh also come to partake of the mental or bodily peculiarities of the man or animal from which the meat is derived; thus, after the birth of a child, especially the first-born, the parents are frequently forbidden the flesh of slow-moving animals, because that would prevent the child from learning to walk; conversely, eating the heart of a lion is recommended for a warrior to make him brave; from this point of view therefore we readily understand the motives which lead to the eating of those slain in battle, both friends and foes. (ii.) We may term protective an entirely different kind of magical cannibalism, which consists in the consumption of a small portion of the body of a murdered man, in order that his ghost may not trouble the murderer; according to Hans Egède, the Eskimo, when they kill a witch, eat a portion of her heart, that she may not haunt them. (iii.) The practice is also said to have the effect of causing the relatives of the murdered man to lose heart or to prevent them from exercising the right of revenge; in this case it may be brought into relation with the ceremony of the blood covenant in one of the forms of which the parties drink each other's blood; or, it may point to a reminiscence of a ritual eating of the dead kinsman. The late survival of this idea in Europe is attested by its mention by Dante in the _Purgatorio_. (d) The custom of eating food offered to the gods is widespread, and we may trace to this origin Mexican cannibalism, perhaps, too, that of Fiji. The Aztec worship of the god of war, Huitzilopochtli, led to the sacrifice of prisoners, and the custom of sacrifice to their frequent wars. The priest took out the heart, offered it to the sun, and then went through the ceremonies of feeding the idol with the heart and blood; finally the bodies of the victims were consumed by the worshippers. (e) We reach an entirely different set of motives in penal and revenge cannibalism. For the origin of these ideas we may perhaps look to that of protective magic, dealt with above; but it seems possible that there is also some idea of influencing the lot of the criminal in a future life; it may be noted that the whole of the body is seldom eaten in protective cannibalism; among the Battas, however, the criminal, and in parts of Africa the debtor, are entirely consumed. Other cases, especially where the victim is an enemy, may be due to mere fury and bravado. (f) In the west of North America a peculiar kind of cannibalism is found, which is confined to a certain body of magicians termed "Hametzen" and a necessary condition of admission to their order. Another kind of initiatory cannibalism prevailed in the south of Australia, where a magician had to eat a portion of a child's body before he was admitted. The meaning of these ceremonials is not clear. Entry: 1
The art of line engraving has been practised from the earliest ages. The prehistoric Aztec hatchet given to Humboldt in Mexico was just as truly _engraved_ as a modern copper-plate which may convey a design by Flaxman; the Aztec engraving is ruder than the European, but it is the same art. The important discovery which made line engraving one of the multiplying arts was the discovery how to print an incised line, which was hit upon at last by accident, and known for some time before its real utility was suspected. Line engraving in Europe does not owe its origin to the woodcut, but to the chasing on goldsmiths' work. The goldsmiths of Florence in the middle of the 15th century were in the habit of ornamenting their works by means of engraving, after which they filled up the hollows produced by the burin with a black enamel made of silver, lead and sulphur, the result being that the design was rendered much more visible by the opposition of the enamel and the metal. An engraved design filled up in this manner was called a _niello_. Whilst a niello was in progress the artist could not see it so well as if the enamel were already in the lines, yet he did not like to put in the hard enamel prematurely, as when once it was set it could not easily be got out again. He therefore took a sulphur cast of his niello in progress, on a matrix of fine clay, and filled up the lines in the sulphur with lampblack, thus enabling himself to judge of the state of his engraving. At a later period it was discovered that a proof could be taken on damped paper by filling the engraved lines with a certain ink and wiping it off the surface of the plate, sufficient pressure being applied to make the paper go into the hollowed lines and fetch the ink out of them. This was the beginning of plate printing. The niello engravers thought it a convenient way of proving their work--the metal itself--as it saved the trouble of the sulphur cast, but they saw no further into the future. They went on engraving nielli just the same to ornament plate and furniture; nor was it until the 16th century that the new method of printing was carried out to its great and wonderful results. There are, however, certain differences between plate-printing and block-printing which affect the essentials of art. When paper is driven _into_ a line so as to fetch the ink out of it, the line may be of unimaginable fineness, it will print all the same; but when the paper is only pressed _upon_ a raised line, the line must have some appreciable thickness; the wood engraving, therefore, can never--except in a _tour de force_--be so delicate as plate engraving. Again, not only does plate-printing excel block-printing in delicacy; it excels it also in force and depth. There never was, and there will never be, a woodcut line having the power of a deep line in a plate, for in block-printing the line is only a blackened surface of paper slightly impressed, whereas in plate-printing it is a _cast_ with an additional thickness of printing ink. Entry: LINE
In America some of the Amerindian tribes reverence the rattlesnake as grandfather and king of snakes who is able to give fair winds or cause tempest. Among the Hopi (Moqui) of Arizona the serpent figures largely in one of the dances. The rattlesnake was worshipped in the Natchez temple of the sun; and the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl was a serpent-god. The tribes of Peru are said to have adored great snakes in the pre-Inca days; and in Chile the Araucanians made a serpent figure in their deluge myth. Entry: B
_History of Armorial Bearings._--In all ages and in all quarters of the world distinguishing symbols have been adopted by tribes or nations, by families or by chieftains. Greek and Roman poets describe the devices borne on the shields of heroes, and many such painted shields are pictured on antique vases. Rabbinical writers have supported the fancy that the standards of the tribes set up in their camps bore figures devised from the prophecy of Jacob, the ravening wolf for Benjamin, the lion's whelp for Judah and the ship of Zebulon. In the East we have such ancient symbols as the five-clawed dragon of the Chinese empire and the chrysanthemum of the emperor of Japan. In Japan, indeed, the systematized badges borne by the noble clans may be regarded as akin to the heraldry of the West, and the circle with the three asarum leaves of the Tokugawa shoguns has been made as familiar to us by Japanese lacquer and porcelain as the red pellets of the Medici by old Italian fabrics. Before the landing of the Spaniards in Mexico the Aztec chiefs carried shields and banners, some of whose devices showed after the fashion of a phonetic writing the names of their bearers; and the eagle on the new banner of Mexico may be traced to the eagle that was once carved over the palace of Montezuma. That mysterious business of totemism, which students of folk-lore have discovered among most primitive peoples, must be regarded as another of the forerunners of true heraldry, the totem of a tribe supplying a badge which was sometimes displayed on the body of the tribesman in paint, scars or tattooing. Totemism so far touches our heraldry that some would trace to its symbols the white horse of Westphalia, the bull's head of the Mecklenburgers and many other ancient armories. Entry: HERALDRY
HUICHOL (pronounced Veetchol--a corruption of the native name _Vishalika_ or _Virarika_, doctors or healers), a tribe of Mexican Indians living in a mountainous region on the eastern side of the Chapalagana river, Jalisco. Huichol tradition assigns the south as their place of origin. Their name of "healers" is deserved, for about one-fourth of the men are Shamans. The Huichols are in much the same social condition as at the time of the Aztec empire. They were conquered by the Spaniards in 1722. Entry: HUICHOL
In Mexico, in Central America and in the northern part of South America, objects of jadeite are common. The Kunz votive adze from Oaxaca, in Mexico, is now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico amulets of green stone were highly venerated, and it is believed that jadeite was one of the stones prized under the name of _chalchihuitl_. Probably turquoise was another stone included under this name, and indeed any green stone capable of being polished, such as the Amazon stone, now recognized as a green feldspar, may have been numbered among the Aztec amulets. Dr Kunz suggests that the chalchihuitl was jadeite in southern Mexico and Central America, and turquoise in northern Mexico and New Mexico. He thinks that Mexican jadeite may yet be discovered in places (_Gems and Precious Stones of Mexico_, by G. F. Kunz: Mexico, 1907). Entry: JADE
_History._--The value of cacao was appreciated in its native country before the discovery of America by Europeans. The Spaniards found in use in Mexico a beverage known by the Aztec name of _chocolath_, from _choco_ (cacao) and _lath_ (water). W. H. Prescott records that the emperor Montezuma of Mexico was "exceedingly fond of it ... no less than 50 jars or pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption; 2000 more were allowed for that of his household." Bags of cacao containing a specified number of beans were also a recognized form of currency in the country. The product was early introduced into Spain, and thence to other parts of Europe. The _Public Advertiser_ (London) of June 16, 1657, contains an announcement that "In Bishopgate St., in Queen's Head Alley, at a Frenchman's house, is an excellent West India drink, called chocolate, to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time, and also unmade at reasonable rates." Chocolate was a very fashionable beverage in the early part of the 18th century. Entry: COCOA
IXTACCIHUATL, or IZTACCIHUATL ("white woman"), a lofty mountain of volcanic origin, 10 m. N. of Popocatepetl and about 40 m. S.S.E of the city of Mexico, forming part of the short spur called the Sierra Nevada. According to Angelo Heilprin (1853-1907) its elevation is 16,960 ft.; other authorities make it much less. Its apparent height is dwarfed somewhat by its elongated summit and the large area covered. It has three summits of different heights standing on a north and south line, the central one being the largest and highest and all three rising above the permanent snow-line. As seen from the city of Mexico the three summits have the appearance of a shrouded human figure, hence the poetic Aztec appellation of "white woman" and the unsentimental Spanish designation "_La mujer gorda_." The ascent is difficult and perilous, and is rarely accomplished. Entry: IXTACCIHUATL
AVOCADO PEAR, the fruit of the tree _Persea gratissima_, which grows in the West Indies and elsewhere; the flesh is of a soft and buttery consistency and highly esteemed. The name _avocado_, the Spanish for "advocate," is a sound-substitute for the Aztec _ahuacatl_; it is also corrupted into "alligator-pear." _Avocato_, _avigato_, _abbogada_ are variants. Entry: AVOCADO
GUATEMALA (sometimes incorrectly written GUATIMALA), a name now restricted to the republic of Guatemala and to its chief city, but formerly given to a captaincy-general of Spanish America, which included the fifteen provinces of Chiapas, Suchitepeques, Escuintla, Sonsonate, San Salvador, Vera Paz and Peten, Chiquimula, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Totonicapam, Quezaltenango, Sololá, Chimaltenango and Sacatepeques,--or, in other words, the whole of Central America (except Panama) and part of Mexico. The name is probably of Aztec origin, and is said by some authorities to mean in its native form Quauhtematlan, "Land of the Eagle," or "Land of Forest"; others, writing it U-ha-tez-ma-la, connect it with the volcano of Agua (i.e. "water"), and interpret it as "mountain vomiting water." Entry: GUATEMALA
Another, not always just or fair, method of gauging the intelligence of the North American Indians is by their ability to assimilate the culture of the whites and to profit by the contact of the two races. Curiously enough, some of the tribes at one time considered lowest in point of general intellectual equipment have shown not a little of this ability, and there is a marked difference in this respect between tribes belonging to one and the same stock. The Athabaskan stock e.g. shows such variations, or rather perhaps this stock in general exhibits a tendency to adopt the culture of other peoples, thus some of the Athabaskan tribes in Alaska have acquired elements of culture from the Eskimo; the Takulli have been influenced by the Tsimshian, and Nahané by the Tlingit, the Chilcotin by the Salish, the Sarcee by the western Algonkian tribes, and in the extreme south the Navaho by the Pueblos Indians. The Salishan stock has largely this same characteristic. Of these two peoples Mr C. Hill-Tout (_The Salish and Déné_, London, 1907, p. 50) says: "It would be difficult indeed to find two peoples more susceptible to foreign influences, more receptive of new ideas and more ready and willing to adopt and carry them out." In the relations established between them and the whites not enough advantage in the proper way has been taken of this "philoneism," which ought to have been the basis of their acquisition of our culture, or such aspects of it as suited them best. And perhaps there are other stocks of which, if we knew them well, similar things might be said. Of the Indians of the Shoshonian stock the Paiutes of Nevada and Arizona have shown themselves capable of making themselves necessary to the whites (farmers, &c.) of that region, and not falling victims to the "vices of civilization." Although they still retain their primitive _wickiups_ (or rush huts), they seem actually to have improved in health, wealth and character from association with the "superior" race, a rare thing in many respects among the lower Indian tribes of North America. This improvement of the Paiutes causes us not to be surprised when we find the more cultured Moquis and the "civilized" Aztecs of ancient Mexico to belong to the same Shoshonian stock. Acculturation by borrowing has played an important rôle in the development of North American Indian ideas and institutions. This is well illustrated by the history of the Plains Indians, with their numerous intertribal societies, their temporary and their permanent alliances, federations, &c. If ways and means for the transfer of elements of culture indicate intelligence, some of these tribes must rank rather high in the scale. The Algonkian, Iroquoian and Muskogian stocks, both in the case of individuals and in the case of whole tribes (or their remnants), have exhibited great ability in the directions indicated. Of the Caddoan stock the Pawnees seem gifted with considerable native ability expressing itself particularly in the matter of religion (the Hupas, of the Athabaskan stock, seem also to have "a religious sense"). Some tribes of the Siouan stock have, both in the case of individuals and as peoples, given evidence of marked intelligence, especially in relation to psychic phenomena and the treatment of adolescent youth. In their culture, their ceremonies and ritual proceedings, as well as in their material arts, the Pueblos Indians of the south-western United States show, in many ways, their mental kinship with the creators and sustainers of the civilization of ancient Mexico and Central America. From the table of Indian tribes it will be seen that aborigines of the most diverse stocks have shown themselves capable of assimilating white culture and of adapting themselves to the new set of circumstances. Progress and improvement are not at all confined to any one stock. Entry: 5