Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-07-01
THE DARIEN
DEADLINE
Ne. 1.-THE Battk Baly,
BY LEMuEL r. PARTON.

| =. d Hreder, scientist of the Amer
the M.rsh-Darisa expedition' has
confirmed the report Of Robert g.
Marsh that he has discovered white
Indians. II. later. more detailed
seM sae sa0uld finally establish
Darien peoples, 1t may also produce
an explanation of the puzzling phe-
nomenon of the piebald peopfes, or
pintos'" as they are sometimes
The general color scheme of the
natives Of this region is, to put it
mildly, cratic. AnthropoIogists have
| confessed that they have no adequate
solution oG Of this problem of strange
1t Is due to onsanguinity-these peo-
pie have been isolated from the rest
of the world and there has been
much tn-breeding.
Village Of Pisbnlds.
1 became especially interested in
the phenomenon Of the spotted peo-
pies, in its bearing on the transmits
sion Of acquired characteristics.
while there is not a shred of sound
evidence to show that this popularity
while my observations were not ex-
Iensive enough to have any scientific
vsild1ty, the fact remains that Tucuti
IS q village Of ptebalds and that In
families. 1t will easily be under
stood that. il it could be shown that
this Is = biological factor, instead of
ton, 1t would acquire profound sig
nificance. While it is true that the
Darten, Isolated as 1t is, has been an
ideal laboratory, in which nature
Il is diaicuit to predicate any real
Tacial differentiation on the facts in
hand, on account of the virtual i'm
possibility of ascribing any survival
value to the cratic augmentation.
NY oeservatiens covered several in
stances of children apparently copy
ing their parents designs.
Marked Like Mother.
When l was down there Greenwich
Village had not yet haunted it's Batik
banner to the world. but there was
ono baby in Tueuti which would to-
satit BABY. u It be Bore saop prins as c6 the
ering its entire body, astonishinsiv
IKE the battk, which one associates
WIN samoyars and free verse. The
Chinese: He went to Kncon ones
every Ave years and brought back n
boatlead of aguadiente (eane whisky
ana trinkets, which he traded to the
natives for gold dust. Its mother
woman. Her design was amazinEiS
like that of the baby, especially the
a ei,ia OF q charming zig-zag: compo-
oatik effect, In. the baby's makeup
was accumulated by the yelIowish
Chinese strain.
It was happy, healthy little baby,
WIN snappy black eyes, like r&fsins
she would be about eighteen years
old now. If Marsh should bring her
70 New York I am sure she would
pc the belle of the Greenwich Village
pali-and with the cheapest costume
MY notes contain records of several
other children who were marked like
Lheir parents, but the data are insult
hcient to justify any formulation re-
gardtng heritability.
Fretective CeIorfnxs
We decided to try out a possibly
far-fetohed hypothesis that the color
variants constituted protective color
ing. and in this we would find the
element of survival value which we
sought. We chose Tulio. a tall,
pertinent. with him We took Castor
= shiny, black Martinique boy, our
Interpreter. and went into the deep
Jungle. We chose a spot where stray
shafts OF sunlight shot through the
green into eccentric patterns. like
futurist drawing Here we stoed
TuIio and CASTOR a few feet apart.
Then we withdrew to a spot about
loo yards away and awaited another
member OF our expedition, who knew
nothlng OF our experiment.. We met
him and blindfolded him and then
led him to an opening between the
savannahs. Lifting his bandare for
a second or two. we asked him what
he saw. He replied that he saw Gas
ton. He did not see the native In
seven out OF twelve trials, in differ
ent places in the jungle, he saw
Saston only; in two or three he saw
both 11iio and CASTOR and in the
remainder ne saw CASTOR frst
Question Of TiRe.
In conducting this experinent we
realised for the first time that the
piebald markings are, in the dense
jungle, astonishingly like veeetatia,
mottled by sunlight. 1t is obyieu.
that adaptations such as this do net
these people have had for such 8
augmentation, but is it not possible
that there Is an adventurous suryiysI
value IN these markings?
we oegan the drafting Of a rough
Mendelian chart Of some Of the fam,
HES OF TIcuti with a view to get
ting some, data which might be
~ortn While, but cur plans were
wrreeked by 9 fortuitous combin alton
bcatioad Of yams. the batik baby and
other factors, which sent us hur-
r1edly on our way.
Copyright, 1924. BY the North Auerie,,
Nevupapsr Alliance.)
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