Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-19
SOUTH SEA LEXICON
AMONG NEW F|NDS'
Charles u. Clark Reports to
Smithsonian on Results of
His Trip Abroad.
Go away. you evil woman.

Go away. you evil woman"
The earliest Christian missionaries t.
be sent to the Society Islands in the
South Seas set forth we'll fortified
against the wilcs OF satan, rs recountec
by the still earlier explorers. according
to curious manuscript, the discovery
Of which has just been reported by
Charles Upson Clark of the Smith
Sonlan Institution.
Mr. Clark is now combinR libraries OF
Spain and other Southern European
countries in search for manuscripts
dealing with the earlier explorations
and settlements in the New Wortd-a
research tproject endowed by Charles
Gates Dawes, now Ambassador to Great
Britain.
Gets Tahitian Vocabulary.
Among the rarest of his discoveries
to date, he reports in letters to the
Smithsonian. is Tahltian Nocsp9iary
published in Lima, Peru, in IVA,
shortly after the discovery of the So
ciety Islands. 1t was published Tor
students wishing to learn the rudiments
of the language of the brown skinned
natives before going among them to
spread the gospel,
But it was generally supposed at the
time that the islands. morally, were IN
a fearful state, where a white man
would be considered as an especial prize
by the duSky beauties. So one OF me
few completed sentences provided the
learners was stern rebuke to the
lovely sirens. All he had to do was to
saw "hisca amoyde" and the temptress
would stink away in shame.
The lexicon is considered important
from an genealogical point OF view, pro-
viding information concerning the IAN
s,Iage before 1t had been corrupted by
contact with the white men.
Found In Vatican Library.
A still more valuable manuscript was
secured by Mr.. Clark while searching
through the Vatican Library-probably
the first medical and botanical work
prepared in the New World. 1t was an
illustrated list. in very idiomatic Latin,
of the names and uses OF large num-
her of plants used by the Mexican ma
tives for medicinal purposes. There
were $50 water color paintings OF the
plants themselves in blossom. For each
plant the Aztec name was given, to-
rether with the Latin name in common
use.
The work was prepared by an Indian
trained in a Franciscan religious house
in Mexico and was dated 1852, shortly
after the conquest by CorteZ and the
beginning of the Spanish inf1ltration OF
the former Aztec Empire.
The strange civilization which Cortez
found among the people OF Monte&uma.
comparable in some respects to. that
of Europe, evidently had an established
medicine OF its own, quite aside from
the magic which was practiced in COM
mon with all primitive peoples. the
pharmacopeia was unrecorded, however,
and the Indian, JOannes SadianuS, EVIL
IDENTIFY tried to put it on record from the
verbal accounts OF the native doctors
and the popular home remedies de-
scribed by the people.
Valuable Drawings.
The idiomatic Latin will be difficult
to translate and probably will reveal
nothing of real medical value for which
better substitutes have not been evolved.
The drawings, however, are so clear
and detailed that they may be com
pared with later records of Mexican
fora and valuable information obtained
as to what was growing at the time Oh
the invasion by CorteZ.
One item is thus described by Mr..
Clark: Quauhtla xoxocoyolin. with. two
morning glory-shaped flowers and four
stems, each crowned with leaf in the
form of a cross with four equal arms.
all from thick, Dubious root. The
Latin description has been translated as
follows: Medicine which when dried
produce saliva causes saliva to now
and checks too great thirst. Thirst can
be prevented by use of certain grasses
which have oil and vinegar mixed with
a male Indian dove"
The use of the male dove, whose hesh
presumably was ground up in the mix
ture. probably was survival OF the
Aztec magic practices with bontanical
product which may have had real EN-
cacy for persons caught far away from
water in the dry Mexican countryside.
The existence of this manuscript has
been known for along time and search
made for 1t by Vatican scholars, be-
cause of some unsatisfactory reproduc-
tions made many years ago. Comparl-
son with the original shows these re-
productions to have been very stilted
and inaccurate. Mr.. Clark's success
came largely as all accident after the
failure OF other Searchers.
Light ON Native Cultures.
An immense amount of material bear
ing on early New World history remains
70 be recovered, he reports 10 the
Smithsonian, not only from the Vati-
can library, but from other manuscript
deposits in Spain and Italy, and much
of this may be expected to throw new
light on the Spanish settlements and
the conflicts which arose between Eu-
ropean and native cultures. He eX-
poets especially to find much material
on the customs and religious practices
of the Aztecs, which were very colorful
and of which little is known.
The manuscripts would consist OF
such material rs reports Of members OF
missionary orders to their headquarters
and the letters and reports OF Colonial
officials and explorers.
Up to the present Mr. Clark has gone
little beyond a preliminary survey OF
the possible sources OF such material by
which the story of the past can be
resurrected from dusty library shelves