Evening star., 1941-03-25
Disease Hos Played
Major Role in History
Over the World
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Measles, one of the worst epi-
denies of which in recent years now
is sweeping the country, long has
been one iof the scourges of man.
kind.
The little small pox," as it was
known to the American Indians, has
played its role in history together
with typhus and influenza, old rec
ords unearthed in the files of the
Bureau of American Ethnology of
the Smithsonian Institution here
show
In the spring of 1892, for example,
it nearly wiped out the warlike
Apache and Kiowa Indians of the
Southwest, who had been the
fiercest foes of white progress.
Marked the Living.
AS it was recorded by the late DR..
James Mooney of the bureau staff:
Nearly every woman had her
hair cut close to her head and her
face and arms gashed with knives
in token of mourning. Some
chopped of fingers as a token of
grief over the loss of favorite
child.
The men also cut off their hair
at the shoulders and discarded their
usual ornaments and finery. On one
occasion while driving near the
camp my attention was attracted by
low wailing and looking for the
cause I saw sitting in the tall grass
by the wayside a bereaved father
stripped to his breechcloth, with his
hair cropped close to his head, and
blood dripping from the gashes that
covered his naked body.
Wagons, harness, tepees, blan-
kets and other property were burned
and horses and dogs shot over the
graves of their owners to accompany
them to the other world. The de-
struction Of property in this way
amounted to thousands of dollars
Every night and morning most of
the women went into the hills to
mourn for their loved ones. They
would return with blood dripping
from fresh gashes on their faces
and arms This continued for weeks,
far into the fall"
Treatment Raised Toll.
The malady attacked adults as
we'll as children, for the tribes had
not acquired resistance to the virus
The death rate was made much
worse, Mr.. Mooney believed, by the
practice of sweating a sick child
and then plunging it in ice-cold
water. This was common Indian
way Of treating any fever.
The Omaha tribe has a little
smallpox month" in their calendar.
1t was depicted in picture writing
as human figure covered with
spots. The Pimas of New Mexico,
the bureau records show, had de-
veloped rational method of inoc-
ulation by exposing their children
to mild attacks of both measles and
smallpox to produce immunity.
The white race escapes the most
devastating attack of measles by an
immunity built up through four or
five thousand years. The disease
was pictured in Teuton folklore as
mystic red dog that broke loose
from its chains in the spring and
fall and wandered over the world.
Pictured as Evil Sister.
The Slavonic peoples. bureau ac-
counts show. considered measles as
red-headed supernatural maiden
one of nine malevolent sisters who
plagued the world with fevers. Most
Of the time they were kept chained
in a cavern. Whenever they broke
loose they attacked man without
mercy in revenge for their imprison-
ment.
Presumably the Aryan peoples
brought measles into Europe with
them from the Asian steppes. and
made very little distinction between
it and the very similar smallpox. At
the start, it is likely, one was about
as fatal as the other.
The disease also moved eastward
with primitive man, it is evidenced
by Chinese and Japanese legendry.
Up to few generations ago it was
customary, during a measles cpl
demic, for parents to post notices on
their doors informing the measles
spirit that the children had been
sent away to visit relatives.