The San Francisco call. [volume], June 10, 1900, Image 9

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
During all of that time I scarcely ever
had a bath and lived upon a sort of corn
bread and dried meat. Only that and
nothing more. When I returned to civil
ization I was so ravenous. that I seized a
beefsteak arfd gnawed it while I held It
with my hands. Then I took a bath. For
five hours I took that bath.
I was ever fond of adventure, and had
managed to live on very good terms with
the Indians. One night about 10 o'clock
I was sitting In the store of an Indian
trader, when I heard a sound of a flute
and a deep, dull, muffled drum beat. The
trader told me that there was going to be
a funeral among the penltentes. It was
something that he had never seen.
1 determined to go to that funeral. It
came very nearly being mine as well..
The
Hamrasellf
Tglls OF
His Host
Ad vent Mrs
C\ NE of California s artist
f . . ....
sons has arrived at the kteh-
est honors that the French
. , mtM -_v ¦ - ,* . .
Acadcmx ts accustomed to give to
foreigners.
He has been brevcttcd an officer
of the academy by order of the
Minister of Instruction and Beaux
Arts. The fact that Amcdcc
Joullin is a native-born San Fran
ciscan and that the Minister in
awarding him the decoration par
ticularly dzcclt upon the fact that
he was "ctrangcr" is much to the
credit of California. Fleeing for
his life fzco years ago to escape
vengeance of savage Penitentes for
making sketches of their secret
funeral ceremonies, Jiozi' Amcdce
Joullin is gathering 'glory abroad
as a rcco<+:ition of his meritorious
paintings.
Art is long, for it has a long
road to travel. Ainedee Joiillin has
traveled that road, and literally
over thorny paths while he was in
Old and New Mexico, sketching
the ferocious Zunis, who suppose
that they are losing part of their
substance or at least their astral
forms when they sec their doppcl
gangcrs en canvas or paper.
His most exciting adventure of
all the wild year that he spent on
the desert and through the Zuni
Mountains zvas wlicn he zvatched
a funeral of the Penitentes. Many
stories of the Penitentes have been
told, but fczv have seen their rites,
and so far as knozvn, no other pcr
son, unless it be Charles F. Lum
mis, has ever, attended one of their
ritualistic funerals.
The sketches made in the Indian
lands by Mr. Joullin very nearly
cost him his life, and have an un
usual value for that reason.
Lumtnis 'himself only escaped
with his skin full of buckshot, and
he earnestly warned Joullin not to
attempt to make any pictures.
Ji has been an interesting ques
tion to know why these Indians
should have settled in so desolate a
region, and, furthermore, why they
arc so uniformly fierce and wicked,
for it is only zchen doing penance
that they are not doing harm to
others. They come honestly by
their dispositions, for they are de
scendants of renegades, outlaws
and exiles from Mexico, who had
their choice of death or banishment
to this bitter, desolate place.
1
£}y stmedee Joullin.
I sj>ent the greater part of a year, somo
tlm«-s or. horseback, mostly on foot, wan
dering over the mosas, lava beds and
bwttes of Western New Mexico.
- ¦ ' • ¦ •
The penltentes . like funerals. Outslfla
of the ¦ trader's .lodge the moon gleamed
over things with that apparent j daylight
brightness that is never seen except in the/
high, dry air of the Southern mountains.'
The moonlight is not the same thing here:
it is red or yellow. There it j is greenish •
' •white, like the calciunv light moonlights
on the • stage. ¦. The night was very still.
No sound but the 'croaking of a few frogs
down'by the waterhole.V I "saw the lights
and heard the music of the procession aa
It was about to' start from their mbrada.
The procession was headed by. two men.
•Snakes in his blood! The doctors talk
ing about William Hill's case in technical
terms call his affliction filariasis. Place
one drop of his blood under a microscope
or.d 11 is alive with great writhing, wrig
gling serpents. Perhaps you will see one
of these sinuous and twisting things,
made monstrous and repulsive under the
ler.ses. devouring a blood corpuscle. The
ted' blood, corpuscles are their prey. Tha
physicians who have been studying Hill's
rase say that he has more than seven
hundred thousand of these snakes, or
filaria. racing through his system.
So rare is filariasis in this climate that
Hill was exhibited before tL? New York
Fathcloglcal Society at the Academy of
Medicine at a recent meeting. Hill con
tracted the disease In the tropics. It al
ways has its origin in hot countries. It
was only after diligent and painstaking-
Investigation that the doctors at Ro3«e
velt Hospital were able to determine
Hill's disease. Then they were forced to
turn him away with, "We can do nothing
fur you." -
The miniature snakes, or worms, as per
haps Ihty might more properly be caUed.
fvir they are invertebrate, have their nat
ural habitation in the larvae of mos
quitoes. In their embryonic state the
tilana float about in the waters of tropical
streams or marshes. The mosquito larvae
in feeding take them in. They develop
rapidly in the mosquito larvae and thrive
even after the larvae have taken on wings
and fly away in the shape of the blood-
Fcckiiig pests. That they should thrive !n
the biiraan system is what astonishes the
prystclnns.
Hill had lived in Vera Cruz. Mexico. He
had worked on a planatation just previous
to coming to New York. While in the
fields he. had been forced in the absunee
of a purer water supply to drink di'ch
water. This water had been draine 1 cK
the fields. -The laboring people e'ther,
through- ignorance or careless disregard
of the dangers that lurk in this surfare
water. frequently drink it. In the water
he drank were mosquito larvae,
commonly known as wrigglers. Living m
these wrigglers were these tiny worms
which are now feasting on his red blood
corpuscles. . /
' Hill had -been In New York for a year
and a l»alf before he knew what was th?
matter with him. He obtained employ
ment soon after going there as an elevator
boy. His first ailment was noticed when
he was changed from a day to a night
shift of work. He grew restless. It was
Impossible for him to sit still for more
than a minute at a time. As long as he
was tugging at his elevator rope or was
opening or shutting doors for passengers
he felt all right. Bnt In the hours when
there were few passengers and little ac
tual work to do It was Impossible for him
to rest. He would begin to fidget the mo
ment he sat down. He sought relief from
wrapped only In a sheet. Twenty of the
penltentes walked about the hideous cata
falque. Barefooted, bareheaded, their
faces hidden by black cloths, they had
nothing else upon them but white trous
ers. In their hands they carried each a
whip or scourge, called a discipline, made
from the fibers of cactus and soaproot.
As they marched they took long, decided
steps. After each step they paused and
swung their disclpllnas backward over
their shoulders, striking a sounding blow
upon .the bare back. All stepped together.
All of the blows fell at once. That was
what had at ilrst sounded to me like the
beating of the muffled drum.
As. the men walked and struck them
selves the bleed flowed from the wounds
caused by the stripe3. A bearer attended
them with- a. bucket of water and sponged
-them with 'some sort of fluid preparation.
-Following -the: self-torturing men came
an equal* number of women. They were
entirely dressed in black and carried each
a lighted candle. As they walked they
wailed, not In unison with the step of the
men, the beating whips or the music; Just
their sad, hopeless howl, that seem3 cop
led from that of the coyote, the only song
ot the desert.
At short intervals the two men in front
fired revolvers. When they came to the
morada where the woman had lived all
got upon their hands and knees' and
crawling thus, purposely cut themselves
upon the sharp lava rocks. Rising again
they proceeded to their cemetery, a small
place marked by a low stone wall. Tho
head of each grave had a few rough
stones and a cross made of sticks lashed
together. A grave had already been dug
and the body was thrown into it with no
coffin and no shroud other than the small
sheet with which it had been covered.
All this time I had been dodging and
creeping along behind rocks and - sage
From the graveyard the Indiana w«nJ
over to an altar of largo stones, which
stood upon the mesa. Around it thero
was absolutely nothing but tha baro
ground for a considerable distance. Ev
erything had apparently been cleared
away for the very purpose of enabling
the Indians to prevent any one from
stealing up to observe their ceremonies.
After "remaining there for some timo
they again continued their march over
the mesa. The last thing I saw was tho
*cvo red lanterns. The sound of tha flute.
the thud of tho flagellation and the wall-
Ing of the women. Then the walling died
away in the distance; the flute and tho
blows I could still hear. Next the sound
of the beating ceased, and last of all tha
faint notes of the flute.
The moon had set. The mesas wera
black against the stars and X stumbled
back to my squalid cavern, sick and feel
ing' for the guilt-stained persons who
sought to thus lighten punishment for
their sins as the priest must feel for
the confessed penitent. For -these peoplo
arercrlmlnals of the most desperate class
free from that touch of joyous deviltry
that^ animates nearly all of those, whom)
we know as convicts.
The next morning early 1 was again at
the lodge of the trader, when there cama
in a villainous looking Indian who asked
me in bad Spanish whether I had mado
pictures of the penltentes. There waa
more in his manner 'than his words, but
I will not forget a word, a gesture, not
an expression of his countenance. I de
nied having any pictures of him In my
possession and he left sullen and threat
ening.
"Take your horse," said the trader.
"The sooner you leave and tho faster you
go, the better it will be for you."
I went soon and fast and— I'm going yet.
Strange Case of a 97fan Who JUrs Snakes
in Jfr/s 5ft food.
this restless state by walking, and usual
ly found It. Thi3 restlessness was later
accompanied by fever.
Then crme an itching sensation all over
his body, lie had been working nights for
several weeks, when this restlessness and
fever left him during the hours he was on
duty, but took hold of him about the timo
he had settled himself in bed for his day
light sleep. His sleep was so broken that
he complained to his employer that ho
was unable to rest in thfi day time, and
at his request he was changed back to
day work. The restlessness and itching
continued to harass him during the day
light hours, when he was not actually at
work. But he was getting good sleep at
night. This did not last long. All tho
troublous symptoms left in the day time,
but were present at night again, only to
the extent that his sleep was again
broken. He then concluded that it was
not the night work that caused his in
ability to sleep.
.The explanation of this shifting: ot
periods of discomfort is very interesting.
It was due entirely to the aversion that
these worms that lill Hill's blood have to
finding their paths disturbed. The time
when they like best to chase about
through blood vessels is when he is rest
ing. They had propagated In hi* system
in great numbers and were probably caus
ing him to be restless in his sleep, just at
the time he was put on night work. They
had not been present in sufficient numbers
to prevent him from setting to sleep, but
they were most active during midnight
The physicians have found that during
the hours that a person afflicted with
filariasis is, most active tiie tiny blood
snake hides away in the blood vessels,
where there is the least current. Inves
tigations made by pathologlsta in Samoa,
where the disease is most frequently
?t° U £&i haV^ 8hown th at one of the favor
ite hiding places during the time when tha
cS&SW co^^t^^^h'Pi^nld,^
fh 3Ce3 {.V he nis 5, t - b€gan roaming arouSI
through his arteries, veins and capillaries
at the time he had usually been asK
They were multiplying all the time and
in proportion to their growth in number!
grew the fever and restlessness. Hll™
tormentors finally shifted their workj"£
hours with his. Then, when he went back
!2 ? aj L rk l l was a week 6r two beforo
their habits changed. rt>
Hill finally began to suffer from chylurta
and becoming alarmed he went to Koose
vell Hospital.
They puzzled long over the case Th»
catient was not seriously ill apparen'lv
but they kept him at the hospital for a few
days. After a careiul inouiry into his nis
tory they placed some of his blood under
the microscope arcl were amazed at what
they saw. In each drop of blood there
were on the avesage live of the ravenous
snakes. Then thpy found that a I>r
Lewis, while traveling In Central America
twenty yars ago. had discovered the dis
ease. But in all the medical records of
New York there had not been more than
six cases. These had come from th«
tropics.
It Is estimated by the doctors that there
are 768.000 fllarla or blood snakes In his
body. This is on the basis oZ five to each
drop of blood.
each carrying red lanterns. Then came
the relatives, followed by a man carrying
a triangular frame In the shape of a pyra
mid with candles set upon it.
The corpse was seated, bolt upright,
strapped in a chair, which was set upon a
table, borne on the shoulders of four men.
Around the corpse, which was that of a
wonian, were burning candles. A white
irosa was affixed to tho bier and th«» hod?
brush trying my best to see. As th» fu
neral ceremonies at the grave proceeded
I had managed to get nearer and nearer
with but little to conceal me except the
small rock piles over the tombs.
As the Indians prepared for their re
turn I thought at Srnt that they w;re
going to march directly toward my hid
ing place, but I escaped without being
Been.
SKETCHED INDIANS WHILE DEATH STALKED AROUND HIS EASEL
AND IS DECORATED WITH PALMS FOR HIS PAINTINGS.
First Native Californian to Become an Officer of French Academy
-:¦-¦><> ¦ . :¦';¦¦¦:¦,¦
THE SUNDAY CALL.
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