I at once examined three Mayas of pure blood--a
boy of ten years and two adult males--but found no trace of such a
spot. I concluded that the presence of the spot might be an infantile
character, as it is among the Japanese, but at that time I had no
opportunity to examine Maya babies.

Dr. Baelz, a German physician, who has spent many years in Japan, long
ago called attention to the existence of such spots on Japanese infants.
The spots described by him were of a blue or purple color, were located
upon the back (especially in the sacral region), and were variable in
form and size. They were temporary, disappearing at from two to eight
years of age. The occurrence of these infantile color blotches was so
common in Japan as to be almost characteristic of the race.

In time, other students reported similar spots on other Asiatic babies,
and on non-Asiatic babies of Mongolian or Mongoloid peoples. Chinese,
Annamese, Coreans, Greenland Eskimos, and some Malays are now known to
have such spots. Sacral spots have also been reported among Samoans and
Hawaiians.

Practically, all these people belong to the great yellow race, as
defined by De Quatrefages, and are, if not pure representatives of that
race, mixed bloods, in part, of it. Baelz and some other writers have,
therefore, gone so far as to consider the purple sacral spot a mark
peculiar to that race, and to believe its occurrence proof of Mongolian
origin. They have asked whether the spot occurs among American Indians,
and would consider its occurrence evidence of an Asiatic origin for
our native tribes. Satisfactory observations had not been made. Baelz
himself found two cases among Vancouver Island Indians.

In my recent trip to Mexico I planned to look for this spot among
several Indian tribes. Out of six populations that I expected to visit I
really saw but two--the Aztecs and the Mayas. I do not believe that
the sacral spot exists among Aztecs. I made no search, because
Aztec friends, who would be sure to know, all agreed in denying its
occurrence. Among the Mayas, the case is different. In the little Maya
town of Palenque I examined all the pure blood babies. The back of the
first little creature bared for my inspection bore a clearly defined,
dark blue-purple spot, just where it might be expected. The spot was
almost two inches wide and nearly three-fourths of an inch high. The
child was a boy of eight months. A brother, two years old, showed no
trace of the s