July 6, 1996

Dear Bill,

I will send this to Australia.

Send me a copy of your book. I will pay. I’m off to Maine for summer. My chicken book was shot down by the Anthropologists! I have been writing a chapter for the England Research Association on diffusion.

Interesting recent findings. The jade pieces from La Venta, Mexico, are marked. The marks read in Chang Dynasty language and name well known people in China!

My argument runs. The Spanish had Dung Hill Fowl bare legged, single combed, showy tail, held up at 30°, sharp upcurved spurs, and the hen layed white shelled eggs. The Amerinds had Melanotic Silkies - over all of Latin America -, Frizzle Fowl, brown or tinted eggs, blue eggs layers " South America and into Honduras -, mixed bred fowls with many Asiatic features, fluffy feathers, short wings and legs " these I have seen in Mexico. In Japan and India very small chickens, ditto Mexico, probably elsewhere.

Mexican says: "Ours were small". The Spanish could not have brought these for they didn’t know them at 1600 AD, except by hear says Aldrovandi.

Names for melanotic chickens are virtually identical in India (Karakuath, Chogo Kara, etc) to the Arawak (northern interior of South America). Names for chicken " Tarahumba and related tribes " Totori, Tori, Tottori. Japanese: Cehua Tori (yardbird, ondori cock, mendori hen. Or just Dori.)

In Japan very small chickens are the aboriginals, many regional variants. Very like the wild Gallus. In Japan they are regional type names.

Religion etc. Most people worldwide would not eat chickens or eggs originally. Chickens are ritual, sacrificial birds. The melanotic is most important. Maya most notable for this. Very close similarity in beliefs about chickens, especially melanotics. Great detail in Carl Johannensen’s work. Question? Does this go back to the Chinese Olmec. The Maya are the cultural descendents.

Name of last Inca Atahualpa. Ata, chicken in Ecuador many variants. Hualpa, chicken all over Inca empire, invariant. So the last Inca was named chicken-chicken. Obviously honorific.

All the best.