any other race. The shank is short and slender. The 
condensation index, 1.0, is the lowest of any Mexican 
race. Nal-Tel is early in maturity, highly susceptible to 
rust, low in pilosity and has a light sheath color. 
When we reconstruct a primitive Nal-Tel in which a 
number of these features occur in accentuated form, we 
find that a plant resembling it has already been depicted 
for us in one of the ancient Mexican codices (see Well- 
hausen et al, 1952, Fig. 8). Botanists who are familiar 
with this illustration have always regarded it as highly 
stylized. In the light of the characteristics of Nal-Tel, 
there is reason to suspect that the maize plant depicted 
is not completely stylized, but that it is accurate in illus- 
trating a maize with short stalks, relatively few short, 
wide leaves, and bearing at one of the upper nodes a 
short ear incompletely enclosed in husks. 
Although Early Nal-Tel differs from modern Nal-Tel 
in a number of characteristics, the differences are not 
great and are more a matter of degree than of kind. There 
has actually been very little evolution in this race of 
maize in a period of some 4500 years. This is in marked 
contrast to certain other Mexican races in which evolu- 
tion has been rapid and even spectacular. 
Primitive Uses or MAIZE 
How did the primitive La Perra farmers use maize? 
It is reasonable to suppose that, just as there has been 
evolution in the maize plant, so has there also been evolu- 
tion in methods of utilizing it. It may also be supposed 
that this evolution has been from the more simple to the 
more complex. The archaeological remains suggest sev- 
eral uses. 
Chewing Young Kars: The simplest and easiest method 
was to chew the young ears, husks and all, soon after 
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