ter. These are wrapped in waxed paper printed with a 
trademark. Including the twisted ends, this is a unit 
about four inches long and much more slender than the 
primitive bajote. 
Fiven about twenty years ago, this commercial type 
of chimo had gained great acceptance, and several brands 
were available. At present, according to official statistics 
(pers. comm.), about 20,000 kilos (44,000 pounds) 
monthly are made by machinery. The best known 
brands of this type of chimo are made in the State of 
Trujillo, trademarked ‘‘San Benito’’ and ‘‘Carmana’’. 
As long as chimo was essentially a product of home 
manufacture and consumption in a limited area, the first 
consideration was quality. As it enters the area of com- 
mercial enterprise, two other factors become important : 
quantity for the consumer and profit for the maker. 
In 1949, a bajote of chim6 cost one cent (un centavo) ; 
later, the price went up to two and a half cents (/ocha), 
where it has remained. However, the quantity of chim6 
in a bqjote has dwindled. In some cases, chim6 is wrapped 
in two layers of corn husk or banana stem material ‘‘to 
make it look like something’’, said a woman in Bocono 
(39). he machine-produced type of chimo has never 
seemed to be as much for the money as the primitive 
type. ; 
CHIMO: WHERE AND WHO? 
The State of Mérida seems to have been the center of 
dispersion of chimo in pre-Columbian times, according 
to Dupouy (27). His map indicates that the post- 
Columbian use has spread beyond the three other states 
to which it then extended (‘Tachira, Trujillo and Barinas) 
to four additional states: Portuguesa, Lara, Yaracuy 
and Apure. Cardona (17) correctly adds Zulia to these 
states (Dupouy, pers. comm.). (See Plate II.) 
Chimo is used in a Department of Colombia adjacent 
[ 10 | 
