Mexican Maize Fields 25 



exhausted the nitrogen in the soil, and because the Indians 

 did not know how to fertilize the cornfields, it was necessary 

 to start new milpas every third or fourth year, allowing the old 

 ones to lie fallow and renew themselves. 



In the idiom of the natives: to live was "to make milpa." A 

 woman needed a man to "make milpa for her." A prudent 

 man was known by his full granary. He grew twice as much 

 maize as his family could eat. The surplus became money to 

 be bartered in the market for other goods. When one of the 

 villagers made the journey to the city, with his macapal (netted 

 bag) slung over his back and held by a band across the fore- 

 head, he thought nothing of carrying in it one hundred and 

 fifty pounds of maize. Then when he returned, walking with 

 that pigeon-toed gait and bent head that marks the macapal 

 bearers, the villagers would gather about him for news. Al- 

 ways the first question asked was, "What's the price of maize?" 



The maize grown by the natives of Yucatan was of four 

 colors white, red, yellow and blue. A religious significance 

 was attributed to the colors, which were also associated with 

 the four points of the compass and with the Four Bacabs, the 

 gods who held up the corners of the earth and so influenced 

 the winds and the rains. When the Indian went out to sow 

 he carried the seed in a sack slung over his shoulder. With a 

 sharp, pointed stick he made a hole in the ground, dropped 

 into this four, or sometimes five, grains of maize and covered 

 them over. 



Four kernels of corn to a hill. The New England farmer 

 still plants his sweet corn that way. The way Squanto taught 

 the men of Plymouth to plant; the way John Smith learned 

 of Powhatan, and instructed the starving gentlemen of Vir- 

 ginia to follow for success with the crop. In the southern states 

 they have a rhyme for the ritual: 



One for the squirrel, one for the crow, 

 One for the cut-worm and one to grow. . . . 



In this connection, it is interesting to note that the sign 



