PREFACE 
and a letter to highway employees, which were of 
inestimable value to us on a great many occasions. 
As Jefe Politico of San Marcos in 1935-36, he had 
performed similar services for us. In 1944 he ob- 
tained under difficulties some rare plant material 
which was essential to certain bean identifications. 
Our cordial friend, Senor Don Manuel Tejada 
Llerena, Director of Customs in Guatemala during 
the years when we were there, personally arranged 
for exemptions from duties on our equipment, in- 
cluding our car in 1935, 
Sefior Don Delfino Sanchez Latour, of the Foreign 
Office, facilitated diplomatic negotiations for us on 
a number of occasions. Dr. Erwin Deger, of the 
Instituto Quimico-Agricola Nacional, made tests of 
soil samples for me. Prof. J. Joaquin Pardo, director 
of the National Archives, assisted in my search for 
historical sources, and has faithfully provided me . 
with his quarterly Bulletin for many years. 
The jefes politicos (governors) of all the depart- 
ments in which we worked extensively were most 
cooperative in writing letters to local town and 
village authorities. This was done in Solola, Totoni- 
capan, Quezaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, 
Retalhuleu, Escuintla, and Suchitepequez. Almost 
without exception the local officials went far beyond 
the requests in extending courtesies and genuine hos- 
pitality as well as routine assistance. Indian guides, 
informants, interpreters, and carriers helped us on 
innumerable occasions. Empty schoolrooms or 
municipal headquarters were furnished us as places 
to sleep if no other facilities were available, as was 
often the case when we circled the Cuchumatanes 
region on muleback in 1940, 
It has been upon the friendly attitude of thousands 
of individual Indians throughout the regions where 
we worked that the completion of our studies has de- 
pended. Their willingness to answer hundreds of 
apparently nonsensical questions, often with giggling 
and obvious embarrassment, regarding their farm- 
ing and crafts and trading activities, even to provid- 
ing seeds and samples of their workmanship, has 
made it possible for us to wander among them at 
will and obtain almost any information we needed 
at first hand and with a minimum of distortion. 
To my father, Dr. John M. McBryde, Dean of 
the Graduate School and Professor of English 
Emeritus of Tulane University, I am indebted for 
assistance in preparing the manuscript and in reading 
the proof. 
Dr. Julian H. Steward, Director of the Institute 
of Social Anthropology, made valuable suggestions 
and editorial criticisms concerning the organization, 
context, and wording of the monograph. The final 
phase in the preparation of the manuscript was 
completed in the Institute. 
Parts of this study have been presented as illus- 
trated papers and map exhibits at the annual meetings 
of the Ohio Academy of Science: geography and 
botany sections, in 1938, 1939, and 1940, and in 
1942 botany, zoology, geography, and anthropology 
sections. In 1941 my illustrated paper and map ex- 
hibit at the New York meeting of the Association 
of American Geographers was based on material 
now incorporated in this monograph. 
An exhibit of photographs and my wife’s water 
colors of Indian types, arranged around the Lake 
Atitlan map, was on display at the Golden Gate In- 
ternational Exposition, San Francisco, during 1939 
and 1940. 
Except for plates 45-47, all photographs, maps, 
and diagrams in this report were made by the author. 
Permission to use the aerial photographs in plates 
45-47 was granted by the United States Army Air 
Forces. I am grateful to my wife for her excellent 
water-color sketches and for assistance with lettering. 
Miss Edna Kelley, cartographic draftsman in the 
Topographic Branch, Military Intelligence Service, 
rendered important aid in the mounting of photo- 
graphs and the preparation of legends and overlays 
on several of the maps, especially Nos. 3, 8, and 23. 
XV 
