CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 47 
cane strips are laid longitudinally, one on each side of 
the crest, the sealing is made more effective by pieces 
of tile and sherds cupped over the ridge, and 
additional bunches of grass bound down by vines 
(bejucos). 
At Santa Catarina Palopé many, though not all, of 
the houses exhibit a type of crest wherein the topmost 
bunches of thatch (pajén grass) are gathered up into 
a comb and bound to cane strips placed longitudinally 
along each side. (Pyramidal roofs here are also 
_ bound at the top, without a bowl, as has been stated.) 
The comb type of crest also occurs at Zaragoza. A 
unique roof crest at Santa Apolonia is “encased in 
a lime mortar.”®® This represents a reflection of a 
local industry based upon the environment, for there 
is a limestone outcrop near Santa Apolonia and the 
town is one of the major lime-producing centers of 
Southwest Guatemala.7° Gasoline tins sometimes are 
used to patch a roof or help seal the crest. 
HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS 
The inside of an Indian house consists ordinarily of 
the barest essentials. The fireplace is a rough circle 
of smooth stones, normally three, laid at. one end or 
corner on the dirt floor. Everything is permeated 
with the smell of smoke, which generally fills the 
house, for as a rule there are neither chimneys nor 
windows. This fumigation affords: some protection 
against insects (pl. 44, f). 
Generally stacked near the hearth is a quantity of 
crusty, sooty pottery of various sizes and shapes (pls. 
41, 42), and other utensils. These include several 
deep jars for boiling corn, beans, soup, etc.; deep 
water jars (t¢imajas); colander jars for rinsing 
softened corn (nixtamal) ; a wide, shallow, circular 
griddle (comal) for baking tortillas (corn cakes), 
which in some sections is being replaced by iron gaso- 
line-drum tops; dishes and cups, which are giving 
way rapidly to bright-colored imported enamel ware; 
a tin coffeepot ; spoons and ladles of wood and gourd 
(pl. 43, e), and wooden four-blade churn sticks 
(molinillos) for whipping chocolate by spinning the 
handle vertically between open palms. Wauchope 
(1938, p. 120) reports more pottery in Guatemala 
houses than in those of Yucatan. Gasoline tins are 
much prized.t There is always at least one tripodal 
~ © Wauchope, 1938, p. 112 (fig. 41, opposite p. 112, illustrates nine 
different types of roof crests). 
70Santa Apolonia is also an important pottery center, but doubtless 
the lime mortar is a more satisfactory sealing agent, being relatively 
watertight and easily applied. 
“For some of the many uses to which gasoline tins and the packing 
boxes for shipping them are put, see McBryde, 1933, p. 120, ftn. 57. 
lava metate. The metate, called locally piedra de 
moler, is an essential element in every household. 
Much of a woman’s day is spent grinding softened 
corn, coffee, cacao, and other things on it. Ordinarily, 
separate metates are used for each. There are usually 
one or two fire fans, made either of corozo leaf seg- 
ments or of tule (rush) pith, called sivdc, which is 
less common. Gourds, baskets, and nets serve a 
number of purposes, and many containing food are 
hung from the ceiling to avoid insects and animals. 
Furniture includes one or more wooden chests (as 
a rule, the Totonicapan variety, ornately but crudely 
decorated with red and yellow paint, and sometimes 
carved) and gasoline packing boxes serving a variety 
of purposes; several racks of shelves, often of cane; 
one or more low tables; a few small, quite low stools, 
and a miniature (pl. 33, d) or a benchlike chair; and 
usually a platform bed of poles or planks with palm 
or rush mats (petates) and often also blankets to 
cushion them. Many persons sleep in hammocks, 
especially in the Lowlands. There may be a screen 
of some sort, such as a large palm mat, to afford a 
measure of privacy, for ordinarily the house consists 
merely of a single big room, one end for cooking and 
eating and the other for sleeping. Some of the more 
modern town Indians, e.g., at San Cristobal Totonica- 
pan and Totonicapan, have much more elaborate 
furnishings, including beds, bureaus, and tables of 
European design. Generally, there is a small altar, 
consisting of a wooden table with crosses, images 
and pictures of saints, incense burners, and decora- 
tions of ribbon, pine boughs, and flowers; and a 
carpet of pine needles to kneel upon. 
Ladino furniture is more elaborate, as a rule, than 
Indian. Beds are of straw ticks on a full wooden 
frame, or there may be large canvas cots. Chairs are 
of full size rather than the little Indian models (pl. 
33, d), and there are stone or brick stoves in the 
kitchens. 
Spanish influence on native household furnishings 
at the Conquest is brought out by Médel.™ 
STRUCTURES OTHER THAN DWELLINGS 
Among other structures in Southwest Guate- 
mala are sweat houses (femascales), usually of stone 
with adobe roofs. These are used for steam and 
72 Among Indian ‘‘reforms”’ in dress, furniture, and other traits, it is 
stated that the Indians got tables and beds from the Spaniards; that 
before the Conquest “the ground was the natives’ table and bed,’’ 
though sometimes they slept in hammocks, or on rush mats or piles of 
leaves (Médel, Ms., 1550-60 (?), pp. 194-195, f. 217). 
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