48 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 4 
warm-water baths.”* They are particularly numer- 
ous at Santiago and Solola, though found in a 
number of other villages around the Lake, in the 
high valley of Quezaltenango—Totonicapan and the 
Cuchumatanes, and common throughout Highland 
Guatemala. They are more rarely seen in the Low- 
lands, though there are a few at San Pedro Cutzan, 
a Lake village colony, and I have observed them at 
Santo Tomas la Union and Chicacao. There are 
also cane-walled thatch-roofed corncribs and chicken 
coops. The latter often have the floor above 
ground; at Santa Cruz la Laguna, the floor is 2 feet 
off the ground. At San Pedro Laguna they were 
made mostly of split maguey stems. (I was told there 
that a law, effective January 5, 1936, made chicken 
coops mandatory, but this was not verified.) At 
Santa Catarina Palopd, several corncribs had been 
made with maguey flower stalks for ridge poles. 
Adjacent to almost every house in San Bartolomé 
Aguascalientes there was a pole-enclosed chicken 
coop, about 3 feet (90 cm.) cubed, elevated 10 or 12 
feet (3-3.7 m.) above the ground. 
Other minor structures include enclosures made 
for gitisquil (chayote or vegetable pear)** occasional 
adobe beehive-shaped ovens, and, in the Lowlands, 
platform seedbeds (usually for tomatoes), built on 
posts, some 5 feet (1.5 m.) off the ground. At San 
Pedro Cutzan, many are identical with those illus- 
trated by Wauchope at Xocenpich, Yucatan (1938, 
fig. 49 d., p. 131). This latter is apparently a Low- 
land trait. 
INDIAN COSTUMES 
EARLY TYPES 
The pre-Columbian appearance and garb of Guate- 
mala aborigenes is none too clearly described in the 
literature. In writing of the peoples of Central 
America in general, Oviedo refers to the practice of 
tattooing with flint knives and black powder of pitch 
soot (?),’° and to professional maestros for the pur- 
73 Bathing in Lake Atitlan is almost entirely confined to Ladinos, for 
the Indians dislike the cold water, which they regard as unhealthful, 
apparently both for drinking and bathing, and this is one reason why 
most Indians who inhabit the shores of Lake Atitlan cannot swim. In 
the Lowlands, bathing in rivers is customary; in the Highlands, out- 
door bathing is largely restricted to warm springs and streams, as at 
San Cristébal Totonicapdn and Momostenango, At the latter village, 
nude bathing in the warm springs by both sexes together, at all ages, 
is customary (pl. 34, a). Women bathe separately in the thermal 
springs at Sacapulas. 
74 These are made of maguey flower stalks at San Pedro Laguna. 
7 Oviedo in one place (1851-55, vol. 1, p. 204) calls this “tile,” in 
another (1851-55, vol. 4, p. 38) “‘tiel.”’ In the first reference it was 
said to be sold in the markets, wrapped in biahos (bijao) leaves, and 
used for branding slaves. ry 
pose. Each chief had a certain design, which was 
adopted by his followers (Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 4, p. 
38). Men wore, according to Oviedo (writing about 
1527), corselets without sleeves, made of “exquisite 
cotton,” woven, and of many colors, and girdles 
(cenideros) made up of thin white cotton belts, a 
“hand” wide, twisted to cord the thickness of the 
thumb, and bound around the trunk “from breast to 
hips.” A loose end served as a loincloth and was 
gathered under a fold in the corselet. Men wore 
double-soled deerskin sandals also, called gutaras, 
tied on with cotton cords or thongs. The same 
author stated that plebeian women wore skirts reach- 
ing nearly to the knees; noblewomen (principales), 
skirts of thinner material and ankle length, and neck- 
cloths that covered the breasts. Women also wore 
numerous strings of beads and necklaces of many 
types (Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 4, p. 38). 
Médel (Ms. 1550-60, p. 194, f. 217) described 
costumes of various sorts. In certain sections of the 
Lowlands men “spent their entire lives as naked as 
when they were born, without clothing from head to 
foot,” whereas the women showed more modesty and 
wore a short cotton apron. Spanish influence moder- 
ated this, he said, and the Indians were baptized and 
“reformed.” A “second sort of Indians,” while not 
entirely without clothes, wore so little “that we would 
feel very naked if we went around that way.” They 
wore merely a locally woven cotton cloth 48 inches 
square; women wore them longer, to the feet. Men 
and women wore nothing above the waist. Not only 
Indians of tierra caliente and tierra templada dressed 
this way, “but even in quite cold and rigorous re- 
gions.” 
The Capotitlan report (Anon., Ms. 1579, pp. 12, 
13, ff. 110, 111) shows that by 1579 “a shirt and 
breeches with wide bottoms like those of sailors” had 
been adopted by the Indians. This “reformed” cos- 
tume included also a cape 48 inches (122 cm.) square, 
made of the “cotton which was called ayate” (maguey 
fiber). The knot formed by tying two corners to- 
gether was worn usually on the right shoulder (this 
was probably so as to permit greater freedom for the 
right arm), though by some it was worn in front of 
the neck, and by others, over the left shoulder; there 
A sim- 
ilar garment is worn in the same ways in this region 
today. (Pl. 3, d.) Chiefs and commoners for the 
most part were barefoot and without hats. Some of 
the more original individuals wore jackets of “linen” | 
were many variations in the wearing of it. 
