58 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 4 
in a shallow, circular container, and sold in sections, 
wrapped in cotton cloth. Most of it is peddled to 
town-dwelling Ladinos. 
Though cheese is made in many localities where a 
few dairy cattle may be kept, there are certain muni- 
cipios which specialize in this product. In the High- 
lands, considerable quantities go to Solola from San 
José Chacaya, and according to Tax (Ms., 1935), to 
Chichicastenango from San Sebastian Lemoa. Cattle 
are especially abundant in the savanna lands of the 
Coastal Plain, and cheese is a common product. 
Even here, certain centers stand out, as San Ber- 
nardino, which has long been noted for its cheese. 
It is marketed along the piedmont in both directions, 
mainly between Cuyotenango and San Antonio. A 
subsidiary to cheese making in San Bernardino is 
the raising of pigs, which are fed upon the whey 
(see p. 38; map 13). 
Popcorn confections.—Patzim has developed an 
unusual specialty in confections of popcorn, coated 
_ with a sticky sirup prepared from panela. It is sold 
in bulk in the neighboring markets under the term 
boceles. Small, rectangular cakes are made also of 
fine white roundish seeds (probably one of the goose- 
foot family, Chenopodiaceae). 
Candies.—In addition to the common pink and 
white rock candies and taffy sold in markets and 
stores, there often appear, particularly during fairs, 
special types of candies that have characteristic names 
and are peculiar to certain localities. One of these, 
called chupete, is said to be prepared from honey, 
variously flavored and appropriately colored arti- 
ficially, as with lemon (yellow), mint (green), cin- 
namon (red), etc. The candies are wrapped in small 
wax-paper cones, and each is attached to a wooden 
stick, the over-all length being about 6 inches. These 
are made chiefly in Quezaltenango and are marketed 
by merchants from there. 
Another special type of candy which represents 
an important localized industry is that of alfenique. 
It is made in Sacapulas (and only there, apparently) 
of squash seeds and locally obtained sugarcane 
juice boiled down. Alfenique is made up into flat, 
brownish rings 2 to 3 inches in diameter. They are 
generally sold in markets by Sacapulas men, who also 
sell mecapales (tumplines), which they make on a 
large scale of rawhide with the hair left on the side to 
go against the forehead. These products are fre- 
quently sold as far away as Solola and other even 
more distant plazas, being particularly in evidence 
during fairs. Often the men sit in the plaza and 
braid tumpline ends. ; 
Salt.—By far the greater part of the salt consumed 
in Southwest Guatemala comes from various centers 
along the shores of the Pacific (map 18). There 
are two major types, a coarse grayish “cooked” (fire- 
evaporated) salt, derived through leaching lagoon 
deposits near the sea and boiling the brine (pl. 1, 
d),and a fine white “sal de sol,” obtained by evaporat- 
ing sea water in basins exposed to the sun (pl. 1, ¢). 
Both kinds are sold in bulk, as granular salt. There 
are minor salt-producing centers in and marginal to 
the Cuchumatanes Mountains, such as ‘San Mateo 
Ixtatan®® and, especially, Sacapulas. This inland 
salt, like most of that made along the ocean, is 
produced by cooking brine leached from earthy 
deposits of sodium chloride, which probably were 
laid down in geologic time in marine embayments 
adjacent to the great limestone deposits of the 
Cuchumatanes Mountains. Sacapulas salt is gen- 
erally sold in flat (34-inch), round cakes,®! 2 or 
3 inches in diameter (pl. 42, e, f,). The cooked 
salt of the Pacific coast is usually brownish or grayish 
and dirty-looking. The Indians seem to prefer it, 
however, explaining that it has “more flavor” than 
the sun-evaporated sal de sol. The report is wide- 
spread that some makers of sun-evaporated salt 
sprinkle small quantities of playa dirt into their pure 
white product to make it simulate the cooked salt 
with its inevitable ingredient of silt. This was 
unverified, however. 
Pacific coast salt—-My study of saltmaking on 
the Pacific coast was confined to Tahuesco, a village 
on the barrier beach about 25 miles southeast of the 
port of Champerico (pl. 1). Though the present 
description of the process is, then, strictly applicable 
only to Tahuesco, many informants asserted that the 
method of cooking salt in all the shore centers is 
practically identical. It will be shown later (p. 59) 
that saltmaking at Xicalapa as described in a 16th- 
century manuscript was the same in nearly every 
detail as that of Tahuesco today. 
There are many salinas along the lagoon shore 
behind Tahuesco—over 100, I was told—and each 
is owned by an individual or family. Each is named 
and consists of a plot of ground which is periodically 
®0 Name possibly derived from atzdm (‘‘salt’? in most of the Maya 
dialects, according to Stoll, 1884, and Sapper, 1897). 
®1 Mendizabal cites the distinction between sun-evaporated and “‘arti- 
ficially evaporated” salt in Mexico, but makes an assumption that is not 
applicable in coastal Guatemala, namely, that unless otherwise known, 
granular salt is sun-evaporated and block salt is “cooked” (Mendizabal, 
1929, p. 186, ftn. 1). 
