CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 61 
stone, or metate (here called piedra de moler), is 
flat on top when new (becoming concave with use) 
and rectangular, an average size being, perhaps, 12 
by 15 inches. It rests upon three legs, the single 
one being somewhat larger, so as to tilt the stone 
downward at the end opposite the person grinding. 
The stones are always used by women, who press 
down and forward with the long (15 in.), slightly 
fusiform mano stone held in both hands like a rolling 
pin, but scraped rather than rolled. 
The most important center of metate production 
in southwestern Guatemala is Nahuala (map 18). 
Dark gray andesite is available in abundance, and 
the Xankatales work it skillfully with small sharp- 
pointed iron sledges. Stone working is one of their 
best developed arts, so much so that they are often 
called upon to do any such work that may be re- 
quired in other municipios throughout the region. 
They peddle their stones, a few at a time because of 
the great weight, among villages and towns, at dwell- 
ings and in large plazas. The Quezaltenango market 
is perhaps the principal one, though stones are sold 
in the Lowlands and as far north as Momostenango. 
The producing center in the Huehuetenango region 
is the district south of Malacatancito, which also sup- 
plies metates to Quezaltenango. Here it is apparently 
an industry of Ladinos, many of them rural, living 
quite far out in the wooded mountains. Several 
with whom I talked demonstrated how they work 
the lavas of the region into grinding stones, using 
smooth granite hammer stones instead of iron picks; 
this was especially common practice there. 
At San Marcos, it was said that the chief pro- 
ducing center for that western region is Tajumulco, 
where iron hammers are employed. 
TEXTILES 
In Indian Guatemala there are two kinds of weav- 
ing, according to the type of loom used: (1) stick 
(back-strap) loom and (2) foot (treadle) loom. 
Goods produced on both may be designated as “hand- 
woven.” 
STICK-LOOM WEAVING 
The native, pre-Columbian method of making cloth, 
by using a few simple sticks, straps, and cords, is 
illustrated in plate 9. In this type of loom the essen- 
tial sticks are generally as follows: A pair of sticks 
serving as the cloth beam, upon which the woven 
goods are rolled, and to one of which a loop is at- 
tached, brought from around the weaver’s waist or 
hips (a broad mecapal, or tumpline, prevents cut- 
ting), a swordlike batten, with which the weft is 
packed down tightly, a heddle, a shed roll of wood 
or bamboo, two reeds to maintain the warpcross, and 
a head stick, at the far end from the weaver. From 
each end of the latter stick two ropes extend, to be 
looped over a solid object, for drawing taut the 
warp.*8 The yarn employed is of cotton for the 
warp, and generally of cotton, but occasionally of im- 
ported silk, for the weft. Sill thread, already dyed, 
has been imported, chiefly from China and Japan, 
for at least 50 years, according to local storekeepers ; 
and it has probably come in since Colonial times. 
In a letter from the Bishop of Oaxaca to the King, 
dated 1544, it is stated that the Indians of one town 
collected 2,000 pounds of silk, probably one year’s 
harvest (Anon., Ms., 1544, p. 9, f. 150). If such 
silk production was possible then, it is hard to under- 
stand why the culture was not continued. 
The stick loom is almost always operated by In- 
dian women, and it is employed in greatest numbers 
in regions where native cultural survivals are 
strongest.°* For the most part, products of the 
stick loom are used by the weaver and members of 
her immediate family for various elements of their 
dress. In some areas, however, commercial weav- 
ing by this method is practiced on a considerable 
scale, as map 16 shows. Merchants far and wide 
sell the colorful, brocaded zutes, belts, huipils, figured 
servilletas, and other goods that come from the looms 
of Chichicastenango women. San Pedro Sacate- 
pequez (La Unién, San Marcos) huipils, San Fran- 
cisco el Alto zutes, worn as head-cloths and shawls, 
San Pedro la Laguna trousers, and other textile 
pieces are produced on commercial scale by women. 
Indian men sometimes weave belts on small stick 
looms. 
White, blue, and jaspe (tie-dye alternating blue 
and white) cotton yarns are all locally produced in 
Guatemala, the undyed white for the most part being 
% See La Farge and Byers, 1931, p. 52, fig. 17; Osborne, 1935, p. 49, 
fig. 10d. Weaving techniques were studied in detail by Dr. Lila M. 
O’Neale, of the University of California, for the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington, in 1936 (see O’Neale, 1945, especially pp. 31-35). 
I am indebted to Dr. O’ Neale for numerous technical terms and explana- 
tions of processes in dyeing and weaving, as many of our excursions and 
observations were made jointly. Her book is the most authoritative 
and complete available to date concerning Guatemala weaving and 
textiles. Page references, except those given above, have not been 
made in the present monograph because the O’Neale volume was 
still in press when my manuscript went to the printer. 
® On map 16 note the virtual absence of stick-loom weaving from the 
valley of Quezaltenango—Totonicapan north to Momostenango, and from 
the Lowlands, up as high as Santa Maria, where today (1936) only 
one woman weaves; most Santa Maria women of the last generation 
did beautiful stick-loom weaving, according to their descendants. 
