CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 73 
nango, and southward into the Pacific coastal low- 
lands. It will be noted that all of these centers are in 
the volcanic highlands where there are abundant sup- 
plies of fresh andesite and other types of volcanic 
lava of which metates are made. Because of the 
difficulties involved in quarrying and working the 
rock and in carrying the heavy stones long distances 
to sell them (generally from house to house and less 
frequently in markets, where the purchaser would be 
burdened by their great weight), very few communi- 
ties have specialized in this work. Nahuala men take 
usually 2 metates and 6 manos (handstones) at a 
time, a load of about 100 pounds. During July and 
August 1936 I saw six or eight of them daily going 
to Quezaltenango. 
Lime.—Map 18 also indicates the lime-producing 
centers, all in the Highlands near limestone outcrops. 
In the volcanic mountains there are six, most im- 
portant of which are Santa Apolonia, supplying the 
Lake Atitlan area; Santa Maria Chiquimula, pro- 
ducing for the Quiché district; San Francisco el 
Alto, for the Quezaltenango-Totonicapan region, 
with some lime going as far as Solola; San Carlos 
Sija, for Quezaltenango and Lowland towns; and 
Cabrican, for Quezaltenango, Momostenango, San 
Marcos, and parts of the Lowlands. 
In the Cuchumatanes Mountains, where limestone 
is extensive, lime is burned in many centers. Usually 
it is locally peddled from house to house and it may 
not appear in markets at all, or it may be taken short 
distances, as from Soloma to Santa Eulalia, to sup- 
plement lime which is locally produced. The main 
sources along the edge of the Cuchumatanes, as shown 
on map 18, are Ical, Torlon, and Chinaca. Lime from 
this region is generally handled in the form of spher- 
ical blocks, instead of irregular lumps or grains 
(sometimes this is slaked or air-slaked), as in the 
volcanic mountain centers. 
Sometimes, as at Santa Maria Chiquimula, the 
makers of lime also take it to sell in other markets. 
In San Francisco el Alto (see p. 60), a separate 
group living in the same canton as the makers 
(Paxixil) sell lime in the markets. Chichicaste- 
nango Indians (canton Panimaché) sell Santa Apo- 
lonia lime at the plazas of Panajachel, Patzim, Tec- 
pan, and Solola (pl. 14, ¢). Often lime is sold partly 
at houses, as in the Cuchumatanes, and partly in the 
market (Santa Cruz del Quiché about half each way). 
Santiago Atitlan men buy Santa Apolonia lime when 
they go to the nearby Tecpan market to sell lowland 
fruit from Chicacao (pl. 23, d). They return to 
Santiago with lime, some of which is retailed in 
small lots by the women who sell only locally. Men, 
who are the long-distance merchants, dispose of most 
of the rest of the lime in the Chicacao market, where 
they again buy tropical fruit for the return trip to the 
Highlands. Sijefios, tall, thin Ladinos of San Carlos 
Sija, take large mule-train loads of lime from their 
Sija kilns to Quezaltenango and into the Lowlands 
as far as Mazatenango and Retalhuleu, after return- 
ing with maize, coffee, or other Lowland products. 
Mule-shippers like those of Sija market some of the 
Santa Apolonia lime, especially in the Lowlands, at 
Patulul, and on the fincas. Lime is carefully packed 
for transport in skins inside of nets. Rain is avoided 
wherever possible, as the quicklime burns the skin 
when wet. : 
Salt.—Salt, made at various points along the 
Pacific coast (pp. 58, 59), especially Champerico, 
Tahuesco (pl. 1, d), Sipacate, and San José (pl. 1, e), 
and along the southern margin of the Cuchumatanes 
Mountains, notably at Sacapulas (pl. 42, e, f), is now 
handled in large quantities by trucks. This is par- 
ticularly true of granular salt moving from the Pacific 
shore to piedmont towns, such as Escuintla, Mazate- 
nango, Retalhuleu, and Coatepeque, for redistribu- 
tion to the fincas and to Highland villages. Much of it 
is trucked into the Highlands also, as in the case of 
the Gutierrez store at San Cristobal Totonicapan. In- 
dians buy it there and resell it in San Francisco el 
Alto and Momostenango. There are usually 35 
vendors with 50 pounds each in the San Francisco 
market every Friday, and almost as many in Momo- 
stenango every Sunday. 
The salt sold in most of the Indian markets of the 
Lake Atitlan region is handled by itinerant Chichi- 
castenango Indian merchants, who buy it in the Low- 
lands, chiefly at Mazatenango, and sell it along with 
many other Lowland products, such as spices, coffee, 
rice, sugar, dried chile, peanuts, and cotton. 
Though Sacapulas salt occasionally appears in dis- 
tant markets at times of fiestas, it seems to be sold 
for the most part locally and in nearby markets, such 
as that of Aguacatan, where more Pacific than Saca- 
pulas salt is handled. In the Sacapulas market dur- 
ing 1940, I estimated an average of 75 vendors:‘a 
week each selling about 25 or 50 pounds of the little 
disk-shaped cakes of local salt. 
San Mateo Ixtatan supplies salt to the northern 
Cuchumatanes villages, and it is sold by San Mateo 
men and local merchants who go there to buy it. 
Ladino mule-shippers of Chiantla, much like the 
