CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 103 
north shore villages except Panajachel (the only 
one on a much-used road). From all except Panaja- 
chel, men go in considerable numbers to the coffee 
fincas for seasonal labor, often getting corn as part 
payment; many native north shore Indians have 
permanently settled in the Lowlands. The only 
north shore village which is known to be of pre- 
Columbian origin is San Antonio. Even the site 
is in all likelihood pre-Spanish, for Fuentes y Guz- 
man’s late 17th-century map (1932-33, vol. 2, op- 
posite page 60) shows “Polopo”’; Santa Catarina 
Laguna (not Palopd) is the next village north on 
this map.t°® It is probable that all the rest, with 
the possible exception of San Pablo,1®° were con- 
cerned, after the Conquest, though apparently there 
were scattered settlements of some sort along the 
shores. There is historical evidence regarding the 
establishment of at least three of these. The 
Cakchiquel Annals (Brinton, 1885, pp. 113, 175), 
in pre-Spanish sections, refers to Tzununa, Tzolola, 
Ahachel, Pacaval, and Xepoyém as Lake Atitlan 
centers. 
These may have corresponded, respectively, to the 
modern Tzununa, Solola (Brinton, 1885, p. 54, erro- 
neously identifies Tzolola as Santiago Atitlan), Pana- 
jachel, Pacavaj, and Chupiom (see map 20; cf. also 
Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1858, vol. 2, p. 172). Loth- 
rop (1933, p. 71) suggests that the present Pavocol 
was Pacaval, but as there is a Pacavaj (Lothrop, 
1933, map, p. 17, records it as Pachinak, but “Paca- 
vaj” is indicated on the official municipio map) just 
north of Santiago, this is where I think the ancient 
Pacaval was situated. 
ROPEMAKING CENTERS: SAN PEDRO AND SAN PABLO 
Economic pursuits of the northwestern Lake vil- 
lages, in the small, rugged municipios of San Pablo, 
San Marcos, and Santa Cruz, reflect environmental 
conditions. At San Pablo, for example, as at San 
Pedro, across the Lake to the south, ropemaking is an 
important industry (pl. 26, b-e, and p. 69). It is 
159 A frontier outpost of the Zutuhiles, and one of the three lake towns 
frequently mentioned in the earliest literature; the others were Tuliman 
(there were Toliman alto and Toliman vaxo, according to Anon., Ms. 
1579, f. 109) and the “capital of the Tzutuhiles” Atitlan or Atitan, 
as the Mexicans with Alvarado called it. This may have been 
Atziquinihai (Lothrop, 1933, p. 14, ftn. 6, and Fuentes y Guzman, 
1882-83, vol. 1, p. 21), though usually this name was applied to the 
“king” or chief of the Zutuhiles (Anon., Ms. 1571, f. 115, or Brinton, 
1885, pp. 119, 123, ff.). 
16 Mentioned as early as 1579 in Capotitlan manuscript (1579, p. 23, 
f. 116). That it was already back from the Lake about 1700 is im- 
plied by Vazquez: ‘From San Pablo, taking a turn to the lake, one 
begins there to go towards the east . . .” (Vazquez, 1937-38, p. 171). 
more significant in the economy of the former, how- 
ever, and is conducted on a relatively larger scale 
there, apparently because of a greater need for supple- 
menting deficient returns from agriculture. 
San Pedro has extensive milpa land on the volcano 
slopes, and furthermore has bought or rented some 
two-thirds, I was told, of adjacent San Juan’s terri- 
tory (pl. 45, @). San Pablo, on the other hand, is 
hemmed in by mountain walls (pl. 45, b), and 
Pablenos must even buy corn from the villages across 
the Lake (Santiago and San Pedro). At first glance 
it seems quite paradoxical that, though San Pablo is 
the village most dependent upon the making of ropes, 
the finest maguey (agave) grows in luxuriant 
abundance around San Pedro.'®! It was said that 
the natural supply had been supplemented by planting 
during the past 50 years, and much agave is now 
planted. There were repeated statements that Pable- 
fos have made every effort to get such results on 
their own lands by transplanting shoots from San 
Pedro. But for some reason, perhaps a deficiency 
in the soil, which undoubtedly is less fertile than the 
volcanic lands of the latter municipio, results have 
never been satisfactory, and their home-grown prod- 
ucts never so large. I have seen men from San Pablo 
almost daily load their canoes with maguey leaves 
that they had purchased from Pedranos, 50 or 100 at 
a time. 
San Pablo has 8 sq. km., largely cliff and flood- 
swept arroyo, less than one-third of San Pedro’s 
24.5 sq. km., mostly fertile volcanic slopes, which 
have such an altitude range as to permit maize 
harvests from December to March. San Pedro, 
furthermore, has only 2.2 times the population of 
San Pablo (2,226 as compared with 1,000) in spite 
of having over 3 times its area, not including exten- 
sive San Juan lands used by Pedranos. San Pedro 
also has its colony of Cutzan, where corn and other 
crops are grown, and ropes are made. 
That the Pedranos have a maize surplus was 
brought home to me when, in 1936, I saw Indians of 
San Marcos, in canoes and on foot, buying the grain 
in quantity at San Pedro, and they told me such visits 
were frequent. This was early in January, and prob- 
ably preceded the general harvest. Otherwise, that 
this should occur during the main harvest month in- 
dicates, indeed, a shortage at San Marcos, smallest in 
area of all the Lake municipios. How much of this 
161] have measured pengas (leaves) 9 feet long, the longest I saw 
anywhere in Guatemala. These large leaves provide excellent long fibers 
for ropes (pl. 26, d). 
