% CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 161 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES” 
Prats 
a, The rear platform on this type of canoe, generally about 
20 inches square, has a hole in the middle through 
which a vertical pole is passed (foreground). The 
pole is thrust deep into the soft mud bottom, and 
anchors the canoe. Thus the bow is run up onto the 
beach instead of the stern. The same pole is used for 
propulsion, by a man standing on the platform facing 
forward (background). He may face backward in 
reversing the canoe. Such a boat is best adapted to 
use in calm, shallow water, such as that of lagoons 
(shown here) or rivers. (I have seen similar canoes 
on the Rio Huallaga, one of the headwaters of the 
Amazon, in central Peru.) View is to the southwest, 
with the thatched houses and coco palms of Tahuesco 
on the high sand beach in the background. The 
Pacific Ocean lies just beyond. Photograph taken 
March 1936. 
b, These large pits are generally 6 or 8 feet deep, and usually 
fenced, as in this case, to keep out cattle. The wells 
consist of wooden shafts about a foot or more square. 
The man in the foreground is drinking from a shallow 
tree-calabash (Morro, Crescentia alata) saucer. 
Tahuesco lagoon, background. 
c, A Tahuesco canoe used as a washstand for clothes and 
dishes. The rear platform here serves as a wash- 
board. Water, brought from the well (unfenced; 
note another well, fenced, beyond) in 5-gallon tins, 
is put in a tank, consisting of a 53-gallon gasoline 
drum. The shelter is made of mangrove poles and 
corozo palm leaves. Tahuesco and lagoon, back- 
ground. 
d, Old Tahuesco canoes used in the “cooked”-salt industry. 
One canoe is supported directly above the other 
(pointing in opposite directions) on a pole rack. The 
top one (coladera) has a perforated bottom, covered 
with palm mats which retain a thick layer of sand. 
Salt-encrusted silt, scraped from the sun-baked playa 
during the dry season and stored, is put on top of 
the sand. Then water is poured in by a man who 
climbs a ladder with a brace of buckets (see top of 
picture). When the lower canoe (recibidora) has 
been filled, the brine is dumped by bucketfuls into 
the boiling sheet-iron vat (left foreground). The 
water is kept boiling all day, and large amounts of 
granular salt are deposited (see p. 58). 
e, Salt is deposited when the sun during the dry season 
evaporates sea water diverted into shallow basins. 
The salt is shoveled onto platforms and wheeled 
away. Looking north-northeast, January 1941. In 
the background, approximately 35 miles away, are 
volcanoes Agua (left, near Antigua Guatemala) and 
Pacaya (right, near Guatemala City). 
All the people in plate 1 are Ladinos. 
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PLaTE 2 
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, The salt-truck road shown here is passable only during 
the dry season (November to April; see p. 5 and 
Appendix 1, p. 131). (For discussion of the corozo 
palm, see Appendix 3.) 
, The scanty costume and open-pole house wall are char- 
acteristic cultural adjustments to the warm, humid 
climate of this coastal region. (For suyacal making, 
see p. 67). 
, These suyacales, generally transported into the Highlands 
by muleback, are sold in Highland markets almost 
exclusively during the rainy months (May-—October). 
Both fringed and hemmed (foreground) types (see 
p. 67) are shown in the picture. 
d, Women, especially older ones, still appear in public with 
no upper garment in a few piedmont villages, notably 
Samayac, San Bernardino, and San _ Sebastian 
Retalhuleu, shown in this picture. The bright-colored 
skirt (made in Quezaltenango) with jaspe patterns 
(see p. 52), is wrapped tightly around the waist. 
The upper corner of the inner end is gathered up 
during the wrapping process, and hangs in a bunch at 
the:side (note also in b.). Formerly this costume was 
worn all through the Pacific Lowlands, but now 
blouses, required by law when women appear in 
public, are dispensed with only at or near home. 
Sometimes, on the street they are merely draped over 
the shoulders, in technical compliance with the law. 
e, This is a view across Lake Atitlan, with San Pedro vol- 
cano in the foreground, taken December 12, 1935, at 
6 p. m. This storm, probably 30 miles away and 
having a basal diameter of about 10 miles, is an ex- 
ample of the disturbances which, during the dry 
season (November—April), move along the piedmont, 
bringing torrential rains, without affecting the High- 
lands. The top of the cumulonimbus columns move 
up thousands of meters into lower pressure levels, 
where they spread out, and may evaporate or become 
transformed through freezing into cirrus cloud types 
which move toward the northeast with the anti- 
trades (southwestlies). (See appendix 1, p. 131, and 
McBryde, 1942 b, pp. 403-404.) 
f, Valley of the Siete Vueltas, looking upstream (northwest) 
toward the center of the settlement. The highway 
along the piedmont here parallels the stream. The 
vegetation is parklike, with scattered spreading trees 
and an abundance of good grazing land. 
g, House walls are of vertical, split-cecropia trunks, locally 
available (see extreme right of photograph), as is 
the abundant savanna grass used as thatch. The 
pyramidal roof is capped with an inverted bowl from 
Totonicapan. Slopes are excavated to prepare level 
house sites above the flood level of the stream. 
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21 The following pictures were rephotographed in black and white 
from color transparencies (Kodachrome): Plates 1, e; 2, d; 5 a, ¢3 
9, c; 12, a, d; 13, c (inset); 17, b, e; 20, a, c, G3). 235 (C40 82Ssnes 
26, a; 29, a; 30, a, c; 31, b, f, 93 32, c; 33, a; 35, b; 37, ¢; 39) G05 
42, a, b, e, f; 43, a, b, c, d, f; 44, a, b, d. 
