CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE als 
most thatching and repairing are done thus, just be- 
fore the rains start. The house at the left has a 
corrugated iron roof; all houses here have adobe 
walls. The towers of the church, in the center of the 
village, appear at the extreme left. The lower slopes 
in the background are largely cleared for maize and 
potatoes; the light color (see also c) is due to the fine 
pumice nodules, recent ejecta from Santa Maria vol- 
cano, which cover the surface everywhere in this area. 
This makes a good tilth for potatoes, which require 
a light soil; here they are an important crop. 
>, The men on the left are wearing robe and trousers of 
red-lined white cotton, locally made on stick looms, 
with red and yellow sleeves elaborately embossed on 
the loom (for illustration, see Lemos, 1941, p. 24) and 
red and variegated sashes with beautifully woven 
decorations. A sute or a felt hat (sometimes both) 
may be worn. One man in the picture has his black 
wool capixai, worn over the white cotton clothes; like 
the head 2ufe, it is a protection against the cold. The 
huipil of the women at the right matches the men’s 
sleeves. She is wearing a jaspe apron of various 
colors over her dark blue skirt (from Quezaltenango; 
p. 52). The black wool sash is very wide and has 
narrow white stripes about 2 inches apart. 
1, Since the abandonment in 1933 of the short-lived electric 
raliway for which this dam was built, there has been a 
great excess of power from the plant. Quezaltenango 
and other western towns and villages, the Cantel 
cotton mills, and some of the coffe fincas (many have 
their own turbines) do not offer a sufficient market 
for all the power produced. 
>,. This a monument to bad planning and unwise engineer- 
ing. (See Jones, 1940, p. 255.) A German company 
constructed the line, completing it all the way from 
San Felipe to Quezaltenango in March, 1930. In about 
28 miles, it climbs 5,400 feet in elevation, with grades 
as high as 9 percent. The nature and volume of traf- 
fic over the route were far insufficient to justify the 
expense even of operation (construction cost about 8% 
million dollars, according to reports covering the en- 
tire project). The power plant generated more elec- 
tricity than needed, even with the line in operation. 
The floods and the wash-outs caused by the record 
rains of September 1933 brought about the final col- 
lapse. The right-of-way is returning to bush, and the 
cascastes move up a well-beaten path, as before. 
F, This is a characteristic scene in Quezaltenango before Palm 
Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) ; this picture was taken 
on Saturday (April 4, 1936). The yellowish, musty- 
smelling inflorescence of the corozo palm is much in 
demand, along with strips of palm leaves, for decorat- 
ing altars and churches, Christian and pagan. 
g, The women in many of the villages in the Cuchumatanes 
Mountains wear these long, heavily collared white 
cotton huipils, which fall loosely over the long red 
skirts, nearly covering them. The large, separate col- 
lars are ruffled at top and bottom, and are decorated 
with many lines of silk embroidery, colors here being 
chiefly purple, yellow, green, and black (chainlike 
design and outer margin especially). These details 
vary with different municipios. The usual headdress 
consists of a heavy black wool cord with which the 
hair is braided and bunched into a frontal,knot (ex- 
treme right). Sometimes a bright-colored, tasseled 
silk Totonicapan head band is worn (left foreground), 
but this is exceptional. The machete lying besides 
the woman’s right hand is used for cutting the hard 
blocks of panela. The heavy stick is used to hammer 
the machete blade. Weighing is done with the basket 
balance. 
PLATE 40 
a, (For further discussion of the arrangement of warp yarn, 
see p. 63). In the background are Cerro Quemado 
(left) and Santa Maria volcanoes. 
b, Flowers, birds, and animals are favorite motifs in this 
embroidery. Cardboard cut-outs are traced in pencil on 
the cloth, which is manufactured white cotton from 
Cantel (p. 52). Not all women here take the trouble 
to embroider their huipils, either wearing them una- 
dorned or buying them already decorated (these are 
generally available in the San Cristobal market). There 
is no stick-loom weaving here, or anywhere in the 
upper Samala valley, though some of the San Francisco 
women (about three in each of the six weaving can- 
tons) up on the high slopes adjacent, weave a charac- 
teristic zute of white having alternate brown and blue 
34-inch stripes. These are worn by some local 
women and those of San Cristobal and Aguacatan. . 
c, The warp ends are attached at the opposite side of the 
room off to the right. This a special loom room, 
apart from the dwelling. Most of this work is done 
by men, but many women also participate in it. The 
woman’s huipil is of many colored bars and bird and 
animal patterns, made on the foot loom; the skirt is 
blue jaspe. Often, huipils here have names and dates 
woven between horizontal “bars, on purple and jaspe 
huipils unlike the one pictured. The common Totoni- 
capan head band of the type being woven here con- 
sists of alternating bands and figures (especially 
highly conventionalized birds and animals) in various 
colors, usually red, yellow, blue, purple, green; black 
and white. The most elaborate ones are made of silk 
with a variegated pompon at each end, and silver 
cord loops attached, fringed with bright-colored tas- 
sels (pl. 39, g). A modern use of the cotton head 
bands is the making of women’s high-heeled sandals, 
which sell in New York for $15.00 (head bands cost 
50 cents). One large New York firm has a shop for 
this purpose in Guatemala City. 
d, The yarn is being wound from the cafiones (8-inch cane- 
section spindles) onto a reel off to the right, a simple 
frame about 6 feet high and 3 feet wide. The yarns 
shown here are white and indigo blue. 
e, When these threads have been separated and spaced prop- 
erly (a), they are wound on the yarn beam of the 
loom. This is one of the many families of, Ladino 
skirt weavers in Salcaja. The physical type is com- 
mon, more Spanish than Indian in blood. The man 
at the right has a large external goiter, a widespread 
affliction among Highland Indians and Ladinos alike. 
This dwelling has the usual adobe walls. 
