THE UND 



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are with Solola, Tecpan, and the east rather than 

 with the southland; therefore they infrequently 

 and only exceptionally use the lake for travel. 

 None of the Indians (even those of Atitlan or San 

 Pedro) are fond of water travel; the lake becomes 

 suddenly rough and dangerous. Thus, for ex- 

 ample, Pedranos often go overland to Solola when 

 the lake is rough, a journey of a day that is made 

 on the water in 3 hours. Probably the major 

 distinction between towns is that the Indians of 

 the south shore have strong incentives to water 

 travel because they frequently and in great 

 numbers go to Solola and Tecpan. 



Canoes are made only by the Indians of the 

 south shore where suitable timber is found. 

 Canoes m Panajachel (and Santa Catarina, which 

 has more) are all bought from canoe makers of 

 Atitlin, San Pedro, and San Pablo. Possibly this 

 fact influenced the establishment of trading pat- 

 terns so that the Indians of the south rather than 

 those of the north shore carry the merchandise 

 between the highlands and the lowlands. 



Distribution of the use of canoes for commercial 

 fishing, crab fishing, and sedge gathering is like 

 that for transport except that Santa Catarina 

 has a great fishing, crab fishing, and matting 

 industry. Save on general grounds of economic 

 speciahzation, it is very difficult to explain why 

 Panajachel (or San Antonio or Santa Cruz), for 

 example, does not engage in such activities. 

 Take fishing for example. 



The lake abounds in tiny fish; one variety is 

 about an inch long, another twice that size, and 

 a very few weigh up to a half pound. Some parts 

 of the lake may be better stocked than others; 

 the Panajachel Indians claim that a generation 

 ago there were many more fish than now in their 

 neighborhood. In Panajachel, informants said 

 canoes were never used in fishing; but they de- 

 scribed four other methods once used here, all of 

 which are still known in some villages. According 

 to informants who claimed to remember the old 

 state of affairs, by one method of shore fishing, 

 in which a party of some 20 boys drove the fish 

 into a large conical trap, each of the boys caught 

 as much as 25 pounds of fish after 3 hours' work. 

 If this is true, fishing was a better business 

 (at present-day fish prices) than anything else in 

 Panajachel. The question is, why was fishing 

 virtually abandoned? The Indians say that the 

 rising of the lake has destroyed the beach (the 



lake has risen) and that there are fewer fish near 

 Panajachel than there once were. But another 

 reason that was mentioned is that the people are 

 too busy with agriculture. 



Or take crab fishing. The most prominent 

 crab fishers of the lake are the Catarinecos, who 

 in season seem to spend most of their nights with 

 pitch-pine torches and a long baited line of tree 

 filament that is lowered into still water. The 

 fishing is apparently best close to the shore, and 

 some of the favored spots are off Panajachel. 

 Although Panajachelenos once did much crab 

 fishing in this manner, now only two or three 

 exceptional persons do so occasionally. Local 

 Indians also find crabs on the beach and among 

 the rocks near shore, and there is considerable 

 folklore about the piu-suit; but on the whole 

 crab gathering is rare and unimportant. The 

 excuses made for not fishing do not all hold for 

 crab fishing; for there are crabs near Panajachel. 

 In this case, at least, it is obvious that the Indians 

 are too busy farming to spend their nights crab 

 fishing, particularly since it requires investment 

 in canoes and equipment. The Catarinecos 

 specialize in fishing and crab fishing just as the 

 Panajachelenos specialize in vegetable growing; 

 and the immediate explanation cannot go far 

 beyond that. 



The same may be said of the sedge that grows at 

 Panajachel as well as at other parts of the lake 

 shore. But if a few Panajachelenos use canoes 

 for fishing and crab fishing, not one cuts sedge, 

 and no Panajachel Indian manufactures mats. 

 They are made in Santa Catarina and in other 

 towns of the south shore, the industry evidently 

 connected with the use of canoes. 



Owners of the three canoes of Panajachel were, 

 in 1936 and 1937, a half-Ladino and two yomig 

 Indians who are brothers-in-law. They used 

 them to ferry passengers across the lake, and 

 around the impassable river in the rainy season; 

 they also fished a little, with hooks and nets (new 

 techniques learned from Ladinos) and traps bought 

 from the Catarinecos; and they crab fished oc- 

 casionally. All three are more clearly entrepeneurs 

 than remnants of a cultural tradition. 



The Atitecos and to a lesser degree the Catari- 

 necos use their canoes to hunt the waterfowl which 

 come in the dry season, hitting the birds with 

 stones. The Panajachelenos say they used to 

 hunt them from the shore with slingshots, never 



