34 



THE LAND 



or beams they must buy them from other Indians. 

 Nor is there a carpenter or a cabinetmaker among 

 the Panajachelenos. 



Much the same can be said of other plants. 

 The partial inventory that follows indicates their 

 diverse uses; yet the Indians know that other 

 peoples utilize them in ways that they do not. 

 For example, a half-dozen varieties of tree fila- 

 ments are known and substituted for rope in 

 tying and binding, and in the case of one kind the 

 leaves and flowers are used medicinally. But 

 the Indians of Santa Catarina make special use 

 (as crab-fishing lines) of one variety foimd in 

 Panajachel. 



Other examples are a small plant that grows 

 along the irrigation ditches in Panajachel, not used 

 locally, but gathered by Santa Catarina Indians 

 who take it home to food to their barnyard fowl; 

 laurel leaves, not eaten here but known to be used 

 in cooking by Ladinos and by Indians of Tecpfi,n 

 and Patzun; a plant called "white soap," used by 

 Solola Indians for soap, and even sold by them in 

 the markets, but not used by Panajachel Indians 

 who buy animal soap. The century plant is a 

 good example of one not fully utilized. It grows 

 wild, and is occasionally planted. Indians say 

 that they used to beat out the fiber to make rope, 

 bags, etc. (as is done in towns across the lake) 

 but during the years of this study no Pana- 

 jacheleno practiced the art. The only part of 

 the plant used is the thorn at the end of the leaf 

 which is used in the backstrap loom and to extract 

 chigoes from the toes. 



The flowers of two tree parasites and the leaves 

 of two others find use in ceremonial adornment. 

 Bird-lime fruit is used to trap birds. Several 

 kinds of mushroom are eaten. A vine caUed 

 "bird's claw" is used for tying, and its flower is 

 made into a whistle by the children; animals 

 browse on the leaves of another, pega pega; the 

 flowers of the choreque are used in food; the 

 "mouse ear" is placed under the vegetable-pear 

 vine to induce it to produce fruit as abundantly 

 as it does; and the leaves of five difi'erent vines are 

 used medicinally. 



Besides one cultivated fodder grass, at least 

 three wild grasses are used primarily for fodder. 

 Although most thatch straw is imported from 

 towns where it is cultivated (local land is said to 

 be too valuable for such use), three wild grasses 

 are suitable. A grass called sabagasta is used by 



muleteers to stuff pack-saddles. Another called 

 "lime tea" is a common medicine. Wild canes, 

 and a semicultivated variety (as well as corn- 

 stalks) are widely used in building the walls and 

 roofs of the houses, such structiu-es as granaries, 

 furnishings like shelves and beds, for fences 

 around the vegetable gardens, for beanstalks, and 

 for other things requiring poles and hollow tubes. 

 Cane leaves are used to wrap tamales and the sap, 

 leaves, flowers, and stem tips of some varieties 

 (o. g., the elder tree) are used medicinafly. 



Bushes like chilca, barrejon, and pus furnish fuel 

 for the sweat bath, as do cane and smaUer branches 

 of many trees. Tziquinay and sajoc and many 

 other bushes are used for kitchen firewood. 

 Tamarisk -shrub wood is used for ax hafts, the 

 branches of the "sunflower of the rocks" as bean 

 poles, and "little broom," "sweat-bath plant," and 

 chichicaste branches to beat the body while in the 

 bath. Chilca, "little broom," and a plant called 

 qneche, make good brooms. Chilca branches are 

 also used as bean poles and spits, and its leaves 

 are used to cover young vegetable plants. Leaves 

 of the "deer's tongue" bush are edible, those of 

 many other medicinal. 



The longest list of plants includes the smaller 

 shrubs, flowers, and herbs. To many known by 

 name, no use could be ascribed. Some two- 

 thirds of the 34 plants on which I have information 

 have medicinal but no other uses. In some cases 

 it is the whole plant, in others the stem or leaves 

 or both, in still others the juice or sap that is used; 

 and of course the medicines are prepared in a 

 number of difi'erent ways. To list the plants 

 would be tiresome. It is noteworthy that wild 

 plants are not of great importance in the prepara- 

 tion of food. Besides those mentioned above, of 

 which the fruits are of greatest importance, I can 

 add only 15 plants that find any place in the diet. 

 Of these perhaps 4 are commonly used: the 

 chipilin herb, purslane, amaranth, and the roots 

 of the "mother of maize" plant, which the poor 

 are said to use as a substitute for corn when the 

 latter is not available. But on the whole the wild 

 vegetable foods constitute only a negligible part 

 of the total diet. 



The other uses of the many small plants are not 

 many. The leaves of one are burned in the sweat 

 bath; those of another are used to wrap tamales, 

 and of a third to line baskets of fruit and to protect 

 other things. Tliree of the plants are good for 



