EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



235 



she was a nuisance. Presently her 14-year-old 

 uncle, Gabino, called her to help carry small 

 dishes, which she did with obvious pleasure. 



When children cry they may be told to hush, 

 "the coyote is coming." Often in our visits to 

 homes a crying child was told that "the sehor 

 and sehora will take you with them if you are 

 not quiet." 



Small children are allowed to nibble contin- 

 ually between meals. If a mother decides a 

 child finally has had enough she will show it 

 an empty dish saying that now there is no more. 



This relative tolerance may be due, in part at 

 least, to the fact that Tzintzuntzan children are 

 much less active than those in our own society. 

 Since they walk much later, and are content to 

 be quiet over longer periods of time, there are 

 fewer situations in which a parent is driven to 

 distraction. I have often marveled at the ap- 

 parent contentment with which small Tzintzun- 

 tzan babies remain quiet over long periods of 

 time in the cradle or on a petate. Older chil- 

 dren too, at Mass or at a fiesta, are able to be 

 quiet for periods of time impossible for Amer- 

 ican children. My observations in other parts 

 of Mexico as well lead me to believe that there 

 is a very real difference in the amount of energy 

 burned up by the two groups. I have been par- 

 ticularly impressed on those few occasions when 

 I have seen American children of a year or two 

 or three in small Indian or Mestizo villages, by 

 the fact that they are in constant motion and 

 activity, while the native children move more 

 slowly and are content to sit quietly for long 

 periods of time. 



Corporal punishment is, of course, present, 

 and is applied when children are fighting among 

 themselves or when they are disobedient. Nati- 

 vidad, generally the most placid mother in the 

 world, occasionally strikes Gaudencio when he 

 does not eat well. Tzintzuntzan children are 

 surprisingly fickle in their food likes and dis- 

 likes, and many mothers will prepare special 

 dishes for children which are not eaten by the 

 rest of the family. Hence, after striking Gau- 

 dencio for not eating a certain dish, his mother 

 may prepare him something entirely different for 

 his next meal. Children, in general, are fair- 

 ly obedient and willingly run errands when 

 asked to do so. One day Natividad was observed 

 to ask Gaudencio to fetch water. He objected, 

 saying he had done so once already. Natividad 



said nothing and a few minutes later went for 

 the wafer herself. The amount of corporal 

 punishment depends to a considerable degree 

 on the temperament of the parents, and in many 

 cases severe beatings with firewood and straps 

 were noted, even to stoning fleeing children. 

 One adult informant complains of a kidney ail- 

 ment due, he believes, to a severe beating in 

 childhood by his stepfather. The wicked step- 

 father theme is not limited to north European 

 cultures, it seems. Generally signs of affection 

 between parents and children, up to 10 or 12 

 years of age, are common and uninhibited. 



Church behavior is stressed from the earliest 

 days. Babies are carried by their mothers, and 

 from the time they can walk they accompany 

 their parents, who enter and kneel, cross them- 

 selves, and then take the right hand of the child 

 and put it through the same motions. Thus, from 

 the age of 2 or 3 a child automatically crosses 

 itself at the proper time in Mass. 



Loss of milk teeth is accompanied by a for- 

 malized saying and special disposition. The 

 child throws the tooth on the house roof saying. 



Luna, luna, dame una tuna. 



Yo te doy mi diente, para que me des una 



tuna. 

 ("Moon, moon, give me a tuna [prickly-pear 



cactus fruit]. 

 I will give you my tooth so that you will give 



me a tuna) . 



Or, 



Luna, luna, dame una tuna. 



La que me diste cayo en la laguna. 



("Moon, moon, give me a tuna. 



The one you gave me fell in the lake"). 



The Tarascans say, 



HirasAJ^gakin nanakuku khuaniparatacin sAni 



tejaru 

 Te voj madre luna arrojarte diente 



en la teja 

 Pararin pronlu jai^kuntak'a 

 Para que pronto me los pongas. 

 ■■. ("I am going, mother moon, to throw you a 



tooth on the tile roof so that soon you will 



give me more"). 



I am unable to say whether these sayings are 

 indigenous (and translated into Spanish) or 

 whether they represent Spanish folklore trans-- 

 planted to the Tarascans. 



By the age of 7 children are expected to 



