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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



markets afford a ready supply of cheap play- 

 things — papier mache dolls and masks from Ce- 

 laya, and tin rattles, horns, wooden trucks, men 

 in rowboats, and the like, all from towns in 

 Guanajuato, the toy-making state of Mexico. 

 Besides a few dolls, made from rags or corn 

 husks with corn-silk hair, few toys are of local 

 manufacture. The daughters of Natividad are 

 favored beyond other girls of their ages; their 

 mother models large clay dolls for them, which 

 are fired with the regular pottery. Though this 

 could be done by any pottery-making mother, 

 apparently none of the rest have the ability or 

 interest to see the possibilities. 



To a considerable extent girls' play is imita- 

 tion of their future duties as mothers and wives. 

 Girls of 6 or 7 years begin to putter around the 

 kitchen, making tiny tortillas to give to their 

 rag dolls, serving them on toy plates — of which 

 in this pottery-making town there is never a 

 shortage — and keeping them for supper in 

 miniature tortilla baskets. A year or two later 

 they may bring nixtamal to the mill, and begin 

 to make purchases of simple things for the 

 kitchen. Playing baby with younger siblings is 

 a favorite occupation. Natividad's 8 and 5-year- 

 old daughters wish their mother would have 

 another baby — one that cries and talks, but 

 does not urinate — so that they can take care of 

 it. As next best they go to Pachita's house and 

 bring 2-year-old Lucia home to play. One of 

 the few strictly girls' sports is bubble blowing; 

 a small casserole filled with soapy water and an 

 old spool or a wheat straw as pipe are used. 



Small boys play in the dirt, or kick a ball 

 aimlessly around the patio, or one may seize 

 one end of an old rebozo and run screaming, 

 while another tries to grab the free end. In 

 such simple games the idea is to shout and 

 make as much noise as possible. 



Games 



Boys engage in formal games far more fre- 

 quently than girls, and many games are not 

 played at all by girls. There is a tendency 

 for games to correlate with seasons, but no hard 

 and fast rules are observed. Most popular in 

 spring is la patada, a crude type of soccer in 

 which a rubber or tennis ball is kicked back and 

 forth in a narrow street by two opposing teams 

 of 3 to 6 boys each, from 10 to 18 years of age. 



Projecting stones in the street make each bounce 

 unpredictable and add to the excitement; an 

 arbitrary goal line is marked behind each 

 team's position. Top spinning, attempting to 

 split the opponent's top, is popular all year 

 round, as are marbles, though the latter game 

 is played especially during the rainy season. 

 The most common form of marbles consists of 

 making a square (never a circle) and throwing 

 at a line to determine order of play. Each 

 player places several marbles in the square, 

 which are knocked out. Each player keeps his 

 turn as long as he continues to knock out mar- 

 bles, shooting each time from where the shooter 

 lies. Wlien a triangle is used instead of a 

 square the form is called pagavidas ("p^y with 

 your life"). El matatiro is "follow the leader." 



Figure 34.- 



-Peleche game. 



Peleche is a type of hopscotch played by 

 two or more persons. The illustrated plan (fig. 

 34) is drawn in the dirt or on the road in chalk. 

 Standing at line A the players throw potsherds 

 or pebbles at B, taking turns in order of near- 

 ness. The first player throws his pebble in the 

 first "box," then hops in on one foot, turns 

 around, places the pebble on tlie raised toe of 

 the other foot, tosses it out over "hell," and 

 then hops out himself, touching no lines. If 

 successfully done he then throws to triangle 1 

 of "horses," hops on one foot into "box," then 

 "horses," turns, places the pebble on his free 

 toe, and kicks it out as before. This is repeated 

 in the other three triangles, the order for 2 and 

 3 being optional. When triangle 4 is success- 

 fully reached the player can place both feet 

 on the ground for a rest before continuing. This 

 privilege continues for all other places. A 

 player loses his turn if he steps on a line or 

 puts down both feet when forbidden, if the peb- 

 ble does not fall in the proper place, or if it 

 touches a line. His pebble then remains in the 

 box tried for, from which point he again takes 

 up after the other players have lost. The game 



