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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



of one of their own team, or until all players 

 have been tagged. 



El coyote ("the coyote"). This game, known 

 in many parts of Mexico and commonly called 

 coyote y gallinas ("coyote and chickens"), is a 

 kind of checkers. A square 30 to 60 cm. in 

 diameter is drawn on paper, on a board, or in 

 the dirt, and the coyote and 12 chickens, rep- 

 resented by beans, corn, or beer-bottle tops, are 

 arranged as indicated (fig. 36). The idea is 

 to crowd the coyote into the "prisons," either 

 of the two corners behind him. Coyote has the 



CHIC KINS 



Figure 36. — El coyote game. 



first move, followed by alternate single moves. 

 Coyote "eats" a chicken by jumping it when a 

 vacant cross is directly behind it. Unlike check- 

 ers, only one "chicken" can be jumped at a 

 time. If the coyote manages to eat three "chick- 

 ens" it is almost impossible to corner him. This 

 game is played by men and boys of all ages. 

 As a test of wits it compares favorably with 

 checkers, and when watched it very quickly 

 shows up the slow brains and the quick brains 

 of the community. 



El burro (leapfrog) is played in American 

 fashion with the rear boy jumping over the 

 line to the head position. The near-nonsense 

 dialog follows: 



Crouched boy: "Chinche al agua.'" ("Bedbug to 



tbe water."") 

 Jumper: "^Cudrito pesa?'^ ("How much does it 



weigh? ) 

 Crouched boy: "t/na arroba y una peso." ("An 



arroba and a weight."") 



Tontorron, played with a metal disk 5 cm. 

 in diameter with two holes through which strings 

 pass, and which after the initial wind continues 

 to revolve by pulling the strings, was introduced 

 in 1945 from an unknown source, and quickly 

 became the rage for most boys. 



Toy bows, and arrows with nail points, are 

 played with by many boys. Vicente forbade 

 Gaudencio to use one, with the well grounded 

 fear that an eye might be put out. 



Both the aboriginal maguey fiber "David's" 

 sling and the forked stick resorte sling made 

 from an old inner tube are used to kill birds. 

 The latter have very tiny forks, from 3 to 5 cm. 

 across. 



Stilts are made from colorin wood, because 

 of its light weight. Foot rests are made by leav- 

 ing a stub branch on each stilt. They are used, 

 by boys only, at the end of the dry season and 

 the beginning of the rains. 



Wrestling is done by boys, though without 

 formal rules. 



A few boys are skillful in making globos, 

 Fourth of July type balloons of papel dc china, 

 colored tissue paper, which carry an oily rag 

 burned to make heat and lift the balloon. They 

 are released just at dusk during the spring, 

 when light airs blow them over the town. 



For older boys, basketball has become the 

 favorite sport, and three courts are in use almost 

 every evening. Play is very clean, and a sharp- 

 eyed referee calls every possible foul. It is 

 hard to overestimate the importance of this new 

 game in the community. In a society where 

 being beaten in any way means loss of face 

 and desire for retaliation, an entire new gener- 

 ation is growing up with the idea of clean sports- 

 manship, fair play, and taking defeat gracefully 

 as part of the game. 



SCHOOLING 



Tzintzuntzan has enjoyed schools of a kind 

 since at least 1869, so that in contrast to many 

 Indian villages a tradition of literacy has per- 

 sisted. The period of modern schools started in 



