CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



127 



"Sejeta (look at it)" and "Piajeta (buy it)." 

 Mock trade is carried on, using the small pieces 

 of bread as money. This procedure continues 

 until about 7 o'clock in the evening. 



Often a group of young men will ask per- 

 mission of the municipal authorities to collect 

 the "pisos de plaza," that is, the tax on mer- 

 chants for using the plaza (which is not col- 

 lected by the municipio on this occasion). No 

 one pays the young men in money, but instead 

 in produce — miniature breads, miniature 

 planks, a few bananas, etc. Other young men 

 may secure permission to be the "bandits," 

 los asaltadorcs. Both groups then arm them- 

 selves with wooden pistols and rifles. When 

 the first group has collected the "tax," it is 

 assaulted by the second and the two pretend to 

 fight, "shooting" at one another until the 

 bandits have taken away part of the things 

 secured by the tax collectors. 



The Mass for this fiesta is celebrated on 

 Thursday. I could not find out definitely who 

 pays for the Mass, most informants hazarding 

 the guess that there is a carguero or maijor- 

 domo for this. On Monday, Wednesday, and 

 Saturday there are no public functions. The 

 musicians play in the houses of the different 

 commissioners. There is no castiUo, nor is 

 there any bull riding. 



FIESTA OP LA OCTAVA 



The Octava occurs a week after Easter 

 Saturday and is held on Saturday and Sunday 

 only. It is primarily a commercial fair, re- 

 sembling the fiesta of the patron saint on a 

 smaller scale and without castillo, dancers, or 

 bull riding. Five to eight commissioners are 

 appointed for each barrio and they raise enough 

 money to hire one band. The cost of the band 

 is divided equally among the four barrios. 

 No data were secured on the way in which Mass 

 is paid. 



The major feature of the fiesta is cock fight- 

 ing. Usually a group interested in cock fight- 

 ing hires a house near the center of town, puts 

 up a ring and some benches, and conducts fairly 

 organized matches. However, there are many 

 other fights on street corners and in the patios 

 of private houses. Bets are placed on the 

 fights. Cocks are specially raised for fighting, 

 but the Octava is the only time there are any 



580569 — 46 II) 



organized fights or any considerable amount of 

 betting. During 8 months I neither saw nor 

 heard of cock fighting except in connection 

 with the fiesta. 



CARNIVAL 



The Tuesday before the beginning of Lent, 

 everyone fasts until noon. After breaking the 

 fast, the young men go about the streets, 

 some with musicians and some without. The 

 girls sit at the doors of their houses with 

 baskets of elaborately painted eggshells filled 

 with confetti which they have been saving for 

 several months. The boys buy the eggs from 

 the girls and then break them over the girls' 

 heads. The boys and girls also throw confetti 

 at one another and sometimes the boys get such 

 things as oranges and throw them at one 

 another. This is repeated on Wednesday and 

 is the only celebration of carnival. 



LENT AND HOLY WEEK 



Most of the population fast part of Lent. 

 Some people fast until noon every day. Others 

 do this only two or three times. On Fridays 

 most people abstain fi'om meat but otherwise 

 do not fast especially. 



Before Palm Sunday, the collector (an official 

 of the cabildo) visits the fathers of boys of 

 suitable age and selects a boy from each barrio. 

 When the boy and his father have accepted, 

 the boy picks a girl to assist him, usually his 

 sweetheart. The collector then visits the girl's 

 father and gets his consent. The boys now 

 make a trip to the hot country to bring back 

 green palm leaves for use in the church on 

 Palm Sunday. Before leaving, each boy gives 

 the girl about half a hectoliter of maize, 5 liters 

 of black maize, and some brown sugar. The 

 girl toasts the regular maize well, grinds it, 

 and makes large balls of the ground inaize, or 

 pinole, and the brown sugar. These are 

 wrapped in leaves painted with many colors 

 with analine dyes. The black maize she makes 

 into gorditos, a sort of fried tortilla. 



The boy also provides a wooden cross some 

 5 feet high. To this are fastened the balls of 

 pinole along the upright and the arms of the 

 cross. At the top of the cross and on the arms 

 are also hung many fiber bags (morales) and 

 small cloths used to wrap up tortillas. The 



