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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



feathers are stuck in their hair, and they carry 

 bows and arrows. Their dance is purely leap- 

 ing about. They form a circle, leap about, 

 shout, and make gestures with their bows and 

 arrows. They never speak but make a sort of 

 buzzing noise and make signs with an arrow to 

 indicate what they want. They have guitar 

 and drum music. 



The three groups are said to signify that 

 when the Christ Child was born, there appeared 

 a star and various persons had to follow the 

 star, performing their dances in various places. 

 The three dances represent those of the tribes 

 of the Three Kings who went in search of the 

 Child. The Apaches were the last and were 

 the most savage. 



The various groups (and more than one 

 group may appear for each dance) go about to 

 various houses where there are unmarried girls 

 or girls approaching marriageable age, and 

 especially to houses where one of the boys has 

 a sweetheart. Usually the girl is warned in 

 advance (through the agency of some small 

 boy) if she is to be visited. She prepares 

 presents of balls of pinole and brown sugar, 

 wrapped in maize husks, often elaborately 

 painted. Sometimes some of these are made in 

 the shape of a rooster or some animal. The girl 

 gives these to the boy who has been courting 

 her if .she favors him, and the plain pinole balls 

 to the others. They are also often given food. 

 One of the surreptitious groups in 1940 at a 

 well-to-do house were given coffee with 

 charanda in it and boiled squash. When the 

 dancers first enter the house yard, they shake 

 hands with the girl. After eating, they dance 

 a while. Then they say a word of thanks in 

 Tarascan, shake hands with the girl again, and 

 leave. "The idea," said unmarried Agustin, 

 "is just to touch the girl's hand and see how 

 neat her cooking and housework is." Obviously 

 the dances are significant parts of the mating 

 selection, for on almost no other occasion would 

 a boy have a chance to see how a girl's house was 

 run or have a chance to touch her hand openly. 



According to one informant, a burlesque of 

 the Mass is given by the dancers. This was 

 not verified from any other source. It is the 

 sort of thing which might sometimes have been 

 done, but it seems foreign to the main purpose 

 of the dances. 



THE PASTORELA 



The pastorela, or dance of the shepherds, is 

 also performed at Christmas time. The dance 

 is particularly connected with the cabildo and 

 with the prioste. The leaders in the dance are 

 the uandnces, the four girls (six according to 

 other accounts) who have taken incense and 

 flowers to the church during the year and per- 

 formed other services at the church. Gener- 

 ally they are about 10 years of age. Usually 

 the girls have been vowed to the service by their 

 parents as the result of illness or some other 

 misfortune threatening the child. The time of 

 the dance is sometimes called the fiesta of 

 pajacu (meaning not secured). 



The uandnces invite a number of other girls 

 to participate, 12 in all being needed. The 

 girls invited by the uan-dnces have no responsi- 

 bilities other than dancing, but each of the 

 uandnces must feed the group for 1 day. The 

 uandnces also select adults to represent the 

 parts of the devil and the hermit and also select 

 the teacher. The girls (all the expenses, of 

 course, are borne by their parents) also have 

 music to accompany the dance. 



For the dance the girls are dressed in the 

 catrin, i.e. "citified," style, in white dresses with 

 straw hats adorned with artificial flowers 

 (actually the style is not citified, but is rural 

 Mestizo). Owing to the quarrel between the 

 priest and the cabildo, the pastorela was not 

 performed in 1940 and the actual dance could 

 not be observed. A relato (in this case known 

 as the coloquio) is an important part of the 

 performance. One of the songs collected (for 

 the pastorela of Cheranastico) is as follows 

 (spelling as given) : 



A que noche tan cremoza 



Ensillad mi buen caballc 



Que en Belen nos conbida de Salvador 



Muy lejos tieras bengo 



Agosar de una pasiada 



Con g-usta y contento 



A juntar mi ganadito. 



TRANSLATION 



Ah, what a beautiful night. 



Saddle my good horse, 



For to Bethlehem the Savior invites us. 



To very distant lands I will arrive. 



I will enjoy a journey, 



With pleasure and content 



To bring together my cattle. 



