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of a dense cohune palm ridge. Inasmuch as the chicleros may often 

 shift their operations during the same season and rarely return to 

 the same camp in successive years, their huts are but temporary 

 structures of upright poles in the ground roofed over with palm 

 leaves. During prolonged tropical rainstorms these huts afford but 

 little protection from the rain, so that the chicleros are more or less 

 wet for extended periods of time. This constant exposure, together 

 with the presence of disease-carrying insects, often leads to the con- 

 traction of malaria and other pernicious tropical diseases. While in 

 the jungles the chiclero's fare is very simple and consists chiefly of 

 rice, frijoles, and tortillas, with occasional meat from wild game 

 which they may kill. 



The chicleros are paid in accordance to the amount of gum ex- 

 tracted during the chicle season. A skilled tapper in a virgin forest 

 can sometimes collect as much as 2000 pounds in one season, for 

 which he is paid from 12 to 30 cents per pound, depending on the 

 quality and moisture content of the gum. Since he is frequently able 

 to make more money gathering chicle during the rainy season than 

 for working for wages throughout the entire year, he is preferably 

 idle from February to June. During this period many of them loaf 

 from one village to another doing an occasional job. As a result they 

 may be partially or wholly dependent on some chicle contractor for 

 rations and livelihood during the dry months, and by the time the 

 chicle season arrives they are often in debt for more than the value 

 of the chicle they can extract. In this manner, they often become 

 bound to one contractor from year to year. For these reasons many 

 observers maintain that the chicle industry has done more harm than 

 good to native labor in tropical America. It has been claimed that 

 previous to the advent of chicle the Indian was a fairly industrious 

 and conscientious worker who cultivated his milpa, hunted, and was 

 quite contented to work for small wages rather than remain idle, 

 while the women spun and made their own clothing. Then came the 

 American chicle contractor offering fabulous advances in cash for 

 chicle with the inevitable result that the Indian forsook his milpa to 

 become a chiclero. Finding that he was thus able to more than double 

 his yearly income in a few months gathering chicle, he refused to 

 work at all during the dry season or only for greatly increased wages. 

 As a result the milpa was neglected, and the price of rice, beans, and 

 corn nearly doubled. Moreover, the earning of more money than 



