92 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 13 



ning in Lent, eggs are abundant and the price 

 drops. Ordinarily, eggs are plentiful in Taj in, 

 although some families do not have a sufficient sur- 

 plus to sell; in some households, they are eaten 

 almost daily. The sale of both eggs and chickens 

 is a significant item in many family budgets, and 

 in case of emergency a woman invariably can raise 

 a few pesos by selling her poultry. 



Eggs which are sold are wrapped in pairs. One 

 is placed in the concavity of the butt of a corn- 

 husk, with the other immediately above; the tip 

 of the leaf is folded over and tied in place with 

 a narrow strip of husk. 



TURKEYS 



Not every family keeps turkeys, because they 

 are delicate, being sensitive to cold, to moisture, 

 and to disease. Accordingly, the capital invest- 

 ment often is lost. As one man puts it, "We keep 

 no turkeys because they die right away." 



The turkey, male or female, is called cawila 2 

 Two kinds are distinguished — the dark and the 

 "white," the latter very light, but mottled with 

 tan. The "white" is preferable because it can 

 be fattened in the course of 10 or 12 months, 

 whereas a dark turkey "eats a great deal" and 

 requires, at the very least, a year for fattening. 

 However, the dark is much more plentiful than 

 the light, and although Ana Mendez prefers the 

 latter and has purchased eggs of this stock for her 

 hen, she has had no success in hatching them. 



Spring is the best time to breed turkeys, because 

 there is no danger of cold weather. The hen 

 either lays or is given 12 to 15 eggs, which hatch in 

 about a month. Because of the thick shell, turkey 

 eggs are not tested against the light for fertility. 



For a week after the chicks hatch the hen is tied. 

 so that she and the little ones may avoid the 

 aradores, the pest mentioned previously. Food 

 requirements of young turkeys are exacting. They 

 are given comejen, a white wood borer, which in- 

 fests trees; great hunks of the trunk are cut and 

 brought home, and from these the birds pick the 

 insects. They are fed maize dough also, but with 

 it are ground certain boiled greens— such as yerba 

 mora, quelite (Appendix C, Nos. 6, 29) , and an un- 

 identified plant called lilisiput. Lacking these 

 greens, the chicks do not grow. Turkeys raised by 

 a chicken are healthier, because the latter is active 



and looks for food for her charges, whereas the 

 mother turkey "only looks upward." 



Even with grown turkeys one must take care 

 with their food. Ana Mendez happened to have 

 an excess of bananas (pldtanos morados) on hand 

 and fed them to her turkeys. They suffered from 

 indigestion and lay down and refused to move. 

 Doha Anita felt their crops and they were hard. 

 Accordingly, she cut their wings and fed them 

 maize dough with lime juice. Upon another oc- 

 casion, the crop of one of her turkeys swelled with 

 "air" because "the hens pecked him and he was 

 annoyed." To cure him, she opened the crop with 

 the thorn of an orange tree ; pressing lightly, she 

 extracted the air, and the turkey recovered. 



A number of magical beliefs were recorded, but 

 fewer than those associated with chickens. Prob- 

 ably the latter apply equally to turkeys, but since 

 chickens are more plentiful conversation centered 

 most frequently upon them. The same disposition 

 is made of the egg shells after the young have 

 hatched and, similarly, there are special observ- 

 ances when a rooster is sold or killed. If a hen 

 is attempting to hatch his progeny, the claws of 

 the roosters are tied to the wall or are stuck be- 

 tween the uprights which form the wall, and 

 feathers from his breast are plucked and are placed 

 with the setting hen. Otherwise, the chicks will 

 not hatch. For an immature turkey cock no such 

 gestures are necessary. However, if a vendor se- 

 lects one turkey and spurns another, a feather is 

 removed from the latter and saved. 



Turkeys are too large to be killed on the thigh ; 

 instead, they are hung from a tree and the neck 

 yanked downward. Turkey in mole sauce (p. 158) 

 is a standard feast dish, and the demand is 

 sprightly; moreover, nearby Papantla offers a 

 ready market. Accordingly, turkeys are rela- 

 tively higher priced than chickens and, incredibly, 

 they bring in Tajin pecisely the same price as in 

 Mexico City, about $25.00 pesos. 



OTHER FOWL 



The duck (patus; from Spanish pato (?) ) is of 

 little importance in Tajin and is of interest 

 chiefly because it is the Muscovy type, 19 which is a 



19 Both males and females have the diagnostic patch of "red, 

 rough, carunculated skin" on the head, although we saw one 

 drake with it black instead of red. All have the characteristic 

 horizontal, low-swung axis, although the difference in size between 



