THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



95 



that she could not let the dogs approach the fire, 

 for fear their eyes would become infected and they 

 would develop mange. 



A young pup may die if the fleas are removed 

 from it or if it is given a name. When half- 

 grown, a dog generally receives an unimaginative 

 Spanish name. Two yellow canines are called 

 Canela (cinnamon) ; other names include Volcdn 

 (volcano), Buque (ship), Tigre (tiger), Zorrilla 

 (skunk) , Negro (black one) , Bonita (pretty one) , 

 Jazmin (jasmine), Cazador (hunter), Payaso 

 (clown), Solita (little lone one), Tlacuachita (lit- 

 tle opossum), Maringuilla (the female imper- 

 sonator in the Negrito dance), and Camerilla. 



Cats are less numerous than dogs. Of the 38 

 families mentioned above, 23 have no cats; the 

 remaining 15 account for a total of 28. It is said 

 that in adjacent Gildardo Mufioz there is a cat in 

 every house, in the interests of rat control. Ana 

 Mendez adds that a cat also is useful in killing 

 lizards, which otherwise eat the thatched palm 

 roof. 



Modesto Gonzalez summarizes his objections 

 thus: 



Not all cats are good; sometimes they rob food from 

 the kitchen ; and they may soil the house. When a cat 

 has young, she may bring a dead snake to them, or a 

 rabbit, or a piece of dried beef. If she brings the snake, 

 it is bad enough, but worse if it is dried beef, for she must 

 have stolen it somewhere. For these reasons, not many 

 people have cats. 



Apart from these forthright reasons, it may be 

 added that a good many people suspect that cats 

 have traffic with the devil (demonio). There 

 should be no black cat, at least, in a house with 

 young children. It frightens them and, moreover, 

 it might eat the spirit of the child, with fatal 

 result. 



With a few exceptions, the cats are indescribably 

 wretched in appearance and evidently receive 

 worse treatment than does the average dog. Never- 

 theless, Pablo Gonzalez has a yellow cat which is 

 almost fat and so much of a pet that she reclines 

 I much of the time against the warm clay hornilla 

 ' of the kitchen "stove." The cat of Carmen Perez 

 Reyes also scrambles frequently on the earth-cov- 

 | ered table which serves for cooking; and that of 

 Rutilio Olmos is moderately sleek, sleeps on its 

 master's blanket, and receives caresses from the 

 adolescent boy of the family. These are, however, 

 outstanding exceptions. By and large, cats are 



the most miserable looking bit of animal life in 

 the community. They are pathetically underfed 

 and ordinarily receive no attention from the fam- 

 ily. Usually they do not have individual names, 

 but in one household, a female is called Jalisca. 



BEES 



Little income is derived from bees. Only two 

 families of our acquaintance make a practice of 

 selling either wax or honey; occasionally a few 

 candles may be sold, chiefly as an accommodation 

 to a friend, who needs them for a birth, a funeral, 

 a curing treatment, or some other special occasion. 



Nevertheless, about half the families in Tajin 

 keep bees on a small scale. Of the 39 households 

 for which we have data, 18 have bees. Of them, 13 

 have the native bee ; 3, the Old World, introduced 

 form ; and 2, both types. The native bee is housed 

 in a length of bamboo, in a hollow tree trunk, or in 

 an earthenware jar (pi. 4, b-d, f) ; each "hive" is 

 known as a colmena (taskat'). In contrast, the 

 Old World bee invariably is kept in a wooden box 

 (pi. 4, e) , and its hive is referred to as an enjambre 

 (swarm), never as a colmena. 



A candle of the wax of the native bee plays a 

 prominent role in certain ceremonies, especially 

 those associated with birth and death; the wax 

 of the introduced bee is not an acceptable substi- 

 tute. However, in certain parts of the same cere- 

 monies, candles of the wax of the Old World bee 

 are used ; moreover, they alone are placed on the 

 altar in honor of the Christian saints; and they 

 also are used in Catholic rites generally, and for 

 "purification" ceremonies, in the course of which 

 the body is stroked with candles. 



THE NATIVE BEE 



Two kinds of native bee are exploited; one, at 

 least, is genuinely domesticated, since new colonies 

 are propagated. This is the colmena real, known 

 in Totonac as taskat', tasqat, or kiwitaskat. The 

 same term (taskat') is applied to honey of any 

 kind, to sugarcane juice, and to the hive of the 

 native bee. The latter is said to have a small 

 sting and to live either inside the stem of the 

 bamboo or in hollow trees. 



The other type of native bee is called koamekas, 

 or kualmeka (dubiously considered Totonac) ; it 

 has no sting Avhatsoever and has the same living 

 habits as the other form. It is scarce and rarely is 



