THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



105 



tropical cylindrical, aside from its color, which seems to be 

 a very weak allele of P." 



c. lakakici, lakakicls (laka, eara; kicis, urriera; ant's 

 face). This maize is variegated, 39 but informants class it 

 with red corn. The name, of course, refers to the mark- 

 ings. Like ilkon, this maize appears unsolicited in a field 

 of large white corn. We neglected to inquire if it protects 

 the fields against the elements and if it is of medicinal 

 value. 



Concerning its utility opinion is divided. One informant 

 maintains that it is eaten only by animals, because tortillas 

 made from it are "dark." Another says that the skin is 

 removed successfully with lime, and, since the grain inside 

 is light in color, the corn is acceptable for tortillas. 



Mixed colors. — In addition to the four basic 

 colors described above, the Totonac recognize a 

 series of mixed colors, as follows : 



a. d&lan, or maiz pinto. This is believed to result from 

 the crossing of white, yellow, and "purple." As far as we 

 know, nobody in Tajin makes a practice of growing this 

 corn, but it is said that if maiz pinto is planted, the harvest 

 will be "pure white, mixed, 40 and a weak red." 



o. kolon. This is described as a "spotted" corn which 

 results when white maize is contaminated by red. "From 

 the white maize come certain ears which have hard, brown- 

 ish grains which look rotten. But they are not. If one 

 cuts them, they are white inside. This maize is called 

 kolon." 



We have seen only one ear, which was so obviously 

 defective that we did not collect it. The ear was dwarfed 

 and the grains a curious light-brown color. Needless to 

 say, this maize is not planted, but appears occasionally as 

 a sport or as a diseased form ; according to one informant, 

 it crops up most frequently in a field of small white corn. 



c. iskalni dios (sangre de dios; God's blood). Allegedly, 

 this is another result of a cross between white and red 

 (ilkon). The kernels are said to be striped, as though 

 smeared with blood. 



d. Still another mixed corn " has, according to inform- 

 ants, no name, either in Totonac or Spanish. When 

 planted, the resulting maize is mixed, with some ears white 

 and others spotted (pintitas). 



88 Dr. Anderson comments : "Variety with variegated pericarp. 

 This looks like the kind of variegation due to the mutable gene P var 

 and not that due to the gene P mo , though the latter is common 

 in Mexico and the former is very rare there, though common in 

 South America." 



10 Concerning its mixed character, Dr. Anderson is agreed : 

 "These are obviously rather impure. Ears cylindrical ; husk com- 

 pression in one ; large cob ; white cob ; faintly colored pericarp ; 

 aleurone blue or colorless ; endosperm white ; denting regular 

 shallow ; mostly unwrinkled ; no pointing. This looks like the 

 wreckage of some old local variety, nearly obliterated by repeated 

 contamination with such commercial sorts as maiz Manco [lanqa- 

 ku§i]. It could result from repeated crossings of the atole 

 varieties [maiz morado] with commercial white corns." 



41 Dr. Anderson describes this maize as "tapering gently to the 

 tip; large cob; purple cob; crowned red pericarp (P cr ) ; no 

 aleurone color ; white endosperm ; very slight dent ; no pointing. 

 In both coloring and shape this is like many Guatemalan varieties 

 and unlike most Mexican. I presume it to have spread out of 

 Guatemala." 



This exhausts, as far as we know, the corns 

 planted in Tajin at present. In 1947, we collected 

 a small series of samples, which were sent to Dr. 

 Anderson. He expressed particular interest in the 

 red and "purple" varieties, hence in 1948, our col- 

 lections consisted chiefly of them. In the mean- 

 while, it turned out that none of the 1947 specimens 

 was viable, apparently because of overzealous 

 fumigation at the border; but this news did not 

 reach us until the 1948 season was past, and there 

 was no opportunity to replace the samples. 



Dr. Anderson's general impressions of the 1947 

 collection are summarized thus: 



As a whole, the collection shows no strong influence 

 from any one place. It is definitely very Mexican, but the 

 Mexican pyramidal influence is as weak as is the Mexican 

 narrow ear. Two of the numbers look like fairly recent 

 introductions from Guatemala. As a whole, the collec- 

 tion looks like average Mexican corn, with significantly 

 more primitive South American influence than any other 

 Mexican collections I have yet examined. 



Concerning the 1948 collections, which consisted 

 largely of maiz Colorado and maiz morado, he 

 writes : 



As a whole, the collection shows a strong central core 

 of variation around 14 rows, cylindrical ears, big cobs, 

 and rounded butts, with little tendency either to butt 

 compression or to enlarged butts. 



And he adds further : 



The collection as a whole centers around 14 rows and 

 about grains which are fairly thick in proportion to their 

 breadth. These are very old traits in maize and are not 

 as common in Mexico as they are in South America. 

 Moreover, the variety with the variegated kernel [lakakiCi] 

 seems to have the type of variegation which is common in 

 South America but rare in North America. If it is not 

 of this type, then it is a new type. It definitely is not 

 the common type of variegation which is found in most 

 Mexican and American Southwest varieties. 



One additional point of general interest is men- 

 tioned by Dr. Anderson : 



The most important evidence, as far as the history of 

 corn is concerned, is negative. By some route, the big 

 butt, yellow kernel, broad kernel, big shank, 8-row of the 

 Mayan area must have reached the eastern United States. 

 But there is not the slightest evidence that the Totonac 

 had anything to do with this diffusion. 



THE MILPA 



The maize field, or milpa (takuc ? tok), is a sort 

 of horticultural catch-all. It contains not only 

 corn, but almost every other local cultivated crop. 



