THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



113 



any sort are made. However, in the sixteenth 

 century, the Totonac of "Cempoala" associated 

 human sacrifice with fertility. When he was de- 

 prived of five slaves whom he intended to sacri- 

 fice, the chief of "Cempoala" lamented that "all 

 our plantings will be eaten by the worms, destroyed 

 by hail, and consumed by drought, or flooded by 

 the torrential rains because we have ceased the 

 sacrifices" (Martir, p. 337). 



REPLANTING 



Not all the seed grows, and by the end of 8 or 10 

 days, it is evident how many plants there are to 

 each clump. Accordingly, it is customary to re- 

 plant (resembrar) , that is, to add seed to the clus- 

 ters which are incomplete. For replanting a des- 

 tajo, 4 liters are necessary if there is a considerable 

 deficiency; otherwise, about 3. 



Some use dry seed for the major planting, but 

 all think it is advisable to speed germination for 

 the replanting. As before, the seed is soaked. 

 Since the quantity is not great, it is not placed 

 subsequently in a box in the sun, but is wrapped in 

 banana leaves, and the bundle hung from the 

 rafters of the kitchen, where there is sufficient heat 

 to cause germination. 



Replanting takes place but once. As before, a 

 hole for the seed is punched with the dibble, but 

 only in the clumps which are incomplete. Despite 

 replanting, the clusters in a mature field are far 

 from uniform, and may have from two to four 

 plants. Since maize generally does not tiller in 

 Taj in, each stalk represents a seed. Occasionally 

 a secondary stalk is produced, but "it is ot no use ; 

 it is small and ill-formed." 



CULTIVATION ; WEED COMPETITION 



"Once the field is planted, there is no more to 

 do, except keep it free of weeds" — a chore of major 

 proportions. Both men and women weed (es- 

 cardar) , and generally the owner of the field, ac- 

 companied by assorted members of the household, 

 works daily at this never-ending task. For ex- 

 ample, in the field of Pablo Gonzalez, his wife, a 

 stepson, and one or more of his three stepdaughters 

 generally are to be found cultivating. 



In addition to daily cultivation on a small scale, 

 there are several major weeding bouts during the 

 season. Some have a complete clearing of the 



field every 2 months ; others, once a month. Upon 

 these occasions, about the same number of friends 

 is invited as for planting, and the host is under 

 similar obligations as regards hospitality. Ne- 

 mesio Martinez, who plants 2.75 destajos in a day, 

 with the assistance of 15 men, calculates that the 

 same number of workers requires 2 days to culti- 

 vate the same plot. In short, he considers the 

 work is about double that of planting. 



Some recommend weeding by hand or with the 

 machete, because "the coa may frighten the maize 

 so that it does not grow." All our acquaintances, 

 however, cultivate with the coa. With it the weeds 

 are removed, and the soil about the maize is stirred 

 lightly. Never is the earth heaped about the 

 base of the corn, and technically the Totonac do 

 not raise maize in hills. 



The coa is handled according to a well-established pat- 

 tern : If it is held so that the side with the blade is on the 

 right of the worker, then the right hand grasps the handle 

 near its upper end, and the left hand is about half way 

 down the stick. However, if the blade is to the left, the 

 position of the hands is reversed. The uppermost hand 

 is the one which exerts most strength, and sometimes the 

 position is reversed, so as to rest the arm ; in that case, 

 the cultivator shifts his position in the field and faces in 

 the opposite direction. Regardless, the body is well 

 bent, because to be handled effectively, the coa must form 

 a very sharp angle with the soil. 



Weeds which are especially troublesome include : 

 mozote bianco (No. 325), coyolillo de raton (No. 

 311), zacate de venado (No. 288), malva (Nos. 58, 

 355), lechuguilla (No. 93), sandia del raton (No. 

 360), berenjena (No. 60), and the unidentified 

 hierba del sapo, and yerba mala. 



Most weeds simply are sheared off close to the 

 ground. However, grass and certain persistent 

 weeds which do not have very deep roots — mozote, 

 malva, yerba mala, and berenjena — are yanked out. 

 They are left lying where they fall and pre- 

 sumably, in time, serve as fertilizer. 



However, every man who cultivates a field has 

 tied about his waist a gourd, with two perfora- 

 tions for suspension and with a roughly quad- 

 rangular aperture cut for the hand. Into this 

 receptacle he carefully places the seeds of par- 

 ticularly troublesome annual weeds, in the vain 

 hope of eradicating them. It is said that a fiber 

 bag seldom is used "because it might be ripped and 

 the seeds would fall in the field." These seeds are 

 not burned but are tossed into an abandoned maize 

 field {acahual, makataman) allegedly to speed the 



