THE TAJIN TOTONAC — PART 1 — KELLY AND PALERM 



141 



suitable, or the care inadequate. In any case, this 

 fruit is not common in Taj in, and the few plants 

 we have seen are not flourishing. 



OAHUAYOTE 



Cahuayote (Gonolobus niger (Cav.) R. Br., No. 

 124) is found chiefly in the monte. However, 

 because of its edible fruit, it sometimes is planted 

 in the milpa or in the house clearing, adjacent to 

 a tree up which it can climb. 



VARIOUS VEGETABLES 



In our sense of the word, vegetables are little 

 grown in Tajin. The tomato is important, but 

 dependence is upon a wild form. Green peas have 

 already been mentioned, as have green beans. 

 Tronchuda cabbage (No. 285) is grown by very 

 few people; "not everyone likes this plant." 

 Amaranth (Nos. 104, 105) is essentially wild, but 

 occasionally one tosses a bit of seed into the milpa ; 

 the young leaves are eaten as greens. Two kinds 

 of onion (cebolla and cebollina, little onion) are 

 grown in the milpa; garlic (a jo) is planted 

 nearby, to protect the onion from the arriera ant. 



FRUIT TREES 



The sixteenth-century Eelacion de Papantla 

 reports native fruits "in quantity," but, of intro- 

 duced fruits, only "oranges of Castille." Pre- 

 sumably the full repertoire of native fruits — 

 representing a wide range of families — still is 

 found, cultivated or semicultivated. Introduced 

 fruits include the mango, several citrus fruits, 

 and a wide assortment of bananas and plantains. 



Fruit trees are planted either in the milpa or 

 in the house clearing, generally the latter, for 

 birds are less likely to attack the fruit and the 

 trees can better be protected from the ravages 

 of the arriera ant. The latter is troublesome and 

 is combated without much success. The liquid in 

 which the maize has been steeped with lime, pre- 

 paratory to making tortillas, may be poured down 

 the entrance to the subterranean nest. Sometimes 

 a fire is lighted on top of the nest, and an effort is 

 made to detain, with lighted brands, the ants which 

 are headed for the fruit trees and other garden 

 plants. At night, this undertaking borders on the 

 spectacular, for the whole family turns out with 

 lighted torches. 



Eclipses also damage fruit trees. To protect 

 them, at least one of our acquaintances inverts a 

 bottle of dark glass at the base of the tree, on the 

 east side, and buries the neck in the ground. As 

 a general precautionary measure "so that the 

 flowers will not fall," tree trunks are painted with 

 a ring of lime (whitewash), 10 to 20 cm. wide. 

 This takes place during Lent — on Ash Wednesday ; 

 or the first Friday in Lent ; or the second Friday, 

 "if one forgets." 



Other than this, fruit trees receive a minimum 

 of care. Grafting is little practiced and is con- 

 fined to the orange, in the belief that a sweet orange 

 grafted to the bitter is immune to attack from 

 ants. In Tajin, only Juan Castro, originally of 

 Papantla, knows how to graft ; and it is said that 

 any Totonac in nearby Gildardo Mufioz who wishes 

 to have a tree grafted calls upon a resident of Pa- 

 pantla to perform the operation. 



NATIVE FRUIT TREES 



The hog plum is an ancient American cultivate, 

 widely spread, and is mentioned by a number of 

 sixteenth-century authors, including Diaz del Cas- 

 tillo (1:171), who relates that in "Cempoala" 

 the Spaniards were offered "baskets of plums." 



A wild form (jobo, No. 186) occurs locally in 

 monte alto, and although it produces edible fruit, 

 no effort is made to plant the tree. The Totonac 

 distinguish three kinds of cultivated hog plum 

 (Spondias purpurea L., Nos. 290-292) : red, yellow 

 and campechano. The latter has no native name, 

 and although an American domesticate, may be 

 suspected of having been introduced locally in 

 relatively recent times. All hog plums are plant- 

 ed from cuttings, taken when the tree is leafless 

 and about to flower. 



The red plum bears fruit of that color ; the yel- 

 low and the campechano both have yellow fruit, 

 but that of the latter is said to be smaller and of 

 distinct flavor. The red and yellow bear in June, 

 "about the time of Corpus Christi"; the campe- 

 chano produces later, beginning in August and 

 continuing through All Souls' Day. Any surplus 

 fruit is sold, on small scale, in Papantla. The 

 leaf of the yellow plum, perhaps also of the red is 

 considered useful in treating skin disorders. 



Another aboriginal domesticate is the papaya or 

 pawpaw, whose seed is planted at the time of the 

 full moon, "so that the fruit will be large." The 



