THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



185 



is poured into the depression and the paste is well 

 mixed, usually with the feet. 



Chopped grass is added. Zacate Colorado — per- 

 haps a few odd sheaves salvaged from an old 

 roof — is placed on a block of wood and with the 

 machete is hacked into short lengths before it is 

 combined with the mud. When the "plaster" is 

 of the proper consistency, the uprights are moist- 

 ened, and the mixture is thrown against them with 

 the hands. Work usually starts at the bottom of 

 the wall. Owing to the light color of the subsoil, 

 the resulting surface is a yellow cream ; when well 

 smoothed, the effect is very pleasing. 



Some builders plaster all walls of the house, as 

 well as interior partitions, despite the fact that 

 this so restricts ventilation that the house is most 

 uncomfortable during warm weather. Some plas- 

 ter only the north wall, "where the cold enters." 

 Some plaster both surfaces of the wall; others, 

 only the interior. 



DOORS 



The Totonac house is windowless but is equipped 

 with one or more doors. Seldom is a door on the 

 end of the house ; usually, it is on one of the long 

 sides, adjacent to a main post. Ordinarily, posts 

 are 3 varas apart, and, to complete the doorway, a 

 secondary post is set in the ground, at no great 

 depth, and is tied above to the mother beam. 



The door is of bamboo splints, mounted in a 

 bamboo frame. Unsplit bamboos form the up- 

 rights at either side. At the bottom, and some- 

 times at the top, the frame is finished by a half 

 bamboo, in whose concavity are set the splints of 

 the door (pi. 12, a-c; fig. 22). Transverse poles, 

 to which the bamboo splints are lashed, may be on 

 the interior (pi. 12, b, c), or the exterior (pi. 12, 

 a) of the door ; in either case, the convex surface 

 of the splint is on the outside of the door. 



The "hinge" is constructed ingeniously. One 

 upright of the door frame fits in the concavity of 

 a bamboo of a slightly greater diameter, which is 

 lashed firmly to one of the posts of the doorway. 

 The bottom of the same upright rests in a pitted 

 stone or block of hard wood, set in the ground. 

 With this simple equipment, the door swings 

 freely. Sometimes — presumably to prevent warp- 

 ing and sagging — a few lengths of liana are 

 looped, diagonally across the back of the door, in 

 the form of a figure 8 (pi. 12, c) . 



Figure 22. — Bamboo door. See text (p. 185) for descrip- 

 tion. 



COST 



If a man happens to own a considerable patch 

 of monte alto, he obtains from it all the materials 

 needed to build the native house. However, monte 

 alto now is relatively scarce, and most families 

 supplement resources from their own lands with 

 purchased materials. 



In table 12, one informant has estimated the 

 cost of building materials for a house 6 by 12 

 varas; corrections and remarks are appended. 

 With the possible exception of roof poles, the pur- 

 chaser cuts and transports all materials, and labor 

 is not included in the calculations. 



The table shows a total of $325 pesos, which 

 evidently is subject to considerable correction. To 

 it must be added $11.00 for two posts and $8.00 for 



