192 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 13 



Sometimes commercial brick, sometimes stone, is 

 used for the circumference at the base and for 

 the opening (fig. 26, b). Generally, the walls of 

 the dome are formed entirely of mortar (mezcla) ; 

 one local attempt to build of mud was a failure. 

 From inspection, construction is not evident, since 

 all ovens are heavily coated either with mud or 

 with mortar. 



Figure 26.— Oven ; baker's paddle. See text (pp. 191-192) 

 for details, a, Frame over which dome is constructed; 



b, Finished oven, mud-plastered; not to scale. 



c, Wooden paddle (length, 3 m.) used in baking. 



Two methods of forming the dome are described. 

 One involves building a mound of earth, which 

 then is coated with mortar. This technique is 

 little favored because of the difficulty of removing 

 the earth core. More frequently, a simple frame 

 is built of three pliable poles or split bamboo (fig. 

 26, a). On top of this frame is thrown an old 

 canvas or heavy cloth, over which the dome is 

 built. Later, the frame is removed, or a fire is 

 built in the cavity and the support burned. 



The floor is finished after the dome has been 

 completed. About 3 kg. of granular salt are 

 spread evenly over the surface, "so that the bread 



will cook." On top of the salt, commercial brick 

 is laid to form the floor. 



To heat an oven whose dome is under a meter 

 in height, a load {cargo) of wood is necessary; a 

 higher dome is impractical, for it requires more 

 fuel. Food to be baked is arranged on a flat tin, 

 and with a wooden paddle (fig. 26, c) is placed in 

 and removed from the oven. The paddle (lima- 

 stukan kastilansA), between 2.5 and 3 m. long, is 

 made by a local carpenter. 



Figure 27. — Kitchen shelves. See text (p. 193)for details. 

 SHELVES, PLATFORMS, HANGING FRAMES 



Storage presents a major problem in every Toto- 

 nac house. Long planks or bamboos generally are 

 laid across the house beams, thus forming an attic 

 of sorts, in which items not in daily use are cached. 

 Corn husks, bits of paper, gourd spoons, and other 

 small items are stuck in the interstices between the 

 uprights of the wall. Forked-stick hooks are sus- 

 pended from the rafters or from the wall poles, 

 and on them assorted items are hung ; in various 

 ways, other belongings are hung from the wall 

 poles (pi. 13, a). Almost every house is literally 

 strewn with odd possessions for which there is no 

 adequate storage space. In one case, we saw a 



