196 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 13 



The other beater is made of the tepejilote (No. 97). 

 The entire plant is pulled from the ground ; the roots are 

 trimmed to even length ; the whole thing is washed ; and 

 the beater (fig. 29 ? 6) is ready for use. 



Every kitchen is adorned with corn husks. 

 Large bundles are stored in the space above the 

 rafters, and a small quantity is kept at hand, 

 stuffed in the interstices of the poles which form 

 the kitchen wall. The dried husks have many 

 uses. Eggs are wrapped in them (p. 92) ; like- 

 wise, cakes of brown sugar (pp. 103, 131) ; so also 

 is seed of squash and gourd; and smoked fowl is 

 stored in them. If one buys lard, he brings it home 

 in a husk ; meat or cracklings are wrapped in sev- 

 eral. Moreover, if one wishes to make a gift of 

 fruit, such as limas, it apparently is a delicate ges- 

 ture to deliver each fruit in a corn-husk cover. In 

 short, in the Totonac kitchen, husks take the place 

 of our waxed paper and our wrapping paper. 



Ladders are found in many houses; although 

 their use is by no means confined to the kitchen, 



"on 



4 



4 



1 



-I 



i 



■4 



Figure 29. — Chocolate beaters, a, Short lengths of 

 cornhusk placed in cleft stick; b, stem and root of 

 tepejilote. See text (p. 195-196) for details. Length 

 of a, 34.5 cm.; b, same scale. 



they may be mentioned here. One type consists 

 of a single stalk of bamboo, simply notched; it 

 has a deep cut immediately above each joint of 

 the cane (fig. 30, a). Another consists of a bam- 

 boo stalk, with short stubs of the side branches 

 left in place; since these are alternate, the result 

 is a simple ladder (fig. 30, ~b). Other forms of 

 ladders perhaps are inspired by Papantla models. 

 One is made by perforating two bamboo stems 

 and connecting them with a series of rungs ; still 

 another, simply by nailing crosspieces to a pair 

 of wooden uprights. 



\ 'M 



Figure 30. — Bamboo ladders. Redrawn from field 

 sketches, a, Notched; b, side-branch stubs left in 

 place. Not to scale. 



