THE TAJIN TOTONAC — PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



203 



GRANARY 



By no means does every family build a separate 

 structure to serve as a granary. Thirty-seven 

 families store their maize as follows : 



Special building 13 



In the dwelling, room not specified 5 



Living room 7 



Bedroom 6 



Living-room-bedroom combined 1 



Kitchen 4 



Oven 1 



37 



Not infrequently, the corn is simply dumped on the 

 floor of the house and ears removed as needed. 

 However, it is preferable to place it on a platform 

 raised at least a few centimeters above the ground ; 

 "otherwise, a snake may get into the maize, look- 

 ing for rats." Forked sticks are sunk into the 

 earth floor, and their crotches support a floor of 

 closely spaced poles or halved bamboos. Ordinar- 

 ily, such floors are about 25 cm. above the ground ; 

 that shown in plate 17, d, is higher than usual, 

 being approximately 70 cm. 



When maize is stored within the dwelling, one 

 or more of the house walls form the walls of the 

 crib. In plate 17, d, a partition which divides the 

 house into two rooms serves as the back wall of the 

 granary ; at the far left (not visible) it is bounded 

 by one of the main walls of the house. In this 

 particular case, the maize has been piled neatly 

 across the front of the "bin" — entire ears, not 

 husked, are laid horizontally, butt ends outward. 

 The front "wall" of the crib is formed by a double 

 course of maize thus stacked ; behind, the ears are 

 tossed in, helter-skelter. 



This technique is not usual, and the corn gener- 

 ally is held within the granary by a movable wall 

 which consists of horizontal bamboos, or small 

 poles, stacked one above the other. At each end, 

 the horizontals are held in place between two 

 closely spaced vertical posts set in the ground. 

 As the supply of corn diminishes, the upper poles 

 are removed, and the wall accordingly lowered. 

 With such an arrangement, it is not necessary to 

 stack the ears with care, as must be done if the 

 whole front is open. 



Even when the granary is a separate building, 

 it still preserves most of the features described 

 above. The walls of the hut usually form three 

 walls of the crib, and the front wall is movable 



(pi. 17, c). Generally, the roof is thatched, with 

 two sheds, and the walls are of split bamboo (pi. 

 17, c ) . Occasionally, a granary is built of squared 

 timbers and topped with a tiled roof (pi. 17, /). 



PIGPEN 



In some cases, a shelter for a pig is indistin- 

 guishable from a granary, although the latter gen- 

 erally is better built (cf. pi. 17, c, e). Some fam- 

 ilies use the same hut alternately for both pur- 

 poses. In any case, the doorway is closed by a 

 series of horizontal poles or bamboos, held in 

 place between two sets of vertical posts (pi. 17, e), 

 just as is the movable wall of the granary. Some- 

 times, the hog shelter consists merely of a pen, 

 covered by a thatched roof. 



LAUNDRY 



The laundry is an adjunct of virtually every 

 house. It consists of a plank, or of a series of 

 horizontal poles, supported on a forked stick 

 frame (pi. 18, a,d,e). On this approximation of 

 a table rests the large, oval, wooden tray in which 

 actual washing is done. Nearby are the pottery 

 jars which contain both plain and lye- water, and 

 from which the woman dips the liquid as needed. 

 Discarded water is thrown from the tray at any 

 nearby point ; sometimes a shallow channel is dug 

 to carry it a short distance, since otherwise the 

 ground becomes soggy. 



The laundry table may be set up under a tree 

 near the dwelling; if no tree provides shade, a 

 simple roof, of one or two sheds, supported by a 

 forked stick frame, is built over the table to give 

 protection from sun and rain. Similar laundry 

 facilities appear to be common in the Huasteca 

 and probably also among the Maya (Wauchope, 

 p. 138). 



ROOFED SHELTERS 



A simple thatched roof, ordinarily of two sheds, 

 gives protection to a variety of domestic equip- 

 ment. Such a roof often is built over the sweat- 

 house or over the laundry table (pis. 16, a, b, 18, 

 a, e). One covers the "oven" in which chili is 

 dried; another, the "oven" over which cane juice 

 is boiled to produce brown sugar (pi. 8, /). 

 The bake oven, too, is similarly protected, pro- 

 vided it is in the patio of the house and not in 

 the kitchen. 



The sugar mill, of wood or of metal, invariably 



