URDLicKA] PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 25 



particularly venison, is much relished among this tribe. They also 

 like the flesh of field mice, which they skin and roast suspended 

 on sticks near the fire. They occasionally eat various small animals, 

 including skunks, lizards, locusts, grasshoppers, frogs, water beetles, 

 and even larvae." From corn they prepare tortillas, also round cakes, 

 each about three-fourths of an inch thick, called "moon bread." 

 Occasionally they make Mexican-like bread from wheat flour. They 

 eat the blood of animals after preparing it over the fire. Their meat 

 is sometimes eaten almost raw, but usually it is well roasted or other- 

 wise cooked. The Tarahumare living near streams dive into pools 

 and lance fish; they also shoot fish with arrows armed at the point 

 with a number of nopal spines, catch them with nets, or drag for them 

 with blankets. At times they drain the lagoons and kill the fish with 

 stones; and they also have recourse to poisoning fish with certain 

 plants. Crawfish, too, are caught and eaten. The dornestic animals 

 kept by the Tarahumare are chickens, cattle, sheep, and some goats; 

 they have also a few turkeys, but no ducks or geese. Besides the 

 domestic fowls they eat various wild birds, and eggs of both classes. 

 Wild fruits are abundant in season. 



The Huichol plant maize, beans, melons, and chile, and gather wild 

 fruit of many varieties. Various edible roots are also included in 

 their dietary. They hunt chiefly the deer and the squirrel. Those 

 near streams gather crawfish, which they impale on sticks and broil. 

 They trap fish, which are spitted on sticks and roasted, usually over 

 night, near a slow fire. Some of the Huichol own good cattle. 

 Though quite as primitive as the Tarahumare, these people, according 

 to general report, suffer actual want but seldom. 



The Cora are very adept in making fine seedless, or almost seedless, 

 "tamales" from the fruit of the pitahaya, which grows in great abun- 

 dance in the canyon of the Rio Jesus Maria and neighboring barrancas.'' 

 Platanos, red and yellow, ciruelas, and other native fruits are eaten 

 in considerable quantities, and fruit is also brought from the coast 

 by traders. The Cora also raise crops of corn. They are good 

 hunters, accustomed to using the rifle. The Rio Jesus Maria 

 affords them edible fish, particularly a kind of catfish known as 



a " They eat almost anything that lives— polecats, mice, rats, snakes, the big tree lizards or iguanas, 

 frogs, fish spawn, grasshoppers, and certain kinds of larvse, even those of the dragon flies taken out of 

 the water."— Hartman. See also Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico. 



6 The nutritious fruit is gathered in large quantities by means of long poles on the ends of which four 

 little sticks are so arranged as to form a small receptacle. The pitahayas are carefully torn from the limbs 

 of the cactus, laid on the ground, deprived of spines with the help of little branches, and brought home 

 in baskets. The wornen remove the skins, and the luscious inside fruit is then slowly boiled. While 

 boiling most of the very numerous small black seeds are removed. When cooked the mass is spread 

 on stones to cool, finally assuming about the consistency of the inside of a ripe fig. It is then divided 

 into portions of from about 3 to 4 ounces each, which are wrapped in clean corn husks. In this form the 

 "pitahaya tamales" are preserved for consumption. With care they will last for several months, or 

 even for a whole year. The writer has brought a quantity of them to New York without appreciable 

 loss of their delicious flavor 



