350 The National Geographic Magazine 





up 













Kli 





^ 





§1 



wffi&M I ' 





[:. 





.1 







■■ ,J' 









« ^rlSS^al 





-■_: 







- p v; : m 



■^* AW '1%. 1.11 "" .' ^k55 





~ '&■ •= 



1 • c~* " :;, -. ■ 



- ^l"; > - 



WSEsEBBESm- 



_ 





Photo by Goldman 



Women — Half Negro, Half Indian — Going After Palm Nuts, Papayo 



below frost line in the Tropics. My 

 horse saw snow for the first time here, 

 and it was only after long urging that he 

 could be made to cross a patch of it. 



This region was the home of the an- 

 cestors of our domesticated turkeys. 

 They were found wild here, domesticated 

 by the Aztecs, and introduced into the 

 Old World by the Spaniards soon after 

 the conquest. It was with a special de- 

 sire' to secure specimens of these birds 

 that our camp was made on Mt Tanci- 

 taro. In this we were disappointed, 

 though the Indian hunters who visited 

 our camp said that wild turkeys were 

 formerly abundant on the mountain, but 

 that by watching the few watering 

 places, the hunters had long ago exter- 

 minated them. They added that the 



deer on the mountain would soon be 

 gone like the turkeys. 



We passed our first night after leav- 

 ing Mt Taucitaro in the village of Ci- 

 rosto, a characteristic Tarascan Indian 

 town, with numerous roofed gateways 

 and houses walled with massive hewed 

 planks well fitted together and without 

 window openings. The doors and pro- 

 jecting ends of the rafters are often cu- 

 riously carved and the hand-made shin- 

 gles are fastened down with rows of 

 wooden pegs with long projecting ends. 

 This peculiar Tarascan architecture is 

 strikingly picturesque. 



The Tarascan country is covered 

 mainly with open yellow pine forest, 

 much like the forested plateau of north- 

 ern Arizona. For many miles our trail 



