TARAHUMARI INDIANS. 197 
pletely than do they this mute expression 
of their own laws, and without which 
they would often be lawless under the 
same circumstances. 
An almost ludicrous case was told me 
of a foul murder having been committed 
by the wild Tarahumaris on the person 
of a civilized one, the murderers holding 
possession of the body. It was natural 
that the civilized faction should want the 
corpse for burial, and they demanded it, 
but it was refused. The civilized natives 
then went to. the boundary line of the 
two factions, hoping to get the chief of 
the wild savages to assist them. Here 
they found some four or five hundred of 
the latter drawn up in battle array, with 
bows and arrows, to dispute their passage 
into their own land. The chief was 
absent and refused to come to the assist- 
