TARAHUMARI INDIANS. 199 
are Christianized, while the wild ones 
living in cliffs and caves are—if they can 
be called anything—still worshipers of the 
sun and believers in the return of Monte¬ 
zuma; so this “God’s Justice,” as repre¬ 
sented so effectually by the mace or scep¬ 
ter, cannot mean solely the Christian God 
or that of the Tarahumaris, for in either 
case it would have no effect on the other. 
There can be only one conclusion that I 
can see, and that is that this badge of 
authority is as old as the Tarahumaris 
themselves, or at least antedates the con¬ 
version of the civilized ones by the old 
Jesuits, or the conquering of the country 
by the Spaniards from Europe. The 
Mexicans use nothing of the kind except, 
probably, in their state and federal legis¬ 
latures, as we do in some of ours, and it 
is not at all likely that these natives, 
