FOREST AND STREAM 
March 29, 191,^ 
g(.)ing south into the heart of tlie Tarahuniare 
country, we started north toward the three 
latnous barrancas (gorges), Batopilas, San Car¬ 
los and El Cobre. The last is the most peculiar, 
being more than 4.000 feet in depth. It took 
us almost half a day to reach the bottom of this 
gorge. In it the heathen Tarahumares live; 
and I had a good chance to get acquainted with 
the aborigines who have remained in their 
original condition up to the twentieth century. 
There are old reports from the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury regarding this tribe, and they are unani¬ 
mous that these Indians are very docile, peace¬ 
ful, and, comparing present scientific investiga¬ 
tions, have changed hardly any in their manners 
and customs of life. My guide spoke the 
Tarahuniare language fluently, but, notwith¬ 
standing this, we had some trouble to get per¬ 
mission from the medicine man, to put up our 
tents near the village. After getting acquainted 
with several of the chiefs, it required several 
days for the women to venture to leave their 
houses; but the little tots paved the way to 
friendshi]) with the mothers, and soon I was in 
a position to get a glimpse of their family life. 
It is peculiar how little success the Catholic 
Church has had in converting the Tarahumares; 
but it seems that the Jesuits and the Francis¬ 
cans, who were the first to try it. adapted the 
Christian creed to some of the pagan rites of 
the Indians. I happened tO' be there during 
Easter week, and it was a most peculiar sight 
to see the Indians made up as Pharisees, with 
painted faces and wooden swords. It seems 
that the old customs remain, while the doc¬ 
trines have been forgotten. 
The Tarahumares are of middle size, 
strongly built and muscular; their faces are 
oval, and I consider them among the best-look¬ 
ing Indians of iMexico. They could hardly be 
likened to the North American red Indians, 
as their color is a coffee-brown. Men and 
women wear long hair, held together with a 
ribbon of cotton or palm leaves bound round 
the forehead. The women are smaller than the 
men, with very small hands and feet, and, at 
the first glance, they seem more fragile than 
white women. I'hey are very timid, but are 
faithful wives and good mothers. They usually 
raise a family of from six to eight children, 
and a peculiar trait is that they marry only 
for love. Although the woman is not con¬ 
sidered the equal of the man, as the Tara¬ 
humares believe that one man is worth five 
women, in the family councils, the wife has al¬ 
most the same voice as the husband. The men 
have no beards, and if a hair does appear on 
the face, they pull it out by the roots, as they 
consider it a disgrace to have whiskers, as that 
makes them look like Mexicans, who, they be¬ 
lieve, are sons of the Devil. The marriage cere¬ 
mony is very simple. The medicine man 
mumbles some kind of a prayer, and the 
couple are man and wife. Divorces, which are 
rather rare, are declared by a council of the 
tribe, headed by the medicine man. 
When a woman gives birth to a child, she 
arises next day, but the husband rests three 
days, lest some misfortune follow. After the 
three days, he takes a bath, and, on the fourth 
day, the mother exposes the child, naked, to 
the sun for at least an hour, so that the god 
sun can get acquainted with his son. 
The Tarahumares are at the present time 
possibly the only troglodytes on this continent. 
Although they live during the dry season on 
the dry land, in so-called houses, most of the 
remainder of the year they spend in the caves 
of the great barrancas. There are caves which 
have an extension of more than 40x100 feet, 
where not alone the family lives, but the ani¬ 
mals also, and they consider these caves the 
safest places for their granaries and store¬ 
houses. The caves are in most cases dry, very 
high, and in the middle is the fire which is 
never allowed to die out, while all around 
.stands the household pottery of their own make. 
I'he Tarahumares prefer to live in the caves 
during the winter, as their houses do not pro¬ 
tect tliem from the elements, and they cannot 
withstand the rigors of the climate. At the en¬ 
trance to each cave they have three crosses of 
different sizes, representing the god sun. the 
god moon, and the morning star. Their greatest 
pleasure is to take a sun. bath for hours. 
Men and women wear little clothing save 
a small leather apron, and, for the most part, 
go entirely naked. The women, when they go 
to the nearby market towns, cover themselves 
with a few cotton clothes. They wear very few 
personal ornaments, except collars made from 
strings of seeds. The Tarahumares are very 
inoffensive; they neither forget nor forgive. 
'I'hey raise mostly corn, and they prepare their 
fields in a peculiar manner. They cut the trees 
and shrubbery before the rainy seson seats in, 
burning them and planting the corn in the 
ashes, making holes with sticks, though now 
and then they use very primitive plows. Corn 
is the main staple, together with beans, chiles 
and squashes. Each family has three or four 
head of cattle, about a dozen goats, but no 
hogs or horses. They have some dogs, but I 
do not like them. They take good care of their 
domestic animals, never killing them except as 
a sacrifice to their gods. 
These children of the forest were shy of 
my kodak, as they really believe if anyone 
looks into a camera the gods will be dissatis- 
field and the unfortunate human being will 
surely die. But when I finished the first nega¬ 
tive of a boy, the whole village tried to get the 
photograph. 'I'hey do not eat the flesh of their 
stock, because they believe that the gods placed 
man to take care of the lower animals, though 
they are permitted to eat wild beasts. Their 
foodstuffs consist of different preparations from 
maize (corn), and, like the Mexicans, they use a 
great deal of chile. One of their preferred 
dishes is izquiate, made of toasted corn, ground 
in a metate. and made into a soup with dif¬ 
ferent herbs. In planting their corn they never 
care for large areas, as they are perfectly satis¬ 
fied to raise enough merely for their own needs. 
Besides, most of them raise two crops, one 
planted in March on the highlands, and the 
.‘•econd in June in the deep gulches near their 
caves. They take good care of their granaries, 
and when they lock them, they consider it the 
greatest crime for one of their tribesmen to 
break in. Such a case never happens, in fact, 
among their own people, but often Mexicans 
who live nearby take advantage of the seem¬ 
ingly inoffensive Tarahumares. They are very 
honest in their dealings and expect the same 
treatment from their white neighbors, but they 
often get the worst of it. 
The whole territory occupied by the Tara¬ 
humares has an excellent climate, the temper¬ 
ature hardly ever going beyond 97 F., although 
in winter they have snow for a few days on the 
high plateaus. There are three seasons in the 
Taral'iumare country; the dry period from 
March to June; the rainy period in July and 
August, while the remainder is winter. They 
are a very healthy race, many living more than 
TARAHUMARE FAMILY OF GUACHICHIC. 
