230 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 24, 19x2 
ALTAR IN CHURCH IN PASCALALAN DEL 0R0, AND OF THE TLAPANECOS. 
and then of the other, the while muttering a 
salutation in a low tone, their words sounding as 
strange as the Apache jargon of the tribes of 
Western United States. 
Unlike the Indians in other parts of Guer¬ 
rero, they seem to have no curiosity, and the 
sight of our outfit, with half a dozen men on 
the backs of mules, animals which the Tlapanecos 
do not possess, created no ripple of interest. In 
some places, along the trails outside the villages, 
the natives fled precipitately at sight of us. 
Their language sounds strangely like Chinese 
or Japanese. For good-day they say “gazee”; 
good-night, “nawee”; good, “meeha”; tortilla, 
“gooma.” When they wish to say, “Let us go,” 
it is, “I yook,” and when they drink each others’ 
health, they say, “Ah gee-ya.” 
When a marriage ceremony is performed, 
which is very seldom, and never with a member 
of an outside tribe, it is only by the judge who 
is chosen by the people of his particular village, 
totally irrespective of the nomination of any 
judge by the central Government in Mexico. 
Chiefs are chosen in the same manner, and the 
life of the people is feudal, each village being 
a nation unto itself. Their religion seems to 
be a mixture of hazy paganism handed down 
from their ancestors, undoubtedly the mound 
builders and modern Catholicism, introduced by 
the all-pervading priests who flocked into this 
country with and after the conquest. When a 
child arrives at the age of six years, the father 
takes it at midnight to some secret place in the 
hills, and there performs what is known as the 
“purification ceremony.” Having provided him¬ 
self with a chicken or turkey, and an incense pot 
filled with the sweet-odored copal gum, the head 
of the fowl is severed; 9 the blood allowed to run 
into the earth, and the pot placed on the spot 
where the blood fell. The incense is then lighted 
and the child must remain immovable in front 
of the pot until all is consumed. When the cere¬ 
mony is completed, the fowl is buried in the same 
spot and the earth filled with lime, to kill the 
odor, so that no wild animal may detect the odor 
and dig it up. 
Continuing our journey we arrived next day 
at Barranca de Pobre, where a feast was in pro¬ 
gress, and where, strange to say, we were wel¬ 
comed with great kindness and courtesy by the 
chief. There I met a young Tlapaneco who 
could speak some Spanish, and with him went 
into the tribal temple where a strange ceremonial 
was in progress. The building was of stone, 
about fifty feet long by twenty wide, with a palm 
leaf roof. At one end was an altar, on which 
were three male images, draped with bright- 
colored native cloths, the three representing the 
ancient gods of fire, wind and water. They re¬ 
sembled images in a Chinese Joss house more 
than anything I have ever seen. 
The priest, an aged Tlapaneco, clad in white 
cotton, and wearing the shell of a gourd, painted 
red, for a skull cap, placed a string of priceless 
green jade beads around the neck of each image 
and handed each a yellow flower, called “Xoehi- 
pala,” in the language of the tribe. Three very 
small candles were then given to each worshipper 
in the great temple. All knelt on the earthen 
floor, and the priest prayed aloud in the native 
tongue, while the Indians responded at proper 
intervals. No Bibles or other books were in 
evidence, and my young Indian friend declared 
that the words used in the ceremony were not 
taken from the Bible, but were handed down 
from the ancient times of the mound builders. 
The service lasted about ten minutes, when each 
Indian, advancing to the altar, laid thereon a 
yellow flower produced from beneath the folds 
of his clothing, and placed his candles in primi¬ 
tive candle sticks made from sections of banana 
tree trunks. 
At the conclusion of the ceremony the men, 
more than one hundred in number, began a pe¬ 
culiar dance, keeping slow time to the combina¬ 
tion of a drum and a guitar. The dancers were 
divided into sets of twelve, only men taking part. 
Each one wore a red cloth tied around his shoul¬ 
ders and passing under the right armpit; one 
around the neck, covering the mouth, and a third 
around the waist. Each carried a small yellow 
flag in his left hand. The master of ceremonies, 
dressed like the dancers, but wearing the skin 
of a jaguar’s head over his hair, carried a short- 
handled stone axe, and spent his time leaping 
wildly from group to group of the dancers, evi¬ 
dently trying to startle them, though no one paid 
the slightest attention to his antics. 
In another building more than fifty young 
Tlapaneco girls were engaged in cooking great 
pots of corn, beans, meat and chile peppers, for 
the refreshment of the people when the dance 
was concluded. It was a weird looking place, 
the darkness fitfully illumined by blazing torches, 
while the dusky maidens silently flitted about 
their duties or stirred the food in great clay 
pots, often two feet in diameter, and at once 
suggested a realistic rehearsal of the witch scene 
from Macbeth. 
In still another house a group of Tlapaneco 
men and their wives were brewing a sort of 
palm wine, which tasted sour, but which did not 
appear to contain a large percentage of alcohol, 
inasmuch as, though everyone drank copiously, 
no one seemed intoxicated. In the morning the 
chief and nine of his councillors called on me, 
each carrying a gourd filled with savory chicken 
stew. I returned the compliment by giving each 
member of the party a cigar and photographing 
the group. 
Another long ride of ten hours brought us 
to Pascalalan del Oro, situated among pine tim¬ 
ber, in a lovely valley, 6,000 feet above the level 
of the sea. We camped near a crystal stream, 
cold as ice, and next day visited the first im¬ 
portant prehistoric ruin seen on the trip. Two 
PROF. NIVEN IN CAMP TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO IN 
THE HEART OF THE RUINS. 
