r language as well as he did Spanish,
and really liked the Tarahumares better than his fellow Mexicans. Being
a great hunter but a poor shot he brought home but little game,
and made his living chiefly by trading with the Indians. He was the
picture of good-nature, laughing with the Indians at their jokes,
and weeping with them at their sorrows. Among them he passed as a wit,
and being very honest was a general favourite. He never took anything
without asking, but was not backward about that. Of his teeth he had
hardly any but two of his upper incisors left, which was rather hard
for a man of his ravenous appetite; but he utilised them with such
squirrel-like dexterity as almost to keep pace with others.

Chapter XIII

The Tarahumare Physique--Bodily Movements--Not
as Sensitive to Pain as White Men--Their Phenomenal
Endurance--Health--Honesty--Dexterity and Ingenuity--Good Observers
of the Celestial Bodies and Weather-forecasters--Hunting and
Shooting--Home Industries--Tesvino, the Great National Drink of
the Tribe--Other Alcoholic Drinks.

The Tarahumare of to-day is of medium size and more muscular than his
North American cousin, but his cheek-bones are equally prominent. His
colour is light chocolate-brown. I was rather surprised often to find
the faces of the people living in the warm barrancas of a lighter
colour than the rest of their bodies. The darkest complexions,
strange to say, I encountered on the highlands near Guachochic. In
the higher altitudes the people also develop higher statures and are
more muscular than in the lower portions of the country.

Both men and women wear long, flowing, straight black hair, which
in rare cases is a little wavy. When a woman marries, I am told,
she cuts her hair once. When the hair is cut because it has grown
too long and troublesome, they place it under a stone or hang it in
a tree. A shaman once cut his hair short to get new thoughts with the
new hair, and while it was growing he kept his head tied up in a piece
of cotton cloth to keep his thoughts from escaping. When the people
are very old, the hair turns gray; but they never grow bald. Beards
are rare, and if they appear the Indians pull them out. Their devil is
always represented with a beard, and they call the Mexicans derisively
shabotshi, "the bearded ones." Much as they enjoy tobacco, an Indian
would not accept some from me, because he feared that coming from a
white man it