panese, for instance, forms a perfect circle. So much importance
being attached to the structure of the hair, I made a collection
from different individuals. They were willing enough to let me have
all the samples I wanted for a material consideration, of course,
but the indifferent manner in which they pulled the hair from their
heads, just as we should tear out hairs from the tail of a horse,
convinced me that inferior races feel pain to a less extent than
civilised man. I once pulled six hairs at a time from the head of
a sleeping child without disturbing it at all; I asked for more,
and when twenty-three hairs were pulled out in one stroke, the child
only scratched its head a little and slept on.

They are not so powerful at lifting as they are in carrying
burdens. Out of twelve natives, ten of whom were eighteen and
twenty years old, while two owned to fifty years, five lifted a
burden weighing 226 2/5 pounds (102 kilograms). I was able to lift
this myself. The same five lifted 288 3/5 pounds (130 kilograms),
as also did two strong Mexicans present, aged respectively eighteen
and thirty years. In order to test their carrying capacity, I had them
walk for a distance of 500 feet on a pretty even track. One very poor
and starved-looking Tarahumare carried 226 2/5 pounds (102 kilograms)
on his back, though tottering along with some difficulty; two others
carried it with ease, and might have taken it farther. All three were
young men.

Their endurance is truly phenomenal. A strong young man carried a
burden of over 100 pounds from Carichic to Batopilas, a distance of
about 110 miles, in seventy hours. While travelling with such burdens
they eat nothing but pinole, a little at frequent intervals.

The wonderful health these people enjoy is really their most attractive
trait. They are healthy and look it. It could hardly be otherwise
in this delightful mountain air, laden with the invigorating odour
of the pines combined with the electrifying effect of being close to
nature's heart. In the highlands, where the people live longer than
in the barrancas, it is not infrequent to meet persons who are at
least a hundred years old. Long life is what they all pray for.

They suffer sometimes from rheumatism, but the most common disease is
pleurisy (_dolor de costado_), which generally proves fatal. Syphilis
rages in some parts of the country. There was at the time of my
visit to Pino Gordo hardly a native there who had not, a