e big-leaved oak-tree.

A natural cavity in a rock is chosen for a vat, in which the skin is
left for two days. After this it is well rinsed and squeezed until no
water remains in it. Two persons are required for the operation, which
is always performed in a place on which the sun beats strongly, while
at the same time it is sheltered from the wind by surrounding rocks.

Deer are caught in snares fastened to a bent tree, so that the animal's
foot is held, while the tree when released hoists the quarry up. The
Indians also chase deer with dogs toward some narrow passage in the
track where they have placed sharp-pointed pine sticks, two feet long,
against which the deer runs and hurts itself. Blackbirds are decoyed
by kernels of corn threaded on a snare of pita fibre hidden under
the ground. The bird swallows the kernel, which becomes entangled in
its oesophagus and is caught. Small birds are also shot with bow and
arrows, or killed with stones.

The Tarahumare is ingenious in devising many kinds of traps for birds
and animals. Into the burrow of the gopher he places a small upright
frame cut from a piece of bark. There is a groove inside of the frame,
and in this the snare runs; and a string is attached to a bough above
ground. Another string, on which some grains of corn are threaded,
keeps the snare set and obstructs the gopher's passage through the
frame. When trying to get at the kernels the gopher cuts the string,
the snare is released, and he is caught in his own burrow.

Squirrels are hunted in the most primitive way--by cutting down the
tree on which an animal is discovered. Sometimes it will escape when
the tree falls, and then the man has to cut down another tree, and
thus he may go on felling as many as ten trees before he can bag his
game, not a very substantial reward for a whole day's work.

The women make girdles and blankets on primitive looms, inserting
characteristic designs in the weaving. It takes four days of constant
work to make a girdle, but no woman weaves more than one blanket in a
year, and it is almost an event when it is finished. The weaving frame
consists simply of four sticks--placed on the ground tied together in a
rectangle or triangle, and pieces of reed on which the thread is wound,
one for each colour, are used as shuttles. Textiles from Pamachic are
especially highly valued. The blankets from that locality are sold
all over the Tarahumare country and are the finest made by the tr