ouse; but usually it is built inside on the ordinary
fireplace. Each vessel, one at a time, is turned upside down over
charcoal, and pieces of pine bark are built up all around and over it
like a square little hut, then ignited. Care is taken that no piece
of bark comes so near to the jar as to touch and injure it. Where
bark cannot be readily procured, wood is used. The heat first turns
the clay dark, and afterward a pretty yellow colour.

There is one industry which has a peculiar bearing on the whole life
of the Tarahumare, namely, the making of native beer.

Nothing is so close to the heart of the Tarahumare as this liquor,
called in Mexican Spanish _tesvino_. It looks like milky water, and
has quite an agreeable taste, reminding one of kumyss. To make it,
the moist corn is allowed to sprout; then it is boiled and ground,
and the seed of a grass resembling wheat is added as a ferment. The
liquor is poured into large earthen jars made solely for the purpose,
and it should now stand for at least twenty-four hours; but inasmuch
as the jars are only poorly made, they are not able to hold it very
long, and the people take this responsibility on themselves. A row of
beer jars turned upside down in front of a house is a characteristic
sight in the Tarahumare region.

The tesvino forms an integral part of the Tarahumare religion. It is
used at all its celebrations, dances, and ceremonies. It is given
with the mother's milk to the infant to keep it from sickness. In
"curing" the new-born babe the shaman sprinkles some over it to make
it strong. Beer is applied internally and externally as a remedy
for all diseases Tarahumare flesh is heir to. No man could get his
field attended to if he did not at first make ready a good supply
of tesvino, because beer is the only remuneration his assistants
receive. Drinking tesvino at the feast marks the turning-point in
a person's life. A boy begins to drink tesvino because now he feels
himself a man; and when a girl is seen at feasts, it is a sign that she
is looking for a husband. No marriage is legitimate without a liberal
consumption of tesvino by all parties present at the wedding. Hunting
and fishing expeditions are accompanied by beer-drinking to insure
luck. No matter how many times the Tarahumare changes his abode in
the course of his life, he always makes tesvino when moving into a
new house or cave. Even the dead would not get any rest, but come
back and harm the survivors,