uit around the cross, walking as many times around it as
there are circuits to be run in the race. The men sleep near the cross,
to watch the remedies on the blanket. With them they have some old man,
for old men see even when they sleep, and watch against sorcery.

After the ceremony the shaman takes each runner aside and subjects him
to a rigid examination in regard to his recent food and his relations
with women. Fat, potatoes, eggs, and anything sweet are prohibited,
because all these things make the men heavy; but rabbits, deer, rats,
turkeys, and chaparral-cocks are wholesome, and such nourishment
enables them to win.

An augury as to which side will win is also taken. Water is poured into
a large wooden tray, and the two balls are started simultaneously and
rolled through the water over the tray. The party whose ball first
reaches the other end will surely win. This test is gone through as
many times as there are to be circuits in the race.

A race is never won by natural means. The losers always say that they
have been bewitched by the others. Once I was taking the temperature
of some foot-runners before they started, and their opponents,
seeing this, lost heart, thinking that I had made their contestants
strong to win the race. Often one of the principal runners becomes
disheartened, and may simulate illness and declare that their rivals
have bewitched him. Then the whole affair may come to nothing and the
race be declared off. There are stories about injurious herbs that
have been given in pinole or water, and actually made some racers
sick. It may even happen that some dishonest fellow will pay to the
best runner of one party a cow if he lets the other party win. But,
as a rule, everything goes on straightforwardly. No one will, however,
wonder that there are six watchmen appointed by each side to guard the
runners from any possible peradventure, and to see that everything
goes on in a proper, formal way. Tipsy persons are not admitted,
and women in a delicate condition are carefully kept away, as the
runners become heavy even by touching such a woman's blanket.

On the day of the race the forenoon is spent in making bets, the
managers acting as stakeholders. These people, poor as they are,
wager their bows and arrows, girdles, head-bands, clothes, blankets,
beads, ari, balls of yarn, corn, and even sheep, goats, and cattle. The
stakes of whatever nature are tied together--a blanket against so many
balls