e, or rather for keeping them in
health. Every year he makes a tour of the different ranches, and the
Indians bring their animals to him to be treated. A large hole is dug
in the ground and a fire kindled in it. Then some green branches of
the mountain cedar and some copal are thrown in and burned, and the
animals driven one by one through the smoke. Since the veterinary
gets one animal for each ceremony, he becomes quite rich.

The shamans also undertake to cure the sun and the moon, because these,
too, are often ill and have to be righted. Not a feast is held in which
some spoonfuls from the jars containing the remedies are not thrown
up for the benefit of the sun and the moon. Occasionally, however,
special ceremonies have to be performed to cure the celestial bodies,
particularly the moon, because from her all the stars receive their
light. At the period of the dark moon she is considered to be sick and
tied up by the Devil, and the world is sad. Then the shamans assemble
to consult about her ailment and the means of curing her. An ox may
be killed and tesvino made. In killing the animal, care is taken
not to injure the heart, which is treated with great ceremony. The
people always avoid touching it, and at sacrifices they hang it
with the lungs to a stick raised near the cross. The shamans stand
near, with small earthenware dishes containing copal incense; while
the oldest cuts with his knife four crosses on four diametrically
opposite points of the heart, and from the upper part all but slices
off a piece, which is left hanging down beside the main part. All the
blood the heart contained is sacrificed to the four cardinal points
with much singing. Then the shaman asks for an earthen bowl which has
never been used before, and in this he places the heart and burns it
without adding fat or anything else. The ashes he rubs between his
fingers until reduced to a fine dust, which he mixes with water and
some medicinal herbs. The shamans stand in the middle, and the people
around them, and all are unanimous in their prayer that they may see
the moon. Each shaman takes three spoonfuls of medicine, the rest of
which is thrown on the cross, and the shamans watch all night.

The Christian Tarahumares even feel called upon to cure the church when
those buried in and around it have been noisily dancing and damaging
the building to make the people give them tesvino. The principal shaman
heads the procession, carrying a jar of