vino is
spared, and it is the avowed intention and aim of everybody to get
"a beautiful intoxication." They all like to get drunk. An Indian
explained to me that the drunken people weep with delight, because
they are so perfectly happy. Every Tarahumare has in his heart a
cross which Tata Dios placed there long, long ago, and this cross
they respect. When drunk they remember Tata Dios better. At their
feasts they sit alongside of him and drink with him. The women sit
alongside of the Moon and remember ancient times.

But unfortunately this blissful stage of their intoxication does not
last long, and then the animal nature in them manifests itself. Under
the influence of the liquor, men and women rapidly lose that
bashfulness and modesty which in ordinary life are such characteristic
traits of their deportment. Furthermore, whatever grudge one man
may' have against another now crops out, and very likely a fight
will ensue, in which the two opponents recklessly pull each other's
hair and punch each other's faces. Sometimes in such an outbreak of
unreasoning animalism one of the combatants will seize a stone and
batter the other one's head to crush it. Afterward, when sober again,
the murderer may deeply deplore his deed--if he remembers it at all.

Mothers, when overcome by the spirit of the feast, may unawares allow
their babies to fall out of the blankets and into the fire. Children
may frequently be seen with bruises and scars which they carry as
mementoes of some tesvino feast. I know one man who had no hair on
one side of his head, having when a child been a victim of such an
accident. But seldom, if ever, is a child allowed to become fatally
injured.

Taking it all in all, it is a good-natured, jolly, silly crowd,
out for a good time and enjoying themselves. All are good friends,
and familiarity becomes unlimited. Late in the afternoon those still
able to walk start on their way home. Rarely, however, can they
reach their domiciles, if these are any distance off, before nature
enforces her rights; and the track is strewn with men and women, who,
overcome with the effects of their spree, have lain down wherever
they happened to be, to sleep themselves sober. Tarahumare society has
not yet advanced far enough to see anything disgraceful in debauches
of this kind, which, if viewed from their standpoint, are _pro bono
publico_; and we ourselves need go back only to our grandfathers'
and great-grandfathers' time to f