their faces and carry on their
backs stuffed animals, such as the grey fox, squirrel, or opossum,
while dancing to the music of the violin. They jokingly call the skins
their _muchachitos_, and hold them as women carry their babies. At
present the only object is to make the beholder laugh; but of course
the play is a remnant of some ancient custom, the meaning of which is
now forgotten through the new associations with which the missionaries
of old imbued the ceremonies and rites found among the pagans.

A similar suggestion of antiquity is unmistakably embodied in the
deer masks, as well as in the heads with antlers attached, which the
same men also may wear.

During Easter week live rattlesnakes are carried about, but the heads
of the reptiles are tied together so that they can do no harm. One
man may have as many as four serpents with him.

Chapter XIX

Plant-worship--Hikuli--Internal and External Effects--Hikuli both
Man and God--How the Tarahumares Obtain the Plant, and where They
Keep It--The Tarahumare Hikuli Feast--Musical Instruments--Hikuli
Likes Noise--The Dance--Hikuli's Departure in the Morning--Other
Kinds of Cacti Worshipped--"Doctor" Rubio, the Great Hikuli
Expert--The Age of Hikuli Worship.

To the Indian, everything in nature is alive. Plants, like human
beings, have souls, otherwise they could not live and grow. Many are
supposed to talk and sing and to feel joy and pain. For instance,
when in winter the pine-trees are stiff with cold, they weep and pray
to the sun to shine and make them warm. When angered or insulted,
the plants take their revenge. Those that are supposed to possess
curative powers are venerated. This fact, however, does not save them
from being cut into pieces and steeped in water, which the people
afterward drink or use in washing themselves. The mere fragrance of
the lily is supposed to cure sickness and to drive off sorcery. In
invoking the lily's help the shaman utters a prayer like this:

"Sumati okilivea saeva rako cheeneserova
"Beautiful this morning in bloom lily thou guard me!
waminamela ke usugituami cheeotsheloaya
drive them away (those who) make sorcery! thou make me
grow old!
cheeliveva tesola chapimelava otsheloa
thou give me walking-stick (to) take up (in) old age
rimivelava Matetrava Sevaxoa
(that I may) find! thanks exhale fragrance
wilirova!"
standing!"

("Beautiful li