erful. This sensation
lasted for about ten minutes, when it was followed by a depression
and a chill such as I have never experienced before. To get warm
I almost threw myself into the fire, but not until morning was the
feeling of cold conquered. Some Tarahumares told me that they are
similarly affected, and for this reason they do not take it. When I
told the shaman about the effect hikuli had on me, he asked whether
I had rasped on the notched stick, because, he said, hikuli does not
give chills to people who rasp. In other words, according to him,
the effect might be warded off by physical exercise.

A shaman who agreed to sell me some hikuli took me with him to his
house. Then he walked over to a store-house of pine boards, and with
a long stick undid the lock from within, taking off a few boards from
the roof to get at it. After some searching, he produced a small
closed basket. Holding this in his hand, he rapidly ran around me
in one ceremonious circuit, and said in a scarcely audible voice:
"Thank you for the time you have been with me; now go with him; I
will give you food before you go." The smoke of copal was blown over
the plants in the basket, that they might eat; and I had to smell
of the incense, so that hikuli might find pleasure in being with
me. The shaman then opened the basket and asked me to select what I
wanted. I picked out twelve plants, but, as he asked $10 for them,
I contented myself with three.

On my way back to civilisation, I spent some time at Guajochic,
near which place the great hikuli expert, Shaman Rubio, lives. He
is a truly pious man, well-meaning and kind-hearted, living up to
his principles, in which Christianity and Paganism are harmoniously
blended. He is highly esteemed by all his countrymen, who consider him
the greatest hikuli shaman in that part of the Tarahumare country. His
profession brings him a very comfortable living, as his services are
constantly in demand, and are paid for by fine pieces of the animals
sacrificed. For curing the people he even gets money; and what with
praying and singing, drinking tesvino and hikuli, fasting and curing
the sick, he passes his days in the happy conviction that he keeps
the world going. From him I obtained specimens of the various kinds
of cacti which the Tarahumares worship,--a betrayal of the secrets
of the tribe, for which the other shamans punished him by forbidding
him ever to go again on a hikuli journey. Though in the first