ce
the day before the dance was to come off. It was a few miles away
in a remote locality, on top of a hill the upper part of which was
composed mainly of huge stones, some of them as regular in shape as if
they had been chiselled. Here and there in the few open spaces some
shrubbery grew. An opening in the midst of the great mass of stones
had been prepared to serve as a dancing-place. The big stones looked
dead enough, but to the Indians they are alive. They are what the
Coras call Taquats or ancient people. Once upon a time they went to a
mitote, just as we were doing now, when the morning star arose before
they arrived at their destination, and all were changed into stone,
and ever since have appeared like stones. My companion pointed out
the various figures of men, women, and children, with their bundles
and baskets, girdles, etc., and in the waning light of day it was not
difficult to understand how the Indians had come to this conception
of the fantastic forms standing all around the place. Even a mountain
may be a Taquat, and all the Taquats are gods to whom the Coras pray
and sacrifice food; but it is bad to talk about them.

It had often been a puzzle to me why primitive people should make
for themselves stone idols to whom they might sacrifice and pray;
but what is to us a rock or stone may be to the Indian a man or a
god of ancient times, now turned into stone. By carving out features,
head, body, or limbs, they only bring before their physical eyes what
is in their mind's eye. This peculiar kind of pantheism can never be
eradicated from the Indian's heart unless he is from infancy estranged
from his tribal life.

In the centre of the dancing-place stood a magnificent tree not yet
in leaf, called _chocote_, and there was some shrubbery growing about
and around the place, which is very old. Only a few yards higher
up among the rocks is a similar spot, with traces of still greater
antiquity. The Indians had promised me that on this occasion one of
their shamans would make a god's eye for me, and I was shown the stone
on which he would sit while making it. It was near the tree; and back
of it, arranged in a circle around the fire, were six similar stones,
in place of the stools I had seen in Pueblo Viejo. The principal men
had swept the place in the morning, and since then had been smoking
pipes and talking to the gods.

There were also present a female principal, an old woman, with her
little granddaughter