The Houses of the Tarahumares--American Cave-dwellings of
To-day--Frequent Changes of Abode by the Tarahumare--The Patio
or Dancing Place--The Original Cross of America--Tarahumare
Storehouses.
The houses we saw on this excursion were of remarkable uniformity, and
as the people have had very little, if any, contact with the whites,
it is reasonable to infer that these structures are original with
them. On a sloping mesa six families were living in such buildings
not far from one another.
These houses have a frame of four forked poles, planted firmly into
the ground, to form a square or rectangle. Two joists are laid over
them parallel to each other. Under one of them, in the front of the
house, is the doorway. The joists support the fiat roof of loose pine
boards, laid sometimes in a double layer. The rear joist is often a
foot or so lower than the front one, which causes the roof to slant
towards the back. The boards may simply be logs split in two and with
the bark taken off. The walls are made by leaning boards, ends up,
against the roof, while the door consists of a number of boards,
which are removed or replaced according to convenience. In most
instances the doorway is protected from the outside against wind
and weather by a lean-to. Access to the house is gained sideways,
even where a small vestibule is built, extra poles being driven in
the ground to support the porch-roof boards.
While this style of architecture may be said to be typical throughout
the Tarahumare country, there are many variations. Generally attempts
are made to construct a more solid wall, boards or poles being laid
lengthwise, one on top of the other, and kept in place by sliding the
ends between double uprights at the corners. Or they may be placed ends
up along the side of the house; or regular stone walls may be built,
with or without mud for mortar. Even in one and the same house all
these kinds of walls may be observed. A type of house seen throughout
the Tarahumare country, as well as among the pagan Tarahumares in
the Barranca de Cobre, is shown in the illustration.
It is also quite common to see a frame work of only two upright poles
connected with a horizontal beam, against which boards are leaning
from both sides, making the house look like a gable roof set on the
ground. There are, however, always one or more logs laid horizontally
and overhung by the low eaves of the roof, while the front and rear
are carelessly filled in with boards or logs, either horizontally or
standing on ends. In the hot country this style of house may be seen
thatched with palm-leaves, or with grass.
The dwelling may also consist only of a roof resting on four
uprights (_jacal_); or it may be a mere shed. There are also regular
log-cabins encountered with locked corners, especially among the
southern Tarahumares. Finally, when a Tarahumare becomes civilised,
he builds himself a house of stone and mud, with a roof of boards,
or thatch, or earth.
It is hardly possible to find within the Tarahumare country two houses
exactly alike, although the main idea is always easily recognised. The
dwellings, though very airy, afford sufficient protection to people
who are by no means sensitive to drafts and climatic changes. The
Tarahumares do not expect their houses to be dry during the wet
season, but are content when there is some dry spot inside. If the
cold troubles them too much, they move into a cave. Many of the
people do not build houses at all, but are permanent or transient
cave-dwellers. This fact I thoroughly investigated in subsequent
researches, extending over a year and a half, and covering the entire
width and breadth of the Tarahumare country.
In this land of weather-worn porphyry and inter-stratified sandstone,
natural caves are met with everywhere, in which the people find a
convenient and safe shelter. Although it may be said that houses are
their main habitations, still the Tarahumares live in caves to such
an extent that they may be fitly called the American cave-dwellers
of the present age.
Caves were man's first abode, and they are found in certain geological
formations in all parts of the globe. Human imagination always peopled
the deep, dark caverns with terrible monsters guarding treasures, and
legends and fairy tales still cling about many of them. Shallow caves,
however, have from the earliest time attracted man to seek shelter in
them, just as the animals took refuge in them against the inclemency
of the weather. Prehistoric man in Europe was a cave-dweller, and
modern investigations have given us a clear and vivid picture of the
life of the ancient race, who existed in France while the mammoth
and the reindeer were roaming over the plains of western Europe.
As civilisation advanced, under changing climatic conditions, and as
man began to improve his tools and implements, he deserted the caves
and preferred to live in houses of his own building. But a long time
after the caves had been abandoned as abodes of the living, they were
still used for interring the dead. Do we not remember the story told
in Genesis, how Abraham bought for 400 shekels a cave from Ephron
that he might bury Sarah there and have a family tomb?
The cave-dwellers of France vanished many thousand years ago; but
there are yet in several parts of the globe, for instance, in Tunis
and in Central Africa, races who still adhere to the custom of living
in caves, although their condition of life is different from that of
the antediluvian cave-dwellers.
In Mexico the cave-dwellers are in a transitory state, most of them
having adopted houses and sheds; but many of them are still unable to
perceive why they should give up their safe and comfortable natural
shelters for rickety abodes of their own making. Padre Juan Fonte,
the pioneer missionary to the Tarahumares, who penetrated into their
country eighteen leagues from San Pablo, toward Guachochic, speaks
of the numerous caves in that country and relates that many of them
were divided into small houses. Other records, too, allude to the
existence of cave-dwellers in that part of the Sierra Madre. Still,
the fact of there being cave-dwellers to-day in Mexico was until
recently known only to the Mexicans living in their neighbourhood,
who regard this condition of things as a matter of course.
While most of the Tarahumares live permanently on the highlands,
a great many of them move for the winter down into the barranca,
on account of its warmer temperature, and, if they have no house,
they live wherever they find a convenient shelter, preferably a cave;
but for want of better accommodations they content themselves with
a rock shelter, or even a spreading tree, This would suit them well
enough were it not that, at least in recent years, there has not been
rain enough in the barrancas to enable the people to raise there the
corn they need. They therefore go back to the highlands in March,
because in the higher altitudes rainfall can be depended upon with
more certainty. The general custom among the Indians living near to
a barranca is to plant two crops of corn; one in early March on the
crest, and the other one in June, at the beginning of the rainy season,
down in the barranca, and after having harvested at both places they
retire to their winter quarters to enjoy themselves. Sometimes the cave
of a family is not more than half a mile from their house, and they
live alternately in one or the other abode, because the Tarahumares
still retain their nomadic instincts, and even those living permanently
on the highlands change their domicile very frequently. One reason
is that they follow their cattle; another that they improve the land
by living on it for a while; but there are still other reasons for
moving so much about, which are known only to themselves. In summer
many people leave their caves on account of the scorpions, tarantulas,
and other pests that infest them.
In front of the entrance to the cave there is generally a wall of
stone, or of stone and mud, raised to the height of a man's chest, as
a protection against wind and weather, wild beasts, etc. The cave is
fitted up just like the houses, with grinding stone, earthen jars and
bowls, baskets, gourds, etc, The fire is always in the middle, without
hearth or chimney, and the jars in which the food is cooked rest on
three stones. A portion of the ground is levelled and made smooth for
the family to sleep on. As often as not there are skins spread out
on the floor. Sometimes the floor space is extended by an artificial
terrace in front of the cave. In a few cases the floor is plastered
with adobe, and I have seen one cave in which the sides, too, were
dressed in the same way. Generally there are one or two store-houses
in the caves, and these constitute the chief improvement. Of course,
there are a good many caves where there are no storehouses; still they
are the striking feature of the cave. A few times I found walls of
stone and mud erected inside of the cave, breast high, to partition
off one or two rooms for the use of the family, as well as for the
goats and sheep. Often, inclosures are built of wooden fences for
the domesticated animals and occupy the greater part of the cave.
The largest inhabited cave I have seen was nearly a hundred feet in
width and from twenty to forty feet in depth. If caves are at all deep,
the Indians live near the mouth. They never excavate caves, nor do they
live in dug-outs. I heard of one arroyo, where six inhabited caves,
only thirty or fifty yards apart, can be seen at one time; but this
is a rare case. Generally they are farther apart, maybe a hundred
yards to a mile, or more; and that suits the Tarahumares very well,
each family preferring to live by itself.
In one place I saw a cave, or rather a shelter under a big boulder,
utilised as a dwelling; and here a kind of parapet had been built of
stone gravel, terrace fashion, to enlarge the area of the cave floor.
Inhabited caves are never found in inaccessible places, as is the
case with cliff-dwellings in the southwestern part of the United
States. Where caves are difficult of access, the Indians may place
a wooden ladder, or rather, a notched tree trunk, which is the
national style of staircase. Once I saw steps cut into the soft "rock"
(solidified volcanic ash), leading up to a dwelling. There was also
a kind of settee cut out of the cave-wall.
Many of the caves are remarkably symmetrical in shape, and naturally
quite comfortable. Caves may be found in the arroyos in the highlands,
as well as in the barrancas. If I were to designate a region where
they are more plentiful than elsewhere, I should mention the country
from Carichic towards Urique, and also to the north and west of
Norogachic. Many caves have within the memory of man been permanently
abandoned, owing to the occupancy of the land by the Mexicans, as
the Indians dislike to be near the whites.
The Tarahumares are not the only tribe still clinging to caves. As we
have seen, the Pimas, too, are, to a limited extent, cave-dwellers,
and the same is the case with the northern Tepehuanes, as well as
with the allied Huarogios in their small area.
Are these cave-dwellers related to the ancient cliff-dwellers in the
southwestern part of the United States and northern Mexico? Decidedly
not. Their very aversion to living more than one family in a cave
and their lack of sociability mark a strong contrast with the
ancient cliff-dwellers, who were by nature gregarious. The fact
that the people live in caves is in itself extremely interesting,
but this alone does not prove any connection between them and the
ancient cliff-dwellers. Although the Tarahumare is very intelligent,
he is backward in the arts and industries. It is true that the women
weave admirable designs in girdles and blankets, but this seems
to be the utmost limit of their capabilities. In the caves they
sometimes draw with ochre clumsy figures of animals and women, and
on some rocks may be seen outlines of feet scratched with stone "in
order to leave their imprint in this world when they die." Tarahumare
pottery is exceedingly crude as compared with the work found in the
old cliff-dwellings, and its decoration is infantile as contrasted
with the cliff-dwellers' work. The cliff-dwellers brought the art of
decoration to a comparatively high state, as shown in the relics found
in their dwellings. But the cave-dweller of to-day shows no suggestion
of such skill. Moreover, he is utterly devoid of the architectural
gift which resulted in the remarkable rock structures of the early
cliff-dwellers. These people as far as concerns their cave-dwelling
habits cannot be ranked above troglodytes.
The Tarahumare never lives all his life in one house or cave;
nor will he, on the other hand, leave it forever. He rarely stays
away from it for more than two or three years. A family, after
inhabiting a house for a time may suddenly decide to move it, even
if it is built of stone. The reason is not always easy to tell. One
man moved his house because he found that the sun did not strike it
enough. After a death has occurred in a dwelling, even though it was
that of a distant relative incidentally staying with the family, the
house is destroyed, or the cave permanently abandoned; and many other
superstitious apprehensions of one kind or another may thus influence
the people. Very often a man moves for the sake of benefiting the
land, and after tearing down his house he immediately plants corn
on the spot on which the house stood. A family may thus change its
abode several times a year, or once a year, or every other year. The
richest man in the Tarahumare country, now dead, had five caves,
and moved as often as ten times in one year.
A never absent feature of the Tarahumare habitation, be it house or
cave, is a level, smooth place in front of it. This is the dancing
place, or patio, on which he performs his religious exercises, and
he may have more than one. The formation of the land may even oblige
him to build terraces to obtain space enough for his religious dances.
On this patio, which measures generally about ten yards in every
direction, one, two, or three crosses are planted, as the central
object of all ceremonies (except those in the cult of the sacred cactus
hikuli [3]). The cross is generally about a foot high; sometimes it
stands two feet above ground. It is made of two sticks of unequal
length, preferably sticks of pine wood, tied together in the form of
the Latin cross. I saw two crosses raised outside of a man's house,
which were formed by the natural growth of small pine trees, and
these were four feet high. The shamans, for their curing, use small
crosses--three or four inches long.
It is a well-known fact that on their arrival in America the Spaniards
to their amazement found Indians in possession of the cross. Omitting
here the cross of Palenque, the symbol of a tree, the tree of life,
it is safe to say that the original cross of most Mexican tribes is
the Greek cross, though the Latin was also used. To them the former
is of fundamental religious moment, as indicating the four corners
of the world; but a word for cross, or anything corresponding to
it, does not occur in the language of any of the tribes known to
me. Nevertheless the cross (the Greek), to the Indian the symbol of
a cosmic idea, is pecked on the rocks, or drawn on the sand, or made
in corresponding strokes with medicine over the patient's body.
With the Tarahumare the cross is the pivot around which all his
ceremonies and festivals move. He always dances to the cross, and on
certain occasions he attaches strings of beads, ears of corn, and other
offerings to it. It is used by the heathen as well as by the Christian
Tarahumares. The question is whether this tribe has changed its form
since its contact with the whites or whether the cross was originally
like the one in use to-day. From many of the Tarahumares' utterances
I incline to think that their cross represents a human figure with
arms outstretched, and is an embodiment of Father Sun, the Perfect
Man. When two crosses are placed on the patio, the smaller stands
for the moon. This conception also explains the custom of setting up
three crosses at the principal dance, the rutuburi, the third cross
representing probably the Morning Star. Among Christianised natives
the three crosses may come gradually to mean the Trinity.
On one occasion I saw a cross at least ten feet high with a cross
beam only one foot long, raised next to two crosses of ordinary
size, all standing on the patio of a well-to-do Indian, and the
inference was easily drawn that the high cross was meant for Father
Sun. The Northern Tepehuanes say that the cross _is_ Tata Dios,
the Christianised Indian's usual designation of God.
The impression that the cross represents a human figure gains further
probability by the fact that a cross is erected on the special patio
of the dead, and I have noticed that this cross is moved in the course
of the ceremonies to the principal dancing place "to see the dancing
and drink tesvino," as the Indians explained it. Surely, this cross
represented the dead.
On this page are seen the front and rear view of a cross which is
of great interest, although its shape is evidently an exaggerated
imitation of a Catholic cross or crucifix. I came upon it in the
mountainous country east of Morelos, and the Tarahumares near the
Ranch of Colorados presented it to me. It had apparently not been made
long ago, and was painted with red ochre. The arms have been tied on
in the usual fashion with a twine of fibre, the mode of fastening it
appearing most distinctly on the back of the cross.
Seen from the front the designs on the head, or the uppermost part,
represent the Morning Star, the dots being his companions, the other
stars. But it is significant that this constellation is also called
the "eyes" of the cross. The dots on the other side of the cross are
also meant for stars, in order that, as the Indian explained to me,
Tata Dios may see the stars where they are dancing; he lives in the
stars--a belief evidently arising from Catholic influence. The human
figures painted on the cross are intended to emphasise its meaning. The
most important of these human-like contours are those directly below
the junction of the arms with the vertical stem. They are evidently
repetitions of the main cross, the arms being expressed in the crude
carvings. What the various pairs Of curved sidelines mean, I am unable
to say.
What is of more importance to the Tarahumare than his dwelling is
his store-house, which he always builds before his domicile. In fact,
his personal comfort is made secondary even to that of his domestic
animals. As a survival of the time when he had no house at all may
be noted the fact that husband and wife, after having been away on a
journey for several days or longer, do not on the first night after
their return sleep in the house or cave, but at some convenient place
near the store-house.
These store-houses are always well put together, though many of
them are not large enough to accommodate a medium-sized dog, the
Tarahumares preferring number to size. In them he stores what little
property he has beyond that in actual use, chiefly corn and beans,
some spare clothing and cotton cloth, hikuli, herbs, etc. The door of
the house is made from one or more short boards of pine wood, and is
either provided with an ingeniously constructed wooden lock, or the
boards are simply plastered up with mud along the four edges. The
Tarahumare rarely locks his house on leaving it, but he is ever
careful to fasten the door of his storehouse securely, and to break
open a store-house sealed up in the manner described is considered
the most heinous crime known to the tribe. Mexicans have committed
it and have had to pay for it with their lives.
The most common kind of store-house is from four to six feet high,
round, and built of stones and mud, with a roof of pine boards,
weighed down with earth and stones. Other store-houses of similar
size are square and built of boards with corners interlocked. They,
too, are covered with boards. These diminutive buildings are often
seen inside of caves; or else they are erected in places difficult of
access, on tops of boulders, for instance. Sometimes they are seen in
lonely places, more often, however, near the dwellings; and the little
round structures make a curious effect when erected on boulders in the
vicinity of some hut, looking, as they do, like so many diminutive
factory chimneys. They proclaim more clearly than anything else the
fact that when the people reach that stage in their development in
which they begin to till the soil, they soon become careful of the
little property they have, in marked distinction to the savage and
nomadic tribes, who are always lavish and improvident. I have seen as
many as ten store-houses of the kind described, and once even fourteen
near one dwelling, but generally one or two only are found near by.
Small caves, especially when difficult to reach and hidden from view,
may be utilised as store-houses, and are then sealed up in the same
way as the other varieties are. Sometimes regular log-houses are used.