The Tarahumare Physique--Bodily Movements--Not
as Sensitive to Pain as White Men--Their Phenomenal
Endurance--Health--Honesty--Dexterity and Ingenuity--Good Observers
of the Celestial Bodies and Weather-forecasters--Hunting and
Shooting--Home Industries--Tesvino, the Great National Drink of
the Tribe--Other Alcoholic Drinks.
The Tarahumare of to-day is of medium size and more muscular than his
North American cousin, but his cheek-bones are equally prominent. His
colour is light chocolate-brown. I was rather surprised often to find
the faces of the people living in the warm barrancas of a lighter
colour than the rest of their bodies. The darkest complexions,
strange to say, I encountered on the highlands near Guachochic. In
the higher altitudes the people also develop higher statures and are
more muscular than in the lower portions of the country.
Both men and women wear long, flowing, straight black hair, which
in rare cases is a little wavy. When a woman marries, I am told,
she cuts her hair once. When the hair is cut because it has grown
too long and troublesome, they place it under a stone or hang it in
a tree. A shaman once cut his hair short to get new thoughts with the
new hair, and while it was growing he kept his head tied up in a piece
of cotton cloth to keep his thoughts from escaping. When the people
are very old, the hair turns gray; but they never grow bald. Beards
are rare, and if they appear the Indians pull them out. Their devil is
always represented with a beard, and they call the Mexicans derisively
shabotshi, "the bearded ones." Much as they enjoy tobacco, an Indian
would not accept some from me, because he feared that coming from a
white man it would cause a beard to grow on his face.
There are more women in the tribe than men. They are smaller, but
generally just as strong as the other sex, and when angered, for
instance by jealousy, the wife may be able to beat her husband. Hands
and feet are small. Many of the women have surprisingly small and
well-shaped bones, while the men are more powerfully built. The corner
teeth differ from the front teeth in that they are thicker, and, in
spite of exceptionally fine teeth, tooth-ache is not unknown in the
tribe. Men, even those who are well nourished, are never stout. The
women are more inclined to corpulency.
Eight people with hair-lip, seven hunchbacks, six men and four women
with six toes to their feet, and one or two cases of squint-eyes came
under my notice. One boy had a club-foot with toes turned inside, and I
saw one man who had only stumps of arms with two or three finger-marks
on each. I have observed one case of insanity among these Indians.
_Pediculi_ (lice) from the heads and clothing of the Tarahumare are
blackish in colour, but the claw is not different from that of the
white men's parasites.
When at ease, the Tarahumare stands on both legs, without stiffness. In
micturition he stands, while the Tepehuane sits down. The body is
well balanced. The gait is energetic. He swings his arm and plants his
foot firmly, with the toes generally in, gliding along smoothly with
quick steps and without swaying to and fro, the body bent slightly
forward. The palm of the hand is turned to the rear. Tarahumares climb
trees by embracing the tree as we do; but the ascent is made in jumps,
the legs accordingly not embracing the tree as, much as is the case
with us. In swimming they throw their arms ahead from one side to
another. They point with the open hand or by protruding the lips and
raising the head at the same time in the desired direction. Like the
Mexicans they beckon with their hands by making downward movements
with their fingers.
To the casual observer the native appears dull and heavy, so much
so that at first it would seem hopeless to get any intelligent
information out of him; but on better acquaintance it will be found
that their faces, like those of Mexican Indians in general, have more
variety of feature and expression than those of the whites. At the
same time it is true that the individual does not show his emotion
very perceptibly in his face. One has to look into his eyes for an
expression of what passes in his mind, as his face is not mobile;
nor does he betray his feelings by involuntary actions. If he blushes,
as he sometimes does, the colour extends down the neck and is visible
in spite of his dusky skin. Laughter is never immoderate enough to
bring tears to the eyes. The head is nodded vertically in affirmation
and shaken laterally in negation only by the civilised Tarahumares.
There is a slight though undefinable odour about the Tarahumare. He
is not aware of it; yet he will tell you that the Mexican smells
like a pig, and the American like coffee, both offensive odours to
Tarahumares. They all love to feel warm, and may often be seen lying
in the sun on their backs or stomachs. Heat never seems to trouble
them. Young babies sleep on their mothers' backs without any covering
on their heads to protect them from the fierce rays of the summer
sun. On the other hand, the Tarahumare endures cold unflinchingly. On
an icy winter morning, when there are six inches of snow on the ground,
many a man may be seen with nothing on but his blanket fastened around
his waist, pursuing rabbits.
While their senses are keen, I do not consider them superior to
those of any well-endowed white man. To test eyesight, Sir Francis
Galton directs us to cut out a square piece of white paper one and
a half inches a side, paste it on a large piece of black paper, and
mark how far a person can distinguish whether the square is held
straight or diagonally. None of the Indians could distinguish the
different positions until they were within seven hundred and ten
feet. On another occasion, however, when I tested six individuals,
four men could tell the position of the square at a distance of nine
hundred and five feet. One of these had syphilis. They certainly
do not feel pain in the same degree as we do. On this point any
collector of hair could have reason to satisfy himself. Scientists
consider the hair a particularly distinguishing feature among the
races of men, not only in regard to its colour, but also as to its
texture. In fact, the human race is by some classified according to
the character of the hair of the head. Compared under the microscope
a section of the hair of a Chinaman or an American Indian is found to
be circular, that of a European oval in shape. As a rule, the flatter
the hair the more readily it curls, the perfectly cylindrical hair
hanging down stiff and straight. A section of the straight hair of a
Japanese, for instance, forms a perfect circle. So much importance
being attached to the structure of the hair, I made a collection
from different individuals. They were willing enough to let me have
all the samples I wanted for a material consideration, of course,
but the indifferent manner in which they pulled the hair from their
heads, just as we should tear out hairs from the tail of a horse,
convinced me that inferior races feel pain to a less extent than
civilised man. I once pulled six hairs at a time from the head of
a sleeping child without disturbing it at all; I asked for more,
and when twenty-three hairs were pulled out in one stroke, the child
only scratched its head a little and slept on.
They are not so powerful at lifting as they are in carrying
burdens. Out of twelve natives, ten of whom were eighteen and
twenty years old, while two owned to fifty years, five lifted a
burden weighing 226 2/5 pounds (102 kilograms). I was able to lift
this myself. The same five lifted 288 3/5 pounds (130 kilograms),
as also did two strong Mexicans present, aged respectively eighteen
and thirty years. In order to test their carrying capacity, I had them
walk for a distance of 500 feet on a pretty even track. One very poor
and starved-looking Tarahumare carried 226 2/5 pounds (102 kilograms)
on his back, though tottering along with some difficulty; two others
carried it with ease, and might have taken it farther. All three were
young men.
Their endurance is truly phenomenal. A strong young man carried a
burden of over 100 pounds from Carichic to Batopilas, a distance of
about 110 miles, in seventy hours. While travelling with such burdens
they eat nothing but pinole, a little at frequent intervals.
The wonderful health these people enjoy is really their most attractive
trait. They are healthy and look it. It could hardly be otherwise
in this delightful mountain air, laden with the invigorating odour
of the pines combined with the electrifying effect of being close to
nature's heart. In the highlands, where the people live longer than
in the barrancas, it is not infrequent to meet persons who are at
least a hundred years old. Long life is what they all pray for.
They suffer sometimes from rheumatism, but the most common disease is
pleurisy (_dolor de costado_), which generally proves fatal. Syphilis
rages in some parts of the country. There was at the time of my
visit to Pino Gordo hardly a native there who had not, at one time
or another, been afflicted with it; but the victims get quickly over
it without special treatment, sometimes within a year. Children of
syphilitic parents show the symptoms soon after birth. Small-pox, too,
plays havoc among the population. I have seen some people suffering
with cataract in the eyes, and some foot-runners complained that
their sight sometimes became impaired during or after a race. The
Tarahumares have not any cases of tape-worm, although their sheep
have it; probably the large quantities of tesvino drunk during the
winter may have something to do with this.
Medicine takes remarkably strong hold of the Indians. One man suffered
for two weeks from fever and ague, lost his appetite, and seemed
a general wreck; but after a two-grain quinine pill became at once
himself again, and a few days later was able to take a message for
me to a place forty miles off and return the same day.
The natives do not bathe except in the wet season. When they go to
feasts, they wash their hands and faces, and the women comb their
hair. Sometimes they may wash their feet, but more frequently they
clean their heads. In fact, the regular way of taking a bath is to wash
the head. For this purpose they use an agave called soke. Occasionally
they use a white earth from Cusarare, called _javoncillo_; it is very
soft and it is also used as white colour in decorating pottery. When
the men go into deep water to bathe they smear fat all over their
bodies to guard against all kinds of bad animals in the water; women
do not usually take this precaution.
A Tarahumare does not commit homicide unless he is drunk. There are
only isolated exceptions. A _jefe politico_ (prefect) told me that
in forty years he had heard of only two murders. In both of these
cases a drunken husband had killed his wife at a feast, and knew
nothing of the crime after he became sober. I have been told that in
some rare instances a Tarahumare woman will sit on her child right
after its birth to crush it, in order to save herself the trouble
of bringing it up. The Tepehuanes are reputed to do the same thing,
and for the same purpose. Still with both tribes crimes of this kind
are exceedingly rare.
Suicide is never committed unless a person is drunk and angered by some
slight or by jealousy. At one time there was a veritable epidemic of
suicides among the Indians near Guachochic, the men hanging themselves
with their girdles; one of them even suspended himself by the feet. But
it is doubtful whether a pagan Tarahumare ever killed himself.
As a rule, the Tarahumare is not a thief. Only when he thinks himself
entirely unobserved, he may appropriate some trifle that particularly
strikes his fancy, but the indications are that he learned the art
from the Mexicans. Once on our travels we passed a man who was weeding
his field. We tried to induce him to give us some information, but
he was too busy to talk, and we went on. Soon he noticed that we had
accidentally dropped our large axe, and immediately he interrupted
his pressing work and came running after us with it. I wanted to
compensate him for the trouble he had put himself to, but he would
not accept the money I offered, saying that he had not had to go far,
and, anyway, he did not bring the axe to get payment for it.
As long as he is in his native state, a Tarahumare never cheats
at bargains. He does not like to sell anything that is in any way
defective. He always draws attention to the flaw, and if a jar has
any imperfection, it requires much persuasion to make him part with
it. He shows honesty also in other ways. Often I trusted Indians with
a silver dollar or two for corn to be delivered a few days later, and
never was I disappointed by them. On the other hand, they are chary of
selling anything to a stranger. When a Mexican wants to buy a sheep,
or some corn, or a girdle, the Tarahumare will first deny that he has
anything to sell. What little he has he likes to keep for himself,
and he considers it a favour to part with any of his belongings for
money. A purchase, however, establishes a kind of brotherhood between
the two negotiants, who afterward call each other "naragua," and a
confidence is established between them almost of the same character
as that which exists between compadres among the Mexicans.
From outsiders they accept silver coins, but not paper money,
because they have been cheated with wrappers from cigarette boxes,
and besides, they have no means of keeping such money safe and sound
from mice, moisture, etc. Among themselves a little trading goes on,
the highlands obtaining from the barrancas in the west copal, chile,
ari, ear ornaments made from shells, and goats, in exchange for
corn and beans. The Indians from Nararachic go to Rio Concho for the
shells from which they make their ear pendants. The powder produced
in working the shells is saved and mixed with salt to be used as a
remedy for eye troubles.
The tribe has undeniably a certain gift for mechanics. The people are
deft with their fingers and do everything neatly. This shows itself
in their ingeniously constructed wooden locks and in the niceness
with which they stuff animals. They are also very clever in following
tracks, and even recognise the hoof-prints of particular horses among
others in the same trail. They will also tell you that a tired deer
keeps its toes more closely together than an animal just aroused from
its lair. And never do they lose their way in the forest, not even
when drunk. They love to sit among their corn plants, and will hide
among them when strangers approach.
The Tarahumares are inquisitive, and will stand for a long time
looking at you from a distance, if anything unusual attracts their
attention. They are very critical and there is much gossip going on
among them. They also laugh at the Mexicans, and say that the hair on
their faces is like the fur on a bear. Squint-eyes also afford them
much amusement. They are smart, attentive and patient. They have no
qualms of conscience about telling an untruth, but my experience with
them shows appreciation and gratitude for benefits received. An Indian
whom I had occasion to treat to a good meal, many months afterward
at a feast came up and said to me, "You were good to me when I was
very hungry," and he proved his thankfulness by assisting me in
various ways in establishing friendly relations with his people,
which otherwise would have been very difficult to bring about.
Children are bright, and when sent to school learn Spanish
quickly. They also master reading and writing without difficulty. They
are diligent, eager to learn, and very religious, docile, and easily
converted to Christianity.
There is a story about a padre who asked a Tarahumare boy, "What is
God doing in Heaven?" The boy said, "The same as the macaw does in the
tree." The padre asked, "What does the macaw do in the tree?" and
the boy replied, "He eats the good seeds and lets the bad ones
drop." A Mexican asked me if God was going to walk on earth again,
and my Tarahumare attendant remarked, "No, he is now afraid to come,
because people have too many rifles."
When they learn something their ambition runs high, and the boys
always want to become generals and presidents of the republic.
The Tarahumares are careful observers of the celestial bodies,
and know the Pleiades, the Belt of Orion, and the Morning and the
Evening Star. The Great Dipper is of no special interest to them. Near
Guachochic the Tarahumares plant corn in accordance with the positions
of the stars with reference to the sun. They say if the sun and the
stars are not equal the year will be bad; but when the stars last
long the year will be good. In 1891, the sun "travelled slowly,"
and the stars "travelled quickly," and in June they had already
"disappeared." Therefore the Tarahumares predicted that their crops
would be below the average, which came true. On June 3d I asked an
Indian how much longer the sun would travel on, and he told me that
it ought not to be more than fifteen days. The Tarahumares are reputed
to be good weather prophets among the Mexicans, who frequently consult
them upon the prospects of rain. The Indians judge from the colour of
the sun when he rises as to whether there will be rain that day. If the
crescent of the moon is lying horizontally, it is carrying much water;
but when it stands up straight, it brings nothing. This belief is
shared by the Mexicans. When the moon is full and has "a ring around,"
she is dancing on her patio. At the period of the dark moon she is
dead, but will return after three days. Eclipses are explained as
collisions between the sun and the moon on the road, when they fight.
The Tarahumare men make bows and arrows, and in the central part of
the country are great hunters and clever at shooting. The fore-shaft of
their arrows is made of palo hediondo, a wood used also in the making
of needles. But the people living near the pueblo of Panalachic and
the Barranca de Cobre are poor shots, and their favourite weapon is
the axe. The boys still play with slings, which not so long ago were
used for killing squirrels. A club with a stone (Spanish, _macana_)
is said to have been formerly in common use. The grandfathers of the
present generation of Nararachic had flint-tipped arrows. The Indians
also know how to prepare excellent buckskin. They peg the hide on the
ground and leave it for three days, and when it is sufficiently dry
the hair is scraped off with a knife. It is then smeared over with
the brain of the animal and hung up in the sun for four days. The
next step is to wash it well in warm water in a wooden trough. Then
it is well kneaded, and two people taking hold of it draw it out of
the water and stretch it well between them. It is dried again and is
then tanned with the crushed bark of the big-leaved oak-tree.
A natural cavity in a rock is chosen for a vat, in which the skin is
left for two days. After this it is well rinsed and squeezed until no
water remains in it. Two persons are required for the operation, which
is always performed in a place on which the sun beats strongly, while
at the same time it is sheltered from the wind by surrounding rocks.
Deer are caught in snares fastened to a bent tree, so that the animal's
foot is held, while the tree when released hoists the quarry up. The
Indians also chase deer with dogs toward some narrow passage in the
track where they have placed sharp-pointed pine sticks, two feet long,
against which the deer runs and hurts itself. Blackbirds are decoyed
by kernels of corn threaded on a snare of pita fibre hidden under
the ground. The bird swallows the kernel, which becomes entangled in
its oesophagus and is caught. Small birds are also shot with bow and
arrows, or killed with stones.
The Tarahumare is ingenious in devising many kinds of traps for birds
and animals. Into the burrow of the gopher he places a small upright
frame cut from a piece of bark. There is a groove inside of the frame,
and in this the snare runs; and a string is attached to a bough above
ground. Another string, on which some grains of corn are threaded,
keeps the snare set and obstructs the gopher's passage through the
frame. When trying to get at the kernels the gopher cuts the string,
the snare is released, and he is caught in his own burrow.
Squirrels are hunted in the most primitive way--by cutting down the
tree on which an animal is discovered. Sometimes it will escape when
the tree falls, and then the man has to cut down another tree, and
thus he may go on felling as many as ten trees before he can bag his
game, not a very substantial reward for a whole day's work.
The women make girdles and blankets on primitive looms, inserting
characteristic designs in the weaving. It takes four days of constant
work to make a girdle, but no woman weaves more than one blanket in a
year, and it is almost an event when it is finished. The weaving frame
consists simply of four sticks--placed on the ground tied together in a
rectangle or triangle, and pieces of reed on which the thread is wound,
one for each colour, are used as shuttles. Textiles from Pamachic are
especially highly valued. The blankets from that locality are sold
all over the Tarahumare country and are the finest made by the tribe.
The Tarahumares are not far advanced in the art of making
pottery. Their work is crude and not very substantial. The industry
is practised only by the women, and the degree of ability varies
considerably. The art is often hereditary. The nicest pottery I found
in the neighbourhood of Panalachic, where it is decorated with certain
designs in red and white. One woman in a western barranca cultivated
a specialty of making large jars for holding tesvino. The largest
jar shown in the illustration was nearly eight feet in circumference.
Women when making pottery taste a little of the clay before commencing
work, ascertaining whether it is the right kind or not. Some of the
clay is acid and not good. The clay which is serviceable is a little
sweet and of a pale yellow colour. The clay is dried and ground, and
then mixed with ground pieces of old pottery instead of sand. To make a
piece of pottery, a lump of clay is hollowed out in the shape of a cup,
and on this foundation the jar is built up, thin layers of clay being
placed on successively, and smoothed carefully over with wet hands,
making the walls thinner and thinner. The vessel is built up standing
on a bowl filled with ashes and covered with a piece of cotton cloth.
I saw a clever woman make a medium-sized jar in twenty-seven
minutes. She was seated in the sun, and finished four vessels in one
afternoon. Then, assisted by her husband, she began to even them
on the outside with a small, smooth, oblong piece of a gourd. The
vessels were then put into the house in order that they might not
dry too quickly. After an interval of fifteen minutes, during which
she nursed her infant, which had been bothering her all the while,
she began work again. First, with the edge of a sharpened stick
she removed all irregularities on the outside and on the brim, and
then with a stone she polished the vessel. To polish the jars seemed
to take the longest time, for each of the workers was engaged on a
vessel for over an hour, and even then had not completed the task. They
polished outside and a little way inside below the brim. Finally they
painted decorations with ochre, and polished again for a long time,
but only the outside. Now the jars were again put into the house to
dry a little more before the polishing was finished.
To burn the jars, they must first be thoroughly dried, as otherwise
the fire would crack them. When the weather is nice the fire may be
made outside the house; but usually it is built inside on the ordinary
fireplace. Each vessel, one at a time, is turned upside down over
charcoal, and pieces of pine bark are built up all around and over it
like a square little hut, then ignited. Care is taken that no piece
of bark comes so near to the jar as to touch and injure it. Where
bark cannot be readily procured, wood is used. The heat first turns
the clay dark, and afterward a pretty yellow colour.
There is one industry which has a peculiar bearing on the whole life
of the Tarahumare, namely, the making of native beer.
Nothing is so close to the heart of the Tarahumare as this liquor,
called in Mexican Spanish _tesvino_. It looks like milky water, and
has quite an agreeable taste, reminding one of kumyss. To make it,
the moist corn is allowed to sprout; then it is boiled and ground,
and the seed of a grass resembling wheat is added as a ferment. The
liquor is poured into large earthen jars made solely for the purpose,
and it should now stand for at least twenty-four hours; but inasmuch
as the jars are only poorly made, they are not able to hold it very
long, and the people take this responsibility on themselves. A row of
beer jars turned upside down in front of a house is a characteristic
sight in the Tarahumare region.
The tesvino forms an integral part of the Tarahumare religion. It is
used at all its celebrations, dances, and ceremonies. It is given
with the mother's milk to the infant to keep it from sickness. In
"curing" the new-born babe the shaman sprinkles some over it to make
it strong. Beer is applied internally and externally as a remedy
for all diseases Tarahumare flesh is heir to. No man could get his
field attended to if he did not at first make ready a good supply
of tesvino, because beer is the only remuneration his assistants
receive. Drinking tesvino at the feast marks the turning-point in
a person's life. A boy begins to drink tesvino because now he feels
himself a man; and when a girl is seen at feasts, it is a sign that she
is looking for a husband. No marriage is legitimate without a liberal
consumption of tesvino by all parties present at the wedding. Hunting
and fishing expeditions are accompanied by beer-drinking to insure
luck. No matter how many times the Tarahumare changes his abode in
the course of his life, he always makes tesvino when moving into a
new house or cave. Even the dead would not get any rest, but come
back and harm the survivors, if a quantity of tesvino were not set
aside for them. In fact, there is absolutely no act of importance
that is not, in one way or another, connected with the drinking of
this beer. Never is a jar commenced unless some of the liquor is
sacrificed before the cross, for the gods are believed to be as fond
of the beer as are mortals. Rain cannot be obtained without tesvino;
tesvino cannot be made without corn; and corn cannot grow without
rain. This, in a nutshell, is the Tarahumare's view of life.
There are many occasions during the year, especially during the winter
time, when regular symposiums are held, generally inside of the house;
but the people never drink tesvino unless there is some purpose to
be attained, be it luck in some undertaking, or good crops, or the
health of the family, or some similar benefit. They may dance yumari
for a little while at any of these functions.
It is the custom to appoint one man to distribute the liquor among
the guests. In doing this the host offers to the chosen one three
drinking-gourds full of tesvino, which the latter empties, and he
enters upon his duty by giving to every man present three gourds
in succession and to every woman four. The guests, although from
politeness hesitating between each gourd-ful, are only too delighted
to comply with this inviolable rule, which speaks eloquently for
their constitutions.
The seat beside the distributer is the most coveted. I, too, was always
glad to get it, because it gave me the best chance to observe the
behaviour of the Indians at the feasts. The dispenser establishes
himself close to the big jar, and being immensely popular with
everybody he is never left alone. The geniality of the Tarahumares,
their courteousness and politeness toward each other in the beginning
of a feast, is, to say the least, equal to that of many a civilised
gentleman. When the cup is offered to anyone, he most urgently
protests and insists that the distributer shall drink; often this
remonstrance is heeded, but the gourd is never emptied; something
is always left in it, and this the guest has to take, and a second
gourdful is immediately held out to him. Though he again refuses, he
generally allows himself to be persuaded to drink it, and this mock
refusing and urging goes on as long as they have their wits together.
To my knowledge, this beer is not known outside of the Tarahumare
tribe and their immediate neighbours, the northern Tepehuanes, the
Tubars, and some Mexicans in Chihuahua who have also adopted it. It
must not be confounded with the well-known Mexican drink, pulque,
to which it is superior in flavour. It is very nourishing, and the
Indians as well as the Mexicans are in the habit of abstaining from
food before partaking of the beer, which they assert would otherwise
not agree with them. But, food or no food, at all feasts and dances
they drink such incredibly large quantities that they are invariably
completely overpowered by it, though when taken in moderation tesvino
is only mildly stimulating.
Another national beverage, maguey wine, is made from a favourite
sweet food of many Indian tribes, which a white man's stomach can
hardly digest, namely, the baked stalk of the maguey plant, or that
of other agaves. To prepare the liquor, the leaves are cut from the
bulb-shaped stalk or heart, which looks like a hard white head of
cabbage. These hearts contain a great deal of saccharine matter,
and are baked between hot stones in earth mounds, being protected
against contact with earth by layers of grass.
When the Tarahumares want to make maguey wine they leave the baked
stalks in water in natural hollows or pockets in rocks, without any
covering. The root of a certain plant called frijolillo is added as
a ferment, and after two days the juice is wrung out with a blanket.
An intoxicating drink is also made from another agave, called tshawi,
which, though common on the higher slopes of the barrancas, has only
recently become known to science. According to tradition it is the
first plant God created, and the liquor made from it is considered
by the pagan Tarahumares as indispensable to certain ceremonies. The
Tepehuanes, too, put much importance on this brew, and say that the
plant is so sensitive that if one passes a jar in which it is being
boiled the liquid will not ferment.
Finally it should be mentioned that an intoxicating, though extremely
distasteful drink is made from the stalk of the maize plant (_cana_),
by pounding this material into a pulp, then allowing it to soak in
water for three days, when it is fermented, whereupon the liquor is
prepared in the same way as the maguey wine.