Many Kinds of Games Among the Tarahumares--Betting and
Gambling--Foot-races the National Sport--The Tarahumares are the
Greatest Runners in the World--Divinations for the Race--Mountains
of Betting Stakes--Women's Races.
To my knowledge there is no tribe so fond of games as the
Tarahumares. There are few days in the year when a man has not a game
of some kind to play. Even when they become civilised and demoralised,
in spite of their depression and poverty this passion of theirs still
clings to them. While it is true that there is always something of
value, however insignificant, put at stake, their gambling spirit
is not vicious. They have some curious practices in their play: when
going to run a race, or when intending to play _cuatro_ or _quinze_,
they do not eat chile. Where holes in the ground are required for a
game, as in cuatro and quinze, they are generally made in the level
space on a rock.
Very common is it to see two young men amusing themselves with
shooting-matches, shooting arrows at an arrow which has been
shot out into the ground some fifty yards off as a mark. This
arrow, as well as the game itself, is called in Mexican Spanish
_lechuguilla_. In Tarahumare the game is called chogirali, and the
target-arrow chogira. The arrow coming nearest the chogira counts
one point; and if it comes within four fingers' width of the aim,
it counts four. The game is for twelve points. The distance is not
measured from the points of the arrows, but from the winged parts,
one man measuring for all. If a shot arrow strikes so as to form a
cross with the chogira, it counts four. If it only touches the point
of the latter in the ground it counts two. If two arrows happen to
form crosses, neither counts.
Instead of arrows, three sticks may be employed. One is thrown
out at a distance and is the chogira, and the other two sticks are
thrown toward it, and count in a similar way as the arrows. Often
while travelling, the Tarahumares play this game, in either form,
as they go along the road, perhaps for the entire distance. Two and
three pairs may play together.
There is also a game very similar to quoits, played with stone disks,
fiat on one side and convex on the other. It is called rixiwatali
(rixiwala = disk), and two and two play against each other. First one
stone is moistened with spittle on one side to make it "heads or tails"
and tossed up. The player who wins the toss plays first. Each has
three stones, which are thrown toward a hole in the ground, perhaps
twenty yards off. One of each party throws first, then goes to the
hole and looks at it, while the other players make their throws. The
stone falling nearest to the hole counts one point; if it falls into
the hole, it counts four; if the stone of the second player falls on
top of the first stone in the hole, it "kills" the first stone. The
game is out at twelve. To measure distances, they break off small
sticks. Lookers-on may stand around and bet which of the players will
win. Another game is called takwari, "to beat the ball"; in Spanish,
_palillo_. It is played only by women. Two play at a time. One knocks
a small wooden ball toward one goal, while her opponent tries to get
it to another. This game is also played by the northern Tepehuane
women, who sometimes use two short sticks tied together in the middle,
instead of the ball. The sticks are thrown ahead from their places
on the ground with a kind of quick, prying movement, with the aid of
a longer stick.
Civilised Tarahumares, as well as the Mexicans, play with knuckle-bones
as dice. The game is called _la taba_, and the bones are taken from
either the deer, the sheep, or the goat. Only one bone is used by the
two players. Twelve points make a game, and each player has twelve
grains of corn with which he keeps count. He makes two rings in
the sand, and puts his twelve grains in one ring, and as the game
progresses he transfers them into the second ring until the game
is out.
Their greatest gambling game, at which they may play even when tipsy,
is quinze; in Tarahumare, romavoa. It is played with four sticks
of equal length, called romalaka and inscribed with certain marks
to indicate their value. Practically they serve the same purpose
as dice, but they are thrown in a different way. The player grasps
them in his left hand, levels their ends carefully, lifts his bundle,
and strikes the ends against a flat or square little stone in front
of him, from which they rebound toward his opponent. The sticks
count in accordance with the way they fall. The point of the game
is to pass through a figure outlined by small holes in the ground
between the two players. The movements, of course, depend upon the
points gained in throwing the sticks, and the count is kept by means
of a little stone, which is placed in the respective hole after
each throw. Many accidents may impede its progress; for instance,
it may happen to be in the hole into which the adversary comes from
the opposite direction. In this case he is "killed," and he has to
begin again from the starting-point. The advance is regulated by a
number of ingenious by-laws, which make the game highly intellectual
and entertaining. If he has the wherewithal to pay his losses, a
Tarahumare may go on playing for a fortnight or a month, until he has
lost everything he has in this world, except his wife and children;
he draws the line at that. He scrupulously pays all his gambling debts.
The northern Tepehuanes also know this game, and play with sticks
eighteen to twenty inches long. As these larger sticks fly quite a
distance off when rebounding, the players sit rather far apart.
Wrestling also may be observed, but what may be termed the national
sport, of which the Tarahumares are inordinately fond, is foot-racing,
which goes on all the year round, even when the people are weakened
from scarcity of food. The interest centres almost entirely in
the betting that goes with it; in fact, it is only another way of
gambling. It is called rala hipa ("with the foot throw"), the word
alluding to a ball used at the race.
No doubt the Tarahumares are the greatest runners in the world, not
in regard to speed, but endurance. A Tarahumare will easily run 170
miles without stopping. When an Indian is sent out as a messenger,
he goes along at a slow trot, running steadily and constantly. A
man has been known to carry a letter in five days from Guazapares to
Chihuahua and back, a distance of nearly 600 miles by the road. Even
considering shortcuts, which he, no doubt, knew, it was quite a feat
of endurance; for he must have lived, as the Indians always do while
travelling, on pinole and water only.
Where the Indians serve the Mexicans they are often employed to run
wild horses into the corral. It may take them two or three days,
but they will bring them in, the horses thoroughly exhausted, while
the men, who, of course, economise their strength, and sleep, and eat
pinole, are comparatively fresh. In the same way they will run down a
deer, following it for days through snow and rain, until the animal
is cornered and easily shot with arrows, or until it is overtaken
utterly jaded and its hoofs dropping off.
This propensity for running is so great that the name of the tribe
alludes to it. Tarahumare is a Spanish corruption of ralamari, the
meaning of which, though somewhat obscure, may doubtless best be
given as "foot-runners," because rala certainly means "foot."
The race is always between two localities, each side being represented
by from four to twenty runners. The two parties show in their
apparel some distinctive mark; for instance, all of one troop have
red head-bands, while the others may wear white ones.
A peculiar feature is that the men toss along a small ball as they
run, each party having one of their own. These balls are about
two and a half inches in diameter and carved from the root of the
oak. The foremost runner kicks it with the toes of his right foot,
so as to make it bound along as far as 100 yards, and he and all
the men behind him follow in the same trot as before. The first man
reaching it again kicks it onward. It must never be touched by the
hand, unless it happens to fall in some awkward place, as between
stones or in a water-pool, when it is picked up and kicked on.
There is never any laid-out track, but the circuit is determined in a
general way by crosses cut in trees. There are certain favourite places
always used as race-courses. The runners seem to have a preference
for the level tops of low ridges lying in a circle, wherever this is
possible. If this is not feasible, they may run forward and back on
a ridge, starting always near the middle, from some little plane or
other convenient place, where the people gather for the occasion.
There is a manager for each party, and the two arrange the time
and place for the race to be held, also the number and length of
the circuits to be made. A circuit may measure from three to twelve
miles in extent, and when the circuits are short as many as twenty
may be agreed upon. At one race-course near Carichic, the circuit
is about fourteen miles long, and twelve circuits may be run here
without stopping. Runners of equal ability are matched against each
other, each side being, of course, anxious to secure the best. The
managers take care of their men until the race comes off. The training
consists mainly in abstinence from tesvino for two or five days before
the event. When preparing for a big race the runners may practise;
not that they need training in running, for that comes to them as
naturally as swimming to the duck; but only that they practise kicking
the ball and try the ground.
Much more important are the magical devices by means of which they
endeavour to secure their own success and to defeat their opponents. A
daring manager may go to a burial cave, taking two balls with him. He
digs out a bone, preferably the tibia from the right leg, and sets
it on the floor of the cave in which it has been found. In front of
it he places a jar with tesvino and some vessels containing food. On
either side of these he lays one of his balls, and in front of all
he plants the cross. The food and the beer are the payment to the
dead that he may help to win the race by weakening the adversaries.
As human bones are supposed to induce fatigue, some may be brought
to the race-track and secreted there in such a way that the competing
runners have to pass over the spot, while the manager's own crew are
advised of the danger, to avoid it. The man uses the utmost care not
to touch the bones with his fingers, lest he should dry up; instead,
he uses sticks in handling and carrying them.
Scores of remedies are brought to the scene, either to strengthen
friends Or to weaken opponents. Certain herbs are thrown into the
air or shaken before the runners to enervate them. Some enterprising
Mexican may bring a white powder or similar substance, declaring that
it is very efficacious, and get a Tarahumare to pay a high price for
it. But whatever means are employed, one way or the other, there
is always a counter-remedy to offset its effect. Specially potent
is the blood of the turtle and the bat, stirred together, dried,
and mixed with a little tobacco, which is then rolled into a cigar
and smoked. Hikuli and the dried head of an eagle or a crow may be
worn under the girdle as a protection.
The services of the shaman are indispensable for the foot-runners. He
helps the manager, himself often a shaman, to rub the men with herbs
and smooth stones to make them strong. He also makes passes over them
to guard them against sorcery. On the day before the races he "cures"
them. Food and remedies are placed on a blanket beneath the cross,
together with many magical things. The herbs are very powerful and
have to be tied up in bags of buckskin or cotton cloth, as otherwise
they might break away. The water for the runners to drink is also
placed underneath the cross, and candles are set on either side of the
pile. The runners bring their balls and stand in a row around the
cross. Then the shaman, taking his position in front of the latter,
smokes incense of copal over them, and sings of the tail of the grey
fox, and other songs. He also makes a speech, warning them not to
accept pinole or water in other people's houses. All their food and
drink must come from their relatives as a guard against witchcraft
and illness. The runners drink three times from the water and the
strengthening remedies; then the principal runner leads the others in a
ceremonial circuit around the cross, walking as many times around it as
there are circuits to be run in the race. The men sleep near the cross,
to watch the remedies on the blanket. With them they have some old man,
for old men see even when they sleep, and watch against sorcery.
After the ceremony the shaman takes each runner aside and subjects him
to a rigid examination in regard to his recent food and his relations
with women. Fat, potatoes, eggs, and anything sweet are prohibited,
because all these things make the men heavy; but rabbits, deer, rats,
turkeys, and chaparral-cocks are wholesome, and such nourishment
enables them to win.
An augury as to which side will win is also taken. Water is poured into
a large wooden tray, and the two balls are started simultaneously and
rolled through the water over the tray. The party whose ball first
reaches the other end will surely win. This test is gone through as
many times as there are to be circuits in the race.
A race is never won by natural means. The losers always say that they
have been bewitched by the others. Once I was taking the temperature
of some foot-runners before they started, and their opponents,
seeing this, lost heart, thinking that I had made their contestants
strong to win the race. Often one of the principal runners becomes
disheartened, and may simulate illness and declare that their rivals
have bewitched him. Then the whole affair may come to nothing and the
race be declared off. There are stories about injurious herbs that
have been given in pinole or water, and actually made some racers
sick. It may even happen that some dishonest fellow will pay to the
best runner of one party a cow if he lets the other party win. But,
as a rule, everything goes on straightforwardly. No one will, however,
wonder that there are six watchmen appointed by each side to guard the
runners from any possible peradventure, and to see that everything
goes on in a proper, formal way. Tipsy persons are not admitted,
and women in a delicate condition are carefully kept away, as the
runners become heavy even by touching such a woman's blanket.
On the day of the race the forenoon is spent in making bets, the
managers acting as stakeholders. These people, poor as they are,
wager their bows and arrows, girdles, head-bands, clothes, blankets,
beads, ari, balls of yarn, corn, and even sheep, goats, and cattle. The
stakes of whatever nature are tied together--a blanket against so many
balls of yarn, a stick of ari against so many arrows, etc. At big
races the wagers may amount to considerable heaps of such articles,
and the position of manager requires a man of decision and memory,
for he has to carry all the bets in his head and makes no written
record of them. The total value of the wagers may reach a thousand
dollars, and what to the Indians are fortunes may change hands in
accordance with the result of the race. One man on one occasion had
$50 worth of property at stake.
The scene is one of great animation. As many as two hundred people
may assemble, among them women and children. At the gathering-point,
which is called in Tarahumare "the betting-place," all the bets are
made, and here the race is started and concluded. Here the managers
also place a row of stones, one stone for each circuit to be run,
and whenever a circuit is completed one stone is taken away. In
this way the count is kept. The runners walk about wrapped in their
blankets like the rest of the people. They have had nothing to eat
all day but pinole and tepid water, and their legs have been rubbed
with warm water in the morning by the managers.
When finally all the people have arranged their stakes the gobernador
steps forward and makes a speech, in which he specially exhorts the
runners not to throw the ball with their hands; if they do, they
certainly will go to hell! He also warns them against cheating of
any kind.
At a given signal, quick as lightning, the runners throw off their
blankets, and one man in each party, previously selected, throws his
ball as far as he can, and all the runners start after it. A second
ball is always kept in reserve, in case the first should be lost.
The racers wear rattles of deer-hoofs and bits of reeds tied together
on a strip of leather, which they stick in the backs of their girdle
or hang over their backs. The magic rattling keeps them from falling
asleep while running, so they say; besides, the deer-hoofs lend
them the swiftness of the stag. Some runners adorn themselves with
feathers from various birds, preferably the macaw and the peacock,
tying them to short sticks. The few Tarahumares who have ever seen
a peacock think a good deal of this bird, because it is considered
light-footed and mystic, being foreign to their country. Some runners
may be seen who paint their faces and legs with white chalk, near
Batopilas, for instance.
They do not run at an extraordinary speed, but very steadily, hour
after hour, mile after mile. Good runners make forty miles in six or
eight hours. At one race, when they covered according to calculation
twenty-one miles in two hours, I timed the leading runner and found
that he made 290 feet in nineteen seconds on the first circuit, and
on the next in twenty-four seconds. At a race rehearsal I saw them
cover four miles in half an hour.
The public follows the race with great enthusiasm from beginning to
end, the interest growing with each circuit. Many begin to follow the
runners, shouting to them and urging them on. They also help them by
pointing out the ball so that they can kick it without stopping to look
for it. The wives of the contestants heat water and prepare pinole,
which they hold out in drinking-gourds to the men as they pass. The
latter stop for a few seconds to partake of this their favourite
dish; and if this cannot be done, the tepid water is thrown over
the shoulders of the runners, by way of refreshing them. As darkness
comes on, torches of resinous pine wood are lighted and carried along
to illuminate the path for the runners, that they may not stumble,
making the scene one of extreme picturesqueness, as these torchbearers,
demon-like, hurry through the forest.
One contestant after another drops out. The excitement becomes wilder;
more and more people join in accompanying the few runners left, their
principal motive being to shout encouraging words to the runners and
urge them to exert themselves to the utmost. And at last the best
man comes in, generally alone, the others having either given up the
contest or being far behind.
The race usually commences at midday; but often the bets are not
finished until late in the afternoon. It may last four hours and
even longer. A famous runner, now dead, could run from midday until
sunrise. There is no prize for the winner himself, except the golden
opinions he earns among the women; and his father may accept presents
from lucky bettors. A man who wins a cow is expected to give two pesos
to the victorious runner; in case he wins a goat he gives half a real.
The race over, the wagers are immediately paid and the Indians quickly
disperse, soon to arrange for another contest.
Sometimes there is an old man's race preceding that of the young men,
the latter being always the principal event of the day. Races are
also run by women, and the betting and excitement that prevail on
these occasions run as high as at the men's races, though on a smaller
scale. Instead of tossing the ball with their toes, they use a large
wooden fork, with two or three prongs, to pitch it forward. Sometimes
they have a ring of twisted strips of yucca leaves instead of the
ball, but more often two interlocked rings which they throw ahead
with a stick curved at the end. This game, which is called rowe-mala
(rowe signifies a ring), must be very ancient, for rings of this kind
have sometimes been found in ancient cliff-dwellings. It is certainly
a strange sight to see these sturdy amazons race heavily along with
astonishing perseverance, when creeks and water-holes come in their
way, simply lifting their skirts _a la Diane_ and making short work
of the crossing.