Religion--Mother Moon Becomes the Virgin Mary--Myths--The
Creation--The Deluge--Folk-lore--The Crow's Story to the
Parrot--Brother Coyote--Beliefs about Animals.
The pagans or _gentiles_ in the barrancas say that they have two gods,
but no devil. These gods are Father Sun (Nonorugami) and Mother Moon
(Yerugami). The Sun guards the men in the daytime; therefore the
Tarahumares do not transact business after sunset. He also makes the
animals sleep. The Moon watches at night, and is the special deity
of the women. In her nightly vigils she is assisted by her son, the
Morning Star, who commands all the other stars, because they are his
sons and they are Tarahumares. The Stars advise their brothers on
earth when thieves are entering their houses. When the Tarahumares
affirm anything solemnly, they say, "By those above!" meaning the Sun,
Moon, and the Stars.
But the greater part of the Tarahumares are nominally Christians,
though all that they know of Christianity are the words _Senor San
Jose_ and _Maria Santissima_. Moreover, they have adopted the words
_Tata_ (Father) _Dios_ (God) for their Father Sun; and the Virgin
Mary becomes with them a substitute for Mother Moon, and in natural
sequence the wife of Tata Dios. They celebrate in their own peculiar
way all the Christian feasts they know, with as much pleasure and as
elaborately as their own native ceremonies.
Next in importance is the Devil, whom they fear even more than their
own sorcerers. He is always represented with a big beard, such as the
Mexicans wear. He is old and has only one eye, and the shamans have
seen him often. He plays the guitar, but never the violin, because
the bow and the strings form a cross. He would like very much to go
to heaven, and the shamans have to work hard to keep him from doing
so. There is also a female devil, his wife, who bears many children,
always twins, who are the original Mexicans.
Their paradise consists in big ranches, where they will get all the
animals which in this life they sacrificed to Tara Dios. The occupation
of Tata Dios in heaven is to run foot-races with the angels, while the
Devil vies with the sorcerers in making the lives of the Tarahumares
uncomfortable, he being the chief sorcerer of all.
The Tarahumares are the sons of God, and the Mexicans the sons of the
Devil. For this reason the Tarahumares say that it is no crime to eat
the cows of the Mexicans; they think the cows do not really belong to
the Shabotshi anyway. Neither do they tell when a Tarahumare steals
anything from a Mexican, while they are very quick to find out if
one Tarahumare steals from another.
I give here some of the myths and traditions of the tribe. Those
which Christian ideas have entered into will easily be recognised,
and it is not necessary to draw special attention to them.
Creation Myths
In the beginning there were many worlds before this, but one after the
other came to an end. Just before the world was destroyed for the last
time, all the rivers flowed toward the place where the sun rises. But
now the waters also flow toward the other side, where the sun sets. [5]
The bears put the world into shape. Before their time it was nothing
but a waste of sand.
In ancient times there were plenty of lagoons around Guachochic;
but the land was put in order, when the people came and began to
dance yumari.
The rocks were at first soft and small; but they grew until they
became large and hard. They have life inside.
The people grew up from the soil, while the earth was as level as a
field ready for sowing. But in those days they lived to be only one
year old, and then they died like the flowers.
According to another tradition they descended from heaven with corn
and potatoes in their ears, and were led by Tata Dios into these
mountains, the middle of the world, having originally come from the
north-east or east.
The Sun and the Moon in the Beginning of the World
In the beginning the Sun and the Moon were alone, and they were
children. They wore dresses made of palm-leaves, and they lived
in a house thatched with palm-leaves. They had neither cattle nor
sheep. Both the Sun and the Moon were dark, and the Morning Star was
the only one that shed any light on the earth. The Moon Was eating
lice from the hair of the Sun, and the Morning Star was watching at
night. There were 600 Tarahumares at that time, and they were much
hampered by the darkness. They could not do their work, and they had
to hold each other's hands, and they were stumbling all the time. Then
they cured the Sun and the Moon by dipping small crosses into tesvino,
and touching the Sun and the Moon on the chest, on the head, and on
the back. Then the Sun and the Moon began to shine and to shed light.
Star Legend
A man lived with three women. He was making arrows while they went
to look for squirrels and woodchucks, and when they could find none
they killed their father. Then they said: "It is of no use to stop
here any longer. Let us go away." When the man saw them running
away he shot arrows after them. The women were ascending to heaven,
holding each other's hands, and he transfixed them to the sky, where
they can still be seen just as they rose, as three bright stars in
the belt of Orion. The three women remained in heaven, but the man
remained in the world and was changed into a coyote.
Deluge Legends
When the world became full of water, a little girl and a little boy
climbed up on a mountain, called Lavachi (gourd), which is south of
Panalachic, and when the waters subsided they came down again. They
brought three grains of corn and three beans with them. The rocks
were soft after the flood, and the footprints of the little boy and
the little girl may still be seen. They planted the corn and went to
sleep and had a dream that night; then they harvested, and all the
Tarahumares are descended from them.
The Tarahumares were fighting among themselves and Tata Dios sent
much rain, and all the people perished. After the flood he sent three
men and three women to people the earth. They planted corn at once,
bringing three kinds, the same varieties still found here--soft corn,
hard corn, and yellow corn.
Giants
On the heights once lived giants. They were as big as pine-trees and
had heads as big as bowlders. They taught the Tarahumares how to plant
corn, by cutting down trees and burning them, but they ate children.
A woman bore a giant in a cave, which was situated very high up on
the side of a valley. She died, because the child was so large, and
he was taken care of by his grandmother. Once when she was asleep,
she turned over and crushed him.
From Wasivori (near Cusarare) came giants to Nararachic to ask
alms. Tesvino they liked very much. They worked very fast, and the
Tarahumares put them to hoe and weed the corn, and gave them food and
tesvino. But the giants were fierce, and ravished the women while the
latter were under the influence of the Moon; therefore the Tarahumares
got very angry and they mixed a decoction made from the chilicote-tree
with the corn that they gave the giants to eat, and the giants died.
Tata Dios and the Devil--The Sheep and the Deer--Why the Cocks Crow
in the Morning [6]
Tata Dios came down into the world, and he had in his house many
large jars filled with strong tesvino. On the other side of the river
Huerachic, in the big arroyos, lived the Devil. He was very poor,
and he had only one small jar with tesvino, and that was bad. The
Devil and his brother invited Tata Dios to come and drink tesvino
with them. Tata Dios went to the Devil's house, and they gave him
the jar and the drinking-gourd, and he sat down to drink; but he
did not get intoxicated because there was not enough tesvino. When
he had emptied the jar, Tata Dios said: "Now we will go to my house
and drink tesvino; I have some, too." They accepted the invitation,
and all went away together, and Tata Dios gave them a large jar full
of tesvino and the drinking-gourd. They drank much, and the Devil and
his brother sang like the Mexicans, until they lay down on the ground
completely overcome. Later in the night the Devil rose, and he went
to the wife of Tata Dios. And when she awoke, she was very angry,
and roused her husband, and he fought with the Devil, until Tata
Dios got killed. But after a while he rose and said to the Devil,
"Now go away, go below." "I am going home to get my weapons," said
the Devil. But first he went into the house of Tata Dios and robbed
him of his money, and [noticing the reporter's book] of his books and
everything. He hid all the things in his house and Tara Dios came to
look for them. Tata Dios again was very angry, and they fought until
he was killed. But this time, too, he rose and said to the Devil,
"Go below," and the Devil went below and remained there, and Tata
Dios went home.
One day at dawn the people saw the lands full with sheep everywhere. On
a flat stone Tata Dios drew figures like the tracks of the deer,
and from them all the deer originated.
When Tata Dios returned to heaven, he carried in his right hand a
rooster, which he placed on top of a palm-tree. The cock crowed three
times while Tata Dios ascended to heaven. After this, whenever the
sun rises in the morning, the cocks on earth respond when they hear
the cocks in heaven crow.
After Tata Dios had gone to heaven he never came back. He is angry with
the Tarahumares, and he wants to destroy the world, but the Virgin
says: "Let the people alone; I pity the family we left behind." This
is the reason why the world stands.
When Tara Dios went away, he said, "I will leave two crosses here." He
then put up a cross where the sun sets at the end of the world,
and another where the sun rises. The cross in the east he uses
when he rises to heaven and when he comes to visit the Tarahumares,
and the cross in the west is for the Tarahumares when they die and
go to heaven. Between these two crosses the Tarahumares live. They
would like to go to the crosses and worship before them, but they are
prevented from doing so by large bodies of water. They therefore set
up small crosses in front of their houses, and before them they hold
their dances, and God comes to eat near these crosses. He only eats
the soul or substance of the food, and leaves the rest for the people.
The Giants, the Crow, and the Blackbird
The Crow, who is very knowing, told the following story to the Parrot,
who told it to the pagans:
The Blackbird and the Crow, long, long ago, saw a contest between
two giants, who made a bet as to which of them could throw a stone
farthest. The stakes were four deer. One giant, called Goli, carried
a bird in his hand and threw it instead of the stone; so he won; then
he returned to where the Blackbird and the Crow were standing. The
Blackbird said to the Crow, "They will not do us any harm until they
stoop to pick up a stone." But the Crow replied, "Maybe they bring the
stone in their hands." So they flew away, and while they were flying
the Crow said, "I am going to the mountain to look for my wife and
my son. They went away and have been lost for six days."
The Deer, the Toad, and the Crow
The Crow set out for the mountain, where the Deer and the Toad were
making a bet. "Let us try," they said, "who can see the sun first in
the morning." The stakes were twenty-five Gadflies, and they asked
the Crow to be a witness to the contest. In the morning they were
ready to watch for the sun. The Toad was looking westward from the
highest mountain, but the Deer looked to the east. The Toad said,
"Look here, Brother Crow, I have already seen the sun starting," and
the Crow said to the Deer: "Brother Deer, you have lost. Give him
the twenty-five Gadflies." The Deer asked one day's time to catch
the Gadflies, but the Toad thought he was not going to pay him,
and said to the Deer, "Let us have a race, that you may settle your
bet." The Deer readily consented to this, and a stone was put up as
the goal. The Toad went away to call many other toads, and placed
them at intervals toward the goal, and when the Deer arrived at the
stone the Toad was already sitting on it, and said, "Brother Deer,
you have lost." And the Deer went away.
Then the Toad said to the Gadflies: "Go and sting the Deer much, that
he may have to run quickly. If you will sting him much, I will never
eat you." The Gadflies were vexed with the Deer, because he had put
them up on a bet, therefore they were very willing to sting the Deer,
and they have been stinging him ever since.
Story of the Coyote
The Coyote asked permission from Tata Dios to come into the world, and
Tara Dios asked him what he would do there. The Coyote replied that
he would steal the animals and the corn from the Tarahumares. Then
Tata Dios gave him permission to go and make a living in this way,
because the Coyote did not know how to work.
The Mountain Lion, the Coyote, and the Grey Fox
The Coyote challenged the Mountain Lion to a contest, that they might
see which of them had the better eyesight and was the smarter. The Lion
said, "Let us see who can first shoot an animal." Then he proposed
that they should go to a water-hole, and to this the Coyote agreed;
so they started out on the hunt. The Lion climbed up on a tree,
but the Coyote remained below on the ground, and paid no attention
to what the Lion was doing. A deer came, and the Lion struck it
dead. The Coyote saw this from where he was hunting, and by and
by he found a dead mare. When they met again the Lion said to the
Coyote, "Well, how did you get on?" The Coyote replied: "Very well;
I killed a mare." But the mare had been dead so long that she was
smelling. Therefore the Lion said to the Coyote, "Don't be a liar,"
and he chased him off, and the Coyote was ashamed of himself.
The Coyote next met the Grey Fox, and told him to go and challenge the
Lion. The Grey Fox went to the Lion and said: "How do you do, Brother
Lion? I hear you got the best of Brother Coyote." The Lion replied:
"No, Brother Grey Fox; the Coyote made a fool of himself." Then the
Grey Fox said: "Let us see whether you can get the best of me, and
which of us can catch a rabbit first." So they went to the mountain
to look for rabbits. At sunrise the Lion took a position facing the
north, and the Grey Fox faced south, and both of them watched for
rabbits. After spying for a while, the Lion saw one, but by that
time the Grey Fox was asleep alongside of him. So the Lion said to
the rabbit: "Pass right between us, and then go to the hole in the
oak-tree on the rock, and act as if you wanted to go into the hole,
but go away to one side." Then the Lion woke up the Grey Fox and
said: "Over there is a rabbit. He went into a small hole into which
I cannot follow him; but you are small, and you can catch him." The
Grey Fox just saw the rabbit's tail disappearing behind the rock,
but the rabbit hid himself, and did not enter the hole, as the Lion
had told him. "All right," said the Grey Fox, "I will go; but, as you
saw the rabbit first, you have won the bet." But the Lion said: "No;
you go into the hole, and fetch the rabbit out and eat him." Then the
Grey Fox entered the hole, and the Lion made a fire in front of it,
and when the Grey Fox came out again he was burned, and his feet
were sore from the fire. That is why the Grey Fox always walks so
lightly. And he reproached the Lion, saying that he was very bad,
and begged him to let him go and not to kill him. He cried and went
to hide himself in a cave, because he was afraid of the Lion. Then
the Humming-bird who lived in the cave stung him in the face with
his bill and in the eyes, and he went away and never came back again.
The Hens, the Grey Fox, and the Coyote
The Woodpecker made a guitar and gave it to the Butterfly to play on,
and the Cock danced a pascual, and the Cricket danced with the Locust,
and the Hen was singing. While the dance was going on, the Coyote
came to see what he could get from the feast, and the Grey Fox also
came, and he brought some tunas (fruit of the nopal cactus). They
were very nice and sweet, and he gave one to the Coyote and said,
"Here, Brother Coyote, take this nice mouthful." He had well rubbed
off the spines, and the fruit tasted well to the Coyote. It made his
heart glad, and he wanted more. The Grey Fox said to the Coyote,
"I will give you more tunas, but you must eat them with your eyes
shut." He gave him some tunas from which he had not cleaned off the
spines, and as the spines hurt the Coyote he became very angry and
wanted to eat the Grey Fox. But the Fox said to him: "Don't be angry,
Brother Coyote: I will give you a drink; and don't howl, because there
are dogs around." He went to the Cock and to the Hen, and asked them
for tesvino, and he brought it to the Coyote and said, "Here, Brother
Coyote, drink this." The Coyote drank two gourdsful, and then a third
one, and when he had finished this he began to howl, because he was
very drunk, and he asked the Grey Fox, "Why are they all dancing?" The
Grey Fox replied: "They dance, because Miss Cricket married Mister
Locust; therefore the Butterfly is playing on the guitar, and the Cock
dances with delight, and the Hen is singing." But the Coyote said:
"I don't want the Hen to sing; I want to eat her." Then the Grey
Fox took the Coyote into the arroyo and told him to remain there,
while he went to fetch the Hen. But instead of the Hen he got two very
fierce dogs and put them in a bag, and carried them into the arroyo,
where the Coyote was waiting. He was very drunk and very angry,
and he said to the Grey Fox, "Why did you keep me waiting so long,
you cursed old Grey Fox t" The Grey Fox replied: "Don't be angry,
Brother Coyote; here I bring you some very nice Hens. I was looking
for many of them, that is why I remained away so long. Now, shall I
let them out one by one, or do you want them all at once?" The Coyote
replied, "Let them out all at once, that I may have a good old time
with them." Then the Grey Fox opened the bag, and out came the two
fierce dogs; and they caught the Coyote and bit him and tore him to
pieces. The Grey Fox ran away and hid himself, but afterward he came
and got the paws of the Coyote and threw them into a water-pool.
The Mountain Lion and the Bear
The Mountain Lion killed a deer, and the Bear wanted to take it away
from him. They fought, and the Lion won, and the Bear asked his pardon,
because the Lion is more powerful than the Bear.
The Frog and the Coyote
The Frog and the Coyote made a wager as to which of them would gain
in a foot-race. They were to run along a ridge, and return to a point
close by the starting-point. The Coyote lost, because the Frog jumped
directly over to the finishing-point. This happened twice, and the
Coyote wanted to kill the Frog, but the Frog dived into a water-hole,
where the Coyote could not catch him.
The Bears, whose skin is of the same color as the Tarahumares, are
called "grandfathers," amuli, and are so to speak their forebears. In
ancient times they danced on top of the mountains, where they have
roads yet.
Often the bears are sorcerers, who, after death, assumed the shape
of these animals. In fact, there are two kinds of bears, one that
is real, and another one that is a dead Tarahumare. The people do
not know which is which. Only the shamans can make the distinction,
and it is useless to try and kill the man-bear, because he has a very
hard skin, and arrows cannot pierce it. He is the very devil.
The following curious incident happened near Nararachic a few years
ago: A bear had done much damage to a Tarahumare's corn-field. Some
forty Indians with over fifty dogs gathered together to kill the
bear. In order to make the dogs ferocious, the Indians set them to
fight among each other, by way of preparing them for the hunt. The
Indians now divided themselves into several parties, and presently
one lot encountered the bear. They asked the shaman who was with them
whether the creature was a bear or something else, and he replied,
"Let the dogs on and see." As the dogs had never seen a bear, they were
timid, and did not bark or attack the beast; therefore the shaman said:
"This is not a bear. All is lost. The dogs do not know him, and the
bear does not see the dogs with his eyes. He is from hell, and he is
a devil, who came here in the shape of a bear, because he wants to
eat us. Let him alone and let us all go away." And they all retreated.
The mountain lion is a good animal and watches over the people. When
he sees an animal such as the bear or the coyote approach a man,
he roars to warn the man; and if the man pays no attention, the lion
attacks the animal to save the man; therefore strips of his skin are
worn around the ankles and the neck as a protection.
The grey fox is considered an astute animal and is feared. If he passes
by a house in which there is a sick person, and calls three times,
the patient will die. One of my Indian men related the following
story: One night he and another man were sleeping in a house when
he heard the grey fox whistle. At first he did not know what it was,
and he said to his companion,
"Listen, what is that?" The other one said, "This is a very bad
thing, very ugly." He was a man who knew something, and he said,
"If this grey fox returns for two nights more and whistles outside
of the house of our sick neighbour, that man will die." My informant
did not believe this at the time; but the next night the grey fox
returned and whistled very uncannily, and on the third night he did
it again. And on the following morning a man came and asked the Indian
to help him to bury the neighbour who had died during the night. They
went to the house of the dead man, and "then," the narrator concluded,
"I knew that the grey fox had said the truth, for the grey fox never
tells a lie."
The grey fox and the rabbit in ancient times danced rutuburi.
The horned toad holds the world. It says: "Don't tread on me! I am the
colour of the earth and I hold the world; therefore walk carefully,
that you do not tread on me."
The master of the deer lives inside of the mountains, in the earth;
therefore the Tarahumares place small quantities of corn and beans,
or three arrows in a jar, on top of the highest mountain to buy the
deer from the one below.
The brown ground squirrel (chipawiki), which lives among rocks and
seldom ascends trees, is thought to become a serpent. This belief is
also current among certain classes of Mexicans. A Mexican told me that
a man once smashed the head of a chipawiki in the hollow of a tree,
and when he wanted to take his game out, he found that the rest of
the animal had the body of a serpent. It cannot be used for sacrifices.
Rats become bats.
The owl is very bad. Whenever it comes to a house and screeches,
somebody falls ill. If it calls three times, in three consecutive
nights, the sick person will die. The owl is also very smart. It knows
when the Tarahumare's blanket (in which he is wrapped when sleeping
along the fire) is going to be burned. When the owl hoots near a home
it says, "Chu-i, chu-i, chu-i,"--"dead, dead, dead." Owls are killed
but not eaten.
The goat sucker makes darts through the air and calls down rain. It has
two nice fat young, which the Tarahumares consider a great delicacy.
The crow is much in disfavour because it eats the corn. Only the
young crows are eaten.
The large swifts (olamaka) are thought to be witches, who pierce the
souls of people and eat them. They are used by the sorcerers, whom they
obey like dogs. Once a woman was sitting in a corn-field watching it
by the side of a fire, and making yarn, when a swift settled on her
skirt. She told a girl to bring a large basket, with which she covered
the bird up, caught it and had it for many years. Every night the bird
flew away, and then returned in the morning. Once, when the woman
was absent at a tesvino feast, the girl killed the bird and roasted
it. She could not eat it, however, because it had such a bad smell, and
the woman found it on her return in the basket, dead and roasted. The
girl ran away and the raccoons ate the corn the woman was watching.
The giant woodpecker during the wet season rises high up toward the
sun; that is why he gets his tail burned.
When the Tarahumares handle any kind of fish they take care not to
touch their hair, for fear that it may turn grey and they become old.
The rattlesnakes are the companions of the sorcerers and watch to meet
them and then talk with them. A Mexican once killed a rattlesnake,
and the Indian grew very angry and said that the snake had protected
his house; now he had no one to guard it.
Large serpents, which only the shamans can see, are thought to live
in the rivers. They have horns and very big eyes.
The dragon-fly has no song; it flies about without making a noise.
Tata Dios put sheep into the world; they are good animals because they
give wool from which people can weave blankets, and their meat is good,
and they do not weep when they are killed. But goats were put into
the world by the Devil; their hair is of no use, their meat is bad,
and they howl much when they are killed.