Cerro de Muinora, the Highest Mountain in Chihuahua--The Northern
Tepehuanes--Troubles Cropping Out of the Camera--Sinister Designs
on Mexico Attributed to the Author--Maizillo--Foot-races Among
the Tepehuanes--Influence of the Mexicans Upon the Tepehunaes, and
_Vice Versa_--Profitable Liquor Traffic--Medicine Lodges--Cucuduri,
the Master of the Woods--Myth of the Pleiades.
On my return from an excursion southward from Guadalupe y Calvo as
far as Mesa de San Rafael, I ascended on January 12, 1895, Cerro
de Muinora, probably the highest elevation in northern Mexico. I
say probably, because I had no opportunity of measuring Cerro de
Candelaria. Approached from the north it looked like a long-stretched
mountain, covered with pines, and falling off abruptly toward the
west. It is conspicuous in the songs and beliefs of the Tepehuane
Indians.
We made a camp about 1,000 feet below the top, among the pines, with
snow lying all around us, and in the night a flock of parrots flew
screeching past the tents. I was surprised to find the temperature so
mild; there was no ice on the water, not even at night. The aneroid
showed the height of the top to be 10,266 feet (20.60 in. at a
temperature of 40 deg. F., at 5.15 P.M.). I noticed more birds between
our camping-place and the top than I had ever seen before in pine
forests. Blackbirds, the brown creepers (_certhia_), and red crossbills
were seen on the very top.
From Guadalupe y Calvo I continued my journey to the northwest in order
to visit the Tepehuanes, about fifteen hundred of whom still exist
here in the northernmost outpost of the tribe's former domain. Only
seventeen miles north of Guadalupe y Calvo is the Tepehuane village
Nabogame (in Tepehuane, Navogeri, "where nopals [navo] grow").
The Tepehuane region includes some fine agricultural land. There
are fields there which have been planted for forty and fifty years
in succession, as for instance in Mesa de Milpillas; but here, too,
the whites have appropriated a considerable portion of the country,
though the Tepehuanes are largely in possession of their land, because
they are more valiant than the Tarahumares, and can only be deprived
of their property through the agency of mescal, for which they have
an unfortunate weakness.
The Tepehuanes are less phlegmatic and more impressionable and
impulsive than the Tarahumares. One woman laughed so much that she
could not be photographed. They are noisy and active, and in the
fields they work merrily, chatting and laughing. Even when peons of the
Mexicans they are not so abject-looking as the Tarahumares, but retain
their proud and independent manners. They behave almost like men of
the world in comparison with the unsophisticated Tarahumares. In the
eyes of some of the Tepehuane women I noticed a fire as bright as in
those of Italians.
These Indians live in commodious log-cabins, with interlocked
corners. The roofs are gabled and often supported by piles of
wood. They are covered with shingles, over which are placed rows of
stones to keep them in place. The doors are furnished with jambs.
The Tepehuanes call themselves Odami, the meaning of which I could
not find out. By the Tarahumares they are called Saelo ("walking-stick"
insects (_phasmidae_), in Mexican-Spanish _campamoche_). The Tepehuane
language is not melodious, being full of consonants, and hard like the
people themselves. They still speak it among themselves, though there
are but few who do not understand Spanish. The Mexicans frequently
enter into marriage with them.
So-(so-)da-gi u-ki-(ji-)ru tu-va-ni-mi.
(There is) water (_i.e_., tesvino) in the house; He is coming
down (to us).
As to their religion they are far more reticent than the Tarahumares,
and it is difficult to get information on this subject. One reason for
this is that they are afraid of being laughed at by the Mexicans. They
still keep up their dances and secret rites and their ceremonies,
customs, and beliefs. Although in many points they resemble the
Tarahumares, in others fundamental differences exist, such as the
complex observances of rules in regard to puberty, none of which have
been found among the Tarahumares.
Ignorant Mexicans, who have but a faint idea as to who is president
of their country, more than once have attributed land-grabbing
intentions to my expedition. With my three or four Mexicans and
Indians and a dozen pack mules, I have been credited with designs of
conquering Mexico for the Americans. Even here in Nabogame a Mexican
settler felt uneasy about his holdings and stirred the Indians up,
saying that if they allowed "that man to photograph them, the Devil
would carry off all of them, and it would be better to kill him." I
was to meet the people on a Sunday, and in the morning I received this
discouraging letter written by a Mexican for the Indian gobernador or
"general," who, to affirm or authenticate the letter, had put a cross,
as his mark or signature, underneath his name:
Pueblo De Nabogame, January 29, 1893.
Dear Mr. Picturemaker:
Do me the favour not to come to the pueblo to photograph, which
I know is your intention. I believe the best for you to do is
to go first to Baborigame, because, as far as this pueblo is
concerned, I do not give permission. Therefore, you will please
decide not to pass this day in this pueblo photographing.
Your obedient servant,
Jose H. Arroyos,
General.
To Mr. Picturemaker.
Taking my Mexican attendant with me, I walked over to the place
where some twenty Indians and several Mexicans had assembled. The
scheming instigator of the trouble had brought his rifle with him,
to give weight to his words; but the Mexican judge was on my side,
and after he had read my letters from the Government, he made a
speech in which he convinced the people that they must obey the
authorities. The Tepehuanes soon saw the force of his argument, and
the defeated agitator slunk away. The outcome of the dispute was that
the Indians expressed their regret that there were not more of them
present for me to photograph; if I desired, they would send for more
of their tribe to come and pose before the camera.
Around Nabogame grows a plant called _maizillo_, or _maizmillo_. It
is more slender than the ordinary corn-plant and the ears are
very small. It grows among the corn and has to be weeded out, as
it injures the good plants. However, several Mexicans assured me
that, when cultivated, the ears develop. After three years they grow
considerably larger and may be used as food. A man in Cerro Prieto
raises this kind only; others mix it with the ordinary corn. I was
told that people from the Hot Country come to gather it, each taking
away about one almud to mix with their seed corn. The combination is
said to give splendid results in fertile soil.
Can this possibly be the original wild plant from which the ordinary
Indian corn has been cultivated? If the information I received about
it in Mexquitic, State of Jalisco, is correct, then this question must
be answered negatively, because my informant there stated that the
plant is triennial. In that locality it is called _maiz de pajaro_,
and it is cultivated as a substitute for the ordinary corn, or for
use in making atole. The Huichol Indians also know it and raise it;
they call it tats.
For about a month I stopped at Mesa de Milpillas, which is a fertile
high plateau. The country is now almost open, yet magnificent pines
still remain, and Cerro de Muinora stands guard to the south. This
is the stronghold of the northern Tepehuanes.
I then descended toward the west to the village of Cinco Llagas,
and found the Tepehuanes there pure-bred, although speaking
Spanish. Ascending again to the sierra over the mining camp of San
Jose, I arrived in Baborigame (Tepehuane, Vawulile = "where there is
a large fig-tree"). The pueblo is finely situated on a llano one mile
and a half in diameter, and surrounded by pretty hills. I took up my
abode in a Tepehuane shanty in the neighbourhood of the village. The
owner asked for the rent in advance, and for the amount of fifty
centavos Mr. Hartman and I secured the right of occupancy, without
time limit. I stayed there from March 31st to April 30th. There are
a couple of Mexican stores at Baborigame, and the village is more
Mexican than Indian. The Tepehuanes live on their ranches, and come
in only on festive occasions, to mingle with their "neighbours,"
as the Mexicans are designated by the Indians in all parts of Mexico.
I was told that native travelling merchants from southern Mexico,
called Aztecs and Otomies, pass through Baborigame every five years,
to sell their goods. They bring articles of silk and wool, wooden
spoons, needles and thread, and do nice embroidery work, and make or
mend garments.
The Tepehuanes of the north have much the same games and sports as
the Tepehuanes, and at Easter-time, foot-races _a la_ Tarahumare were
arranged as part of the general festivities of the season. Two hundred
and ninety people assembled, among them a few Tarahumares. There
were several races, the runners being divided into different groups,
men and women (married and unmarried), and children. As among the
Tarahumares, two parties opposed each other in each race, and the
men ran with balls, the women with rings. The married women, although
fat and heavy, made better time than the young girls.
The runners who distinguished themselves most were the married men,
ranging in age from eighteen to thirty years, the best of whom made
thirteen circuits in three hours and one minute and a half. I measured
the circuit, and found it to be 9,223 feet long; therefore the total
distance run was nearly twenty-three miles. The two men who came in
first, one a Tepehuane, the other a Tarahumare, showed no signs of
fatigue. By way of comparison, I will add that the best one among
some young Mexicans, who raced at the same time, took twelve minutes
for the circuit, and all arrived breathless, and would apparently
not have been able to continue much longer. I was credibly informed
that eight years ago a man who had died but a short time before
could make twenty-seven circuits, or more than forty-seven miles,
on this race-course. This runner was well known in that part of
the sierra. His antagonist made twenty-six circuits, then fell down
exhausted, while the victor indulged in a prolonged dance the next
day. The race lasted from noon until eight o'clock in the evening.
Some of the Tepehuane customs have been adopted by the Mexicans. For
instance, after the harvesting is over, the owner or his son is
tied on to a horse, and has to carry a cross made from three ears
of corn. The horse is led to the house, and is received with rifle
shots; and the men tell the women in the house that the man on the
horse has stolen the corn, and they will not let him go unless they
are given tesvino and a ball. The demand, of course, is acceded to,
and drum and violin furnish the music for the dance.
The Tepehuanes around Baborigame now frequently rent their lands to
the Mexicans for a term of years, but rarely get it back, for the
"neighbours" have a powerful agent in mescal. The enormous profit
accruing from trading in this brandy with the natives may be judged
from the fact that a demijohn of the liquid costing $5 contains 24
bottles, for each of which the trader gets from the Indians one sack
of corn, worth $1. On this quantity he realises elsewhere at least
$5. In other words, on an outlay of, say, $50, he earns a gross $1,200;
deducting expenses for transportation of the corn, etc., leaves still
a net profit of at least $1,100.
The Tepehuanes have medicine lodges in remote places, where they
secretly gather once a month, or every other month. The name of the
lodge is Vakir Nuidadu (vakir = the inside of the house; nuidadu =
where there is singing; _i.e_., "the house where there is singing
inside"). Here they sing to call down their god Tuni, whom they
also call their brother-in-law (Gunosi). He instructs the shaman
how to proceed to get rain, and to avert evil, by making tesvino and
by dancing.
The gathering at the medicine lodge begins at dusk, three shamans being
present. A cross is raised and many kinds of flowers from the barrancas
are attached to it. Eagle feathers, too, are hung to it, as well as
strings of beads. From each arm of the cross is suspended an "eye of
the god" (Vol. II, Chap. XI), called in Tepehuane, yagete. There are
three jars with tesvino, and three bowls with meat are placed before
the cross.
The fire is put out, and the shamans begin to sing different songs with
different melodies, continuing until nearly midnight, when a noise
is heard on the roof, as if somebody were walking there. The Indians
sing on, and the walking on the roof is heard three times. At last the
roof opens, and behold somebody jumps on the floor three times. The
singing stops, and Tuni (Tata Dios) is among the people. He looks
like a Tepehuane, with a breech-cloth and tunic, but without blanket,
and with a bandana around his head. The borders of the breech-cloth
and of the tunic are of gold, and so are the ends of his hair. Only
the shamans see him.
He greets them with the usual salutation, "Vaigase!" and the
assemblage responds in the same way. He plays with the Indians,
and calls them his brothers-in-law. Three cigarettes are made and
placed near the tesvino. "Smoke, brother-in-law!" they say, and all
laugh and make merry with Tuni. He then makes a speech, telling them
to make plenty of tesvino in their houses, in order that the world
may not come to an end. He is invited to drink, and to sing three
different songs, in which all the men join. He then drinks tesvino,
with such a gurgle that all can hear it. "How strong it is," he says;
"I may not even be able to get home!" He also sprinkles tesvino over
them. Anyone who wants to drink simply stretches out his arm, saying
nothing, and a full drinking-gourd is placed in his hand. When empty,
the gourd vanishes. Such a person will remain drunk until morning,
for Tuni's hand is strong.
He remains for about half an hour, and when he leaves he says that
he will come back if the people make tesvino for him. He vanishes
like a breath, noiselessly.
Immediately after he has gone, a female deity comes, whom they call
Santa Maria Djada (mother; that is, the moon). The same salutations are
exchanged, and the women ask her to sing. She, too, receives tesvino,
and makes a speech, the trend of which is that they must go on making
the liquor through the year, lest their father should get angry and
the world come to an end. Afterward the Snow and the Cold also come
to play with the people in a similar way.
Cucuduri is the name of the master of the deer and the fish. He
also makes rain and he is heard in the thunder. He is a small but
thick-set man, and in foggy weather he rides on a deer over the
mountain-tops. When there is much fog and rain, a Tepehuane may go to
a wrestling-contest with Cucuduri in the forest. He throws an arrow
on the ground, and the little man appears and agrees to put up a deer
against the arrow. They wrestle, and often Cucuduri is thrown, although
he is strong. Then the man will find a deer close by, and shoot it.
The fisherman hears in the ripple of the flowing water the weeping of
Cucuduri, and throws three small fish to him. If he should not do this,
he would catch nothing. Cucuduri would throw stones into the water and
drive the fish off, or he would even throw stones at the man himself.
The Tepehuanes never drink direct from a brook, but scoop up the
water with their hands, else in the night the master of the spring
might carry them inside of the mountain.
They never cut their finger and toe nails, for fear of getting blind.
They say that the seat of the soul is between the stomach and the
chest, and they never wake up a man who is asleep, as his soul
may be wandering about. Sometimes a man is ill because his soul
is away. The doctors may be unable to make it come back, and still
the man lives. Soul is breath; and when a man dies, his soul passes
through the fontanels of the head, or through the eyes or the nostrils
or the mouth.
If anyone steps over a man, the latter will not be able to kill
another deer in his life. A woman can be passed in this way without
such danger.
When the wind blows hard, it is because a woman delayed curing herself.
The reason the Tepehuanes make four feasts to despatch a dead woman
from this world, and only three for a man, is their belief that a
woman has more ribs than a man.
Unmarried women are not allowed to eat meat from the spinal column
of the deer, as those bones look like arrows. If they ate this meat,
their backs would grow curved and they would have back-aches.
The Tepehuanes do not eat pinole with meat, because their teeth would
fall out. After eating pinole they rinse their mouths.
One kind of squirrel is thought to change into a bat, another into
a parrot. The ground-squirrel changes into a serpent. Catfish become
otters, and larvae on the madrona-tree are transformed into doves.
When a hen crows, an accident is going to happen, unless the hen is
immediately killed.
The moon sometimes has to fight with the sun. If weather depended only
on the moon, it would rain always, for the benefit of the Tepehuanes.
The Pleiades are women, and the women of this world are their
sisters. They were living with a man who used to bring them their
food. One day he could not find anything, and drew blood from
the calf of his leg, and brought it in a leaf from the big-leaved
oak-tree. He told the women it was deer-blood, and thus he sustained
them. On discovering that it was his blood, they became very angry
and ascended to heaven, where they are yet to be seen.
When he came home in the afternoon he missed them, and followed their
tracks, but could not find them. He slept alone, and in the night he
said to the mice, which he took for the women, "Come, come to boil the
deer-blood!" He continued his search until he reached the place where
they had disappeared. The women, seeing from above how he went around
looking for them, laughed, and he caught sight of them and called out,
"Tie your girdles together that I may get up also." He climbed up;
but when he had almost reached them, the oldest of the women told
the others to let him drop, because he had deceived them. He became a
coyote and has remained in that shape ever since. If he had succeeded
in getting up, he would have become a star, the same as the women.
The three stars in the Belt of Orion are deer.