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.