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