I saw a clever woman make a medium-sized jar in twenty-seven minutes.  She was seated in the sun, and finished four vessels in one afternoon.  Then, assisted by her husband, she began to even them on the outside with a small, smooth, oblong piece of a gourd.  The vessels were then put into the house in order that they might not dry too quickly.  After an interval of fifteen minutes, during which she nursed her infant, which had been bothering her all the while, she began work again.  First, with the edge of a sharpened stick she removed all irregularities on the outside and on the brim, and then with a stone she polished the vessel.  To polish the jars seemed to take the longest time, for each of the workers was engaged on a vessel for over an hour, and even then had not completed the task.  They polished outside and a little way inside below the brim.  Finally they painted decorations with ochre, and polished again for a long time, but only the outside.  Now the jars were again put into the house to dry a little more before the polishing was finished.

To burn the jars, they must first be thoroughly dried, as otherwise the fire would crack them.  When the weather is nice the fire may be made outside the house; but usually it is built inside on the ordinary fireplace.  Each vessel, one at a time, is turned upside down over charcoal, and pieces of pine bark are built up all around and over it like a square little hut, then ignited.  Care is taken that no piece of bark comes so near to the jar as to touch and injure it.  Where bark cannot be readily procured, wood is used.  The heat first turns the clay dark, and afterward a pretty yellow colour.

There is one industry which has a peculiar bearing on the whole life of the Tarahumare, namely, the making of native beer.

Nothing is so close to the heart of the Tarahumare as this liquor, called in Mexican Spanish tesvino.  It looks like milky water, and has quite an agreeable taste, reminding one of kumyss.  To make it, the moist corn is allowed to sprout; then it is boiled and ground, and the seed of a grass resembling wheat is added as a ferment.  The liquor is poured into large earthen jars made solely for the purpose, and it should now stand for at least twenty-four hours; but inasmuch as the jars are only poorly made, they are not able to hold it very long, and the people take this responsibility on themselves.  A row of beer jars turned upside down in front of a house is a characteristic sight in the Tarahumare region.

The tesvino forms an integral part of the Tarahumare religion.  It is used at all its celebrations, dances, and ceremonies.  It is given with the mother’s milk to the infant to keep it from sickness.  In “curing” the new-born babe the shaman sprinkles some over it to make it strong.  Beer is applied internally and externally as a remedy for all diseases Tarahumare flesh is heir to.  No man could get his field attended to if he did not at first