make ready a good supply of tesvino, because beer is the only remuneration his assistants receive.  Drinking tesvino at the feast marks the turning-point in a person’s life.  A boy begins to drink tesvino because now he feels himself a man; and when a girl is seen at feasts, it is a sign that she is looking for a husband.  No marriage is legitimate without a liberal consumption of tesvino by all parties present at the wedding.  Hunting and fishing expeditions are accompanied by beer-drinking to insure luck.  No matter how many times the Tarahumare changes his abode in the course of his life, he always makes tesvino when moving into a new house or cave.  Even the dead would not get any rest, but come back and harm the survivors, if a quantity of tesvino were not set aside for them.  In fact, there is absolutely no act of importance that is not, in one way or another, connected with the drinking of this beer.  Never is a jar commenced unless some of the liquor is sacrificed before the cross, for the gods are believed to be as fond of the beer as are mortals.  Rain cannot be obtained without tesvino; tesvino cannot be made without corn; and corn cannot grow without rain.  This, in a nutshell, is the Tarahumare’s view of life.

There are many occasions during the year, especially during the winter time, when regular symposiums are held, generally inside of the house; but the people never drink tesvino unless there is some purpose to be attained, be it luck in some undertaking, or good crops, or the health of the family, or some similar benefit.  They may dance yumari for a little while at any of these functions.

It is the custom to appoint one man to distribute the liquor among the guests.  In doing this the host offers to the chosen one three drinking-gourds full of tesvino, which the latter empties, and he enters upon his duty by giving to every man present three gourds in succession and to every woman four.  The guests, although from politeness hesitating between each gourd-ful, are only too delighted to comply with this inviolable rule, which speaks eloquently for their constitutions.

The seat beside the distributer is the most coveted.  I, too, was always glad to get it, because it gave me the best chance to observe the behaviour of the Indians at the feasts.  The dispenser establishes himself close to the big jar, and being immensely popular with everybody he is never left alone.  The geniality of the Tarahumares, their courteousness and politeness toward each other in the beginning of a feast, is, to say the least, equal to that of many a civilised gentleman.  When the cup is offered to anyone, he most urgently protests and insists that the distributer shall drink; often this remonstrance is heeded, but the gourd is never emptied; something is always left in it, and this the guest has to take, and a second gourdful is immediately held out to him.  Though he again refuses, he generally allows himself to be persuaded to drink it, and this mock refusing and urging goes on as long as they have their wits together.