Where the Indians serve the Mexicans they are often employed to run wild horses into the corral.  It may take them two or three days, but they will bring them in, the horses thoroughly exhausted, while the men, who, of course, economise their strength, and sleep, and eat pinole, are comparatively fresh.  In the same way they will run down a deer, following it for days through snow and rain, until the animal is cornered and easily shot with arrows, or until it is overtaken utterly jaded and its hoofs dropping off.

This propensity for running is so great that the name of the tribe alludes to it.  Tarahumare is a Spanish corruption of ralamari, the meaning of which, though somewhat obscure, may doubtless best be given as “foot-runners,” because rala certainly means “foot.”

The race is always between two localities, each side being represented by from four to twenty runners.  The two parties show in their apparel some distinctive mark; for instance, all of one troop have red head-bands, while the others may wear white ones.

A peculiar feature is that the men toss along a small ball as they run, each party having one of their own.  These balls are about two and a half inches in diameter and carved from the root of the oak.  The foremost runner kicks it with the toes of his right foot, so as to make it bound along as far as 100 yards, and he and all the men behind him follow in the same trot as before.  The first man reaching it again kicks it onward.  It must never be touched by the hand, unless it happens to fall in some awkward place, as between stones or in a water-pool, when it is picked up and kicked on.

There is never any laid-out track, but the circuit is determined in a general way by crosses cut in trees.  There are certain favourite places always used as race-courses.  The runners seem to have a preference for the level tops of low ridges lying in a circle, wherever this is possible.  If this is not feasible, they may run forward and back on a ridge, starting always near the middle, from some little plane or other convenient place, where the people gather for the occasion.

There is a manager for each party, and the two arrange the time and place for the race to be held, also the number and length of the circuits to be made.  A circuit may measure from three to twelve miles in extent, and when the circuits are short as many as twenty may be agreed upon.  At one race-course near Carichic, the circuit is about fourteen miles long, and twelve circuits may be run here without stopping.  Runners of equal ability are matched against each other, each side being, of course, anxious to secure the best.  The managers take care of their men until the race comes off.  The training consists mainly in abstinence from tesvino for two or five days before the event.  When preparing for a big race the runners may practise; not that they need training in running, for that comes to them as naturally as swimming to the duck; but only that they practise kicking the ball and try the ground.