This is the musical bow of America, which is here met with for the first time.  It is intimately connected with the religious rites of this tribe, as well as with those of the Coras and the Huichols, the latter playing it with two arrows.  The assertion has been made that the musical bow is not indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, but was introduced by African slaves.  Without placing undue importance on the fact that negroes are very rarely, if at all, found in the north-western part of Mexico, it seems entirely beyond the range of possibility that a foreign implement could have become of such paramount importance in the religious system of several tribes.  Moreover, this opinion is confirmed by Mr. R. B. Dixon’s discovery, in 1900, of a musical bow among the Maidu Indians on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, northeast of San Francisco, California.  In the religion of that tribe also this bow plays an important part, and much secrecy is connected with it.

The shaman’s song sounded very different from the songs I had heard among the Tarahumares.  As his seat was high, he had to maintain a stooping position all the time he played.  The dancers, men and women, made much noise by stamping their fiat soles vigorously on the ground, as they moved in double column around the fire and the shaman, in a kind of two-step-walk forward.  They danced in a direction against the apparent movement of the sun, the men leading, the women following.  I noticed that the step of the women was slightly different from that of the men, inasmuch as they lifted themselves on their toes at each step.  At times the columns would suddenly stop and make the same kind of movements backward for a little while, with the same small jumps or skips as when walking forward.  After a few seconds they would again go forward.  These movements are directed by the leader, the man who dances first.

Both men and women wore flowers, the former fastening them to their straw hats, the latter in their hair with the stem behind the ear.  The flowers were apparently selected according to individual taste, but the kind I saw most frequently was a white blossom called corpus, the delicious fragrance of which I noticed every time the women danced by.  Two boys had a peculiar kind of white flower fastened with a handkerchief tied around their heads.  It is called clavillinos, and looks like thick, white hair.  The shaman wore a narrow hair-ribbon, but no flower.  Around their ankles the men had wound strings of dried empty pods of a certain palm, which made a rattling noise during the dancing.  Five times during the night, ears of corn and plumes were brought from the altar, and then the men always removed their hats.  The women wore veils (rebosos), but it is considered improper for them to use sandals on such occasions; these are worn only by the men.

There were five pauses made in the course of the night, and, to prepare the people for them, the shaman each time began to strike more slowly.  The dancers continued until they arrived in front of the altar, where they commenced to jump up and down on the same spot, but with increasing rapidity, until the music stopped, when they separated and lay down.