The high plateau of the Sierra Madre for a couple of hundred miles southward is not difficult to follow.  Most of it is hilly and clad in oaks and pines; but there are also extensive tracts of fine arable land, partly under cultivation, and fairly good tracks connect the solitary villages and ranches scattered over the district.  The country of the aborigines has been invaded and most of the descendants of the former sovereigns of the realm have been reduced to earning a precarious living by working for the white and mixed-breed usurpers on their ranches or in their mines.  The native language, religious customs, and dress are being modified gradually in accordance with the new regime.  Only in the less desirable localities have the Tarahumares been able to hold their own against the conquerors.

There is not much interest attached to the study of half-civilised natives, but the first pure-blooded Tarahumares I met on their little ranch about ten miles south of Temosachic were distinctly Indian and very different from the ordinary Mexican family.  There was a kind of noble bearing and reserve about them which even the long contact with condescending whites and half-breeds had not been able to destroy.  The father of the family, who, by the way, was very deaf, was a man of some importance among the native ranchers here.  When I approached the house, mother and daughter were combing each other’s hair, and did not allow themselves to be disturbed by my arrival.  The younger woman wore her long glossy tresses plaited in Mexican fashion.  She evidently was in robust health and had well-moulded, shapely arms and an attractive face, with an eagle nose.  She was beautiful, but I could not help thinking how much better she would have looked in her native costume.

On the road we had several times overtaken donkey-trains carrying corn to the mines of Pinos Altos.  In the small Rio Verde we caught three kinds of fish:  suckers, catfish, and Gila trout, which grow from one to three feet long, and, according to Tarahumare belief, change into otters when they are old.

The name of the village of Tosanachic is a Spanish corruption of the Tarahumare Rosanachic, which means “Where there is White,” and alludes to a number of white rocks or cliffs of solidified volcanic ash, which rise to a height of some fifty feet and give to the little valley quite a striking appearance.  There are caves in these rocks, and three poor families of Pima Indians lived in some of them.

In the village we noticed the first Tarahumare plough, the share of which was made of a section of oak.  In its general appearance it is an imitation of the ordinary Mexican plough, in other words, is simply a tree stem with a branch as a handle.  But, however primitive in design and construction, the civilised man’s implement always has an iron share.  Of course, such among the Tarahumares as can afford iron shares, never fail to get them; but in several