With the Tarahumare the cross is the pivot around which all his ceremonies and festivals move.  He always dances to the cross, and on certain occasions he attaches strings of beads, ears of corn, and other offerings to it.  It is used by the heathen as well as by the Christian Tarahumares.  The question is whether this tribe has changed its form since its contact with the whites or whether the cross was originally like the one in use to-day.  From many of the Tarahumares’ utterances I incline to think that their cross represents a human figure with arms outstretched, and is an embodiment of Father Sun, the Perfect Man.  When two crosses are placed on the patio, the smaller stands for the moon.  This conception also explains the custom of setting up three crosses at the principal dance, the rutuburi, the third cross representing probably the Morning Star.  Among Christianised natives the three crosses may come gradually to mean the Trinity.

On one occasion I saw a cross at least ten feet high with a cross beam only one foot long, raised next to two crosses of ordinary size, all standing on the patio of a well-to-do Indian, and the inference was easily drawn that the high cross was meant for Father Sun.  The Northern Tepehuanes say that the cross is Tata Dios, the Christianised Indian’s usual designation of God.

The impression that the cross represents a human figure gains further probability by the fact that a cross is erected on the special patio of the dead, and I have noticed that this cross is moved in the course of the ceremonies to the principal dancing place “to see the dancing and drink tesvino,” as the Indians explained it.  Surely, this cross represented the dead.

On this page are seen the front and rear view of a cross which is of great interest, although its shape is evidently an exaggerated imitation of a Catholic cross or crucifix.  I came upon it in the mountainous country east of Morelos, and the Tarahumares near the Ranch of Colorados presented it to me.  It had apparently not been made long ago, and was painted with red ochre.  The arms have been tied on in the usual fashion with a twine of fibre, the mode of fastening it appearing most distinctly on the back of the cross.

Seen from the front the designs on the head, or the uppermost part, represent the Morning Star, the dots being his companions, the other stars.  But it is significant that this constellation is also called the “eyes” of the cross.  The dots on the other side of the cross are also meant for stars, in order that, as the Indian explained to me, Tata Dios may see the stars where they are dancing; he lives in the stars—­a belief evidently arising from Catholic influence.  The human figures painted on the cross are intended to emphasise its meaning.  The most important of these human-like contours are those directly below the junction of the arms with the vertical stem.  They are evidently repetitions of the main cross, the arms being expressed in the crude carvings.  What the various pairs Of curved sidelines mean, I am unable to say.