Though this is the only ancient cave-dwelling I visited in Ohuivo, I was assured that there were several others in the neighbourhood.  The broken country around Zapuri is interesting on account of the various traditions which, still living on the lips of the natives, refer to a mysterious people called the Cocoyomes, regarded by some Tarahumares as their ancient enemies, by others as their ancestors.  They were the first people in the world, were short of stature and did not eat corn.  They subsisted mainly on herbs, especially a small agave called tshawi.  They were also cannibals, devouring each other as well as the Tarahumares.  The Cocoyomes lived in caves on the high cliffs of the sierra, and in the afternoon came down, like deer, to drink in the rivers.  As they had no axes of iron they could not cut any large trees, and were unable to clear much land for the planting of corn.  They could only burn the grass in the arroyos in order to get the fields ready.  Long ago, when the Cocoyomes were very bad, the sun came down to the earth and burned nearly all of them; only a few escaped into the big caves.

Here in Zapuri the Cocoyomes had four large caves inside of which they had built square houses of very hard adobe; in one of the caves they had a spring.  The Tarahumares often fought with them, and once, when the Cocoyomes were together in the largest cave, which had no spring, the Tarahumares besieged them for eight days, until all of the Cocoyomes had perished from hunger.  From such an event the name of Zapuri may have been derived.  Intelligent Mexicans, whom I consulted, agree that it means “fight” or “contest” (Spanish, desafio).

From a place called Tuaripa, some thirty miles farther south, near the border of the Tepehuane country, and in the same mountainous region, I have the following legend, about the Cocoyomes and the serpents: 

Two large serpents used to ascend from the river and go up on the highlands to a little plain between Huerachic and Tuaripa, and they killed and ate the Cocoyomes, returning each time to the river.  Whenever they were hungry they used to come up again.  At last an old man brought together all the people at the place where the serpents used to ascend.  Here they dug a big hole and filled it with wood and with large stones, and made a fire and heated the stones until they became red hot.  When the serpents were seen to make their ascent on the mountain-side, the men took hold of the stones with sticks, and threw them into the big, wide-open mouths of the serpents, until the monsters were so full with stones that they burst and fell dead into the river.  Even to this day may be seen the marks on the rocks where the serpents used to ascend the mountain-side.

Once having again ascended to the highlands, I found rather level country as far as Guachochic, some forty-five miles off by the track I followed.  The name of the place signifies “blue herons,” and the fine water-course, which originates in the many springs here, was formerly the abode of many water-birds.  The locality thus designated is to-day a cluster of Mexican ranches, most of them belonging to one family.  There is an old church, but at present no independent Indians live in Guachochic; the aborigines found about the place are servants of the Mexicans.