However, it must not be thought that all my troubles were ended yet.  The Indians are very clannish, and, although my damaged prestige was now almost restored, and, no doubt, favourable rumours heralded me wherever I went, still the good-will of each district had in a way to be won.  Many months later, when I found myself among the pagans farther south, I was interpellated quite persistently on the subject of the skulls in Yoquibo.  They wanted to know why I had dug them up.  My Mexican interpreter, whom they took to task on the subject, advanced an explanation, which was no doubt strictly in accordance with his best knowledge and belief.  He declared that my object had been to find out whether those people had been properly baptised—­a reason which apparently perfectly satisfied the Indians.

I travelled in a southeasterly direction, making my way back to Guachochic, over the highlands of Humarisa (humashi = to run).  This locality is of considerable elevation, with the Indian ranches lying about here and there on strips of level land, which run in among the rocky hills like fjords.  Bears are quite common here, and the Indians have difficulty in guarding their fields against them.  They are not even to be frightened by stones, and at night they will eat corn until they have enough, and then walk away.

The time of the year in which it is most difficult for the Indians to subsist had passed, and the copious rains of the past months had developed ears of corn.  Rarely or never do the Indians plant corn enough to last them all the year round, and they have, therefore, during the summer to depend for support mainly on herbs, roots, fruits, etc.  The leaves and flowers of the ash-tree are cooked and eaten, and the flowers of the pine-tree.  They never suffer from hunger when living near a river, where they can fish, but in the highlands they have been known to die of starvation.

These natives are fonder of corn than of any other food, and when working for the whites would leave without a word if no more corn or flour were forthcoming.  They like, too, to have meat every day, though they cannot always get it.  They rarely, if ever, kill any of their domestic animals for food, as, according to their views, man is only the manager for the gods to whom these creatures really belong, and cows, sheep, and the like can be killed only as sacrifices and eaten at the feasts.  But any kind of animal in the forest and field, in the air and the water, is acceptable.  I once asked a strong and healthy-looking Indian how he managed to keep in such good condition, when food was so scarce, and he said that he ate meat, “What kind of meat?” I asked, and he replied, “Mice, gophers, and small birds.”  Their favourite meat, however, is deer, mice, and skunks.

Chunks of meat are simply laid upon the coals to roast, or turned before the fire on a wooden spit, the ends of which rest on stones.  This, by the way, is the universal method of cooking meat in Mexico.  These Indians often eat their meat almost raw, nor have they any repugnance to blood, but boil and eat it.  Fish and frogs are broiled by being placed between two thin sticks tied together at the ends to do duty as a gridiron.