The flowers of the maize are dried in the sun, ground and mixed with water; if not required for immediate consumption they are put in jars and kept for the winter.  Many herbs are very palatable, as, for instance, the makvasari (of the Crucifercae), which is also kept for winter use after having been properly dried.  In the autumn the Indians sometimes eat potatoes, which, when cultivated at all, are planted between the corn, but grow no larger than pigeon eggs.  The people eat three kinds of fungi, and they have an extensive knowledge of the poisonous ones.  Salt and chile are used as relishes.

A peculiar delicacy is ari, the secretion of a scale insect, carteria mexcicana.  In the months of July and August it is gathered from the branches of certain trees in the barrancas, rolled by hand into thick brown sticks, and thus preserved for the winter.  A small portion is boiled in water and eaten as a sauce with the corn porridge.  Its taste is sweetish acid, not particularly pleasant to the palate, but very refreshing in effect, and it is said to be efficacious in allaying fever.  The Indians prize it highly, and the Mexicans also buy it.

Just a few miles before reaching Guachochic, one passes the pueblo of Tonachic, from whence the Indians have been more or less driven off by the whites.  In missionary times the village appears to have been of some importance, to judge from the church, which is quite pretty, considering its location in the middle of the sierra.  In the sacristy I saw lying about three empty cases, but the silver crucifixes and chalices they once contained had been carried off by Mexican thieves.  The man in charge of the building showed me three immense drawers full of gold- and silver-embroidered silken robes of exquisite fineness and great variety.  There were at least several dozens of them.

The altar-piece was arranged and painted very tastefully in red and gold.  Several oil paintings were hanging in the church, but so darkened by the hand of time that it was impossible to make out whether they were of any artistic merit.  Wonderful men those early missionaries, who brought such valuables into this wilderness, over hundreds and thousands of miles, on the backs of mules or Indians.  It was rather anomalous to see the poor, naked Indians outside the door, for whose benefit all this had been done.  A woman was sweeping away the dirt from the swarms of bats that nested in the ceiling.

The richest and most prominent man in the village enjoyed the reputation of being a great ladron.  When I called on him I found him in bed suffering from a tooth-ache.  He had his head wrapped up and was completely unnerved, and many people came to sympathise with him in his affliction.  When I told him that I liked the Tarahumares, he answered, “Well, take them with you, every one of them.”  All he cared for was their land, and he had already acquired a considerable portion of it.  His wife was the only person in the village who knew how to recite the prayers in the church.  This made the husband feel proud of her, and he evidently considered her piety great enough to suffice for the family.