erved
them in earthenware bowls with a couple of tortillas (corn cakes). In
another vessel, which they passed around among us, they offered
the flavouring, coarse salt and some small chile (Spanish peppers),
which vegetable is cultivated and much relished by the Tarahumares.

But the most interesting dish was iskiate, which I now tasted for the
first time. It is made from toasted corn, which is mixed with water
while being ground on the metate until it assumes the consistency
of a thick soup. Owing to certain fresh herbs that are often added
to the corn, it may be of a greenish color, but it is always cool
and tempting. After having tramped for several days over many miles
of exceedingly rough country, I arrived late one afternoon at a cave
where a woman was just making this drink. I was very tired and at a
loss how to climb the mountain-side to my camp, some 2,000 feet above;
but after having satisfied my hunger and thirst with some iskiate,
offered by the hospitable Indians, I at once felt new strength,
and, to my own astonishment, climbed the great height without
much effort. After this I always found iskiate a friend in need, so
strengthening and refreshing that I may almost claim it as a discovery,
interesting to mountain climbers and others exposed to great physical
exertions. The preparation does not, however, agree with a sedentary
life, as it is rather indigestible.

The dress of the Tarahumare is always very scanty, even where he
comes in contact with the whites. One may see the Indians in the
mining camps, and even in the streets of the city of Chihuahua,
walking about naked, except for a breech-cloth of coarse, home-spun
woollen material, held up around the waist with a girdle woven in
characteristic designs. Some may supplement this national costume
with a tunic, or short poncho; and it is only right to add that most
of the men are provided with well-made blankets, which their women
weave for them, and in which they wrap themselves when they go to
feasts and dances. The hair, when not worn loose, is held together
with a home-woven ribbon, or a piece of cotton cloth rolled into a
band; or with a strip of palm leaf. Often men and women gather the
hair in the back of the head, and men may also make a braid of it.

The women's toilet is just as simple. A scrimpy woollen skirt is
tied around the waist with a girdle, and over the shoulders is worn
a short tunic, with which, however, many dispense when at home