Tarahumares. There are few days in the year when a man has not a game
of some kind to play. Even when they become civilised and demoralised,
in spite of their depression and poverty this passion of theirs still
clings to them. While it is true that there is always something of
value, however insignificant, put at stake, their gambling spirit
is not vicious. They have some curious practices in their play: when
going to run a race, or when intending to play _cuatro_ or _quinze_,
they do not eat chile. Where holes in the ground are required for a
game, as in cuatro and quinze, they are generally made in the level
space on a rock.

Very common is it to see two young men amusing themselves with
shooting-matches, shooting arrows at an arrow which has been
shot out into the ground some fifty yards off as a mark. This
arrow, as well as the game itself, is called in Mexican Spanish
_lechuguilla_. In Tarahumare the game is called chogirali, and the
target-arrow chogira. The arrow coming nearest the chogira counts
one point; and if it comes within four fingers' width of the aim,
it counts four. The game is for twelve points. The distance is not
measured from the points of the arrows, but from the winged parts,
one man measuring for all. If a shot arrow strikes so as to form a
cross with the chogira, it counts four. If it only touches the point
of the latter in the ground it counts two. If two arrows happen to
form crosses, neither counts.

Instead of arrows, three sticks may be employed. One is thrown
out at a distance and is the chogira, and the other two sticks are
thrown toward it, and count in a similar way as the arrows. Often
while travelling, the Tarahumares play this game, in either form,
as they go along the road, perhaps for the entire distance. Two and
three pairs may play together.

There is also a game very similar to quoits, played with stone disks,
fiat on one side and convex on the other. It is called rixiwatali
(rixiwala = disk), and two and two play against each other. First one
stone is moistened with spittle on one side to make it "heads or tails"
and tossed up. The player who wins the toss plays first. Each has
three stones, which are thrown toward a hole in the ground, perhaps
twenty yards off. One of each party throws first, then goes to the
hole and looks at it, while the other players make their throws. The
stone falling nearest to the hole counts one point; if it falls into
the hole, it counts four;