wing each other all the time.

In a dance called cuvali, which is found still further south, the
movements are the same as in the dance just mentioned, but the steps
are different. It is danced for the same reason as rutuburi is, and
it makes the grass and the fungi grow and the deer and the rabbits
multiply. This is the only dance known to the Tepehuanes.

In the winter they dance for snow, a dance called yohe; and finally
there is a dance called ayena, which calls the clouds from the north
and south that they may clash and produce rain.

I was present at feasts in which four of these dances were performed,
and the order in which they followed each other was: Rutuburi, yumari,
valixiwami, cuvali.

According to one version of the tradition, both yumari and rutuburi
were once men who taught the Tarahumares to dance and sing. They live
with Father Sun. Valixiwami and cuvali were also men and companions
of the former, but much younger.

At certain feasts for the benefit of the moon, three cigarettes are
offered under the cross. The shaman takes one of them, gives a puff,
raising the cigarette at the same time upward toward the moon and
saying: "Sua" (rise) "vami" (yonder) "repa" (upward). This is repeated
three times. The master of the house and his wife do the same. The
ceremony is performed in order to help the moon to make clouds. Now
all present may smoke. The Tarahumare never smokes in the middle of
the day; he would offend the sun by so doing. He indulges in the
"weed" mostly at feasts when drunk. When an Indian offers another
man tobacco and a dry corn-leaf to roll his cigarette it is a sign
that everything is well between them.

Every year between March and May a large performance takes place on a
special patio in the woods. Its purpose is to cure or prevent disease,
and much tesvino is consumed. A straw-man, about two feet high, dressed
in cotton drawers, and with a handkerchief tied around its head is
set up next to the cross. It represents Father Sun, and the cross
is his wife, the Moon. Sometimes a stuffed recamuchi (cacomistle,
_bassariscus_) is used either in the place of a straw-man or in
addition to it. After the feast is over, the manikin is taken to
the place from which the straw was obtained, in order to make the
grass grow. The Christian Tarahumares keep it in the sacristy of
their church.

The latter also celebrate Christmas, and on this occasion some of
them, the so-called _matachines_, paint