Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/202

166 is entirely limited to their carrying capacity, which is, indeed, considerable.

The Tarascan women are cleanly and tidy, but the men wash only once a year, and are generally unkempt and shaggy. Their principal food is corn and cooked herbs, and they infuse a kind of tea from the leaf of a bush called murite, which aids digestion and acts as a nerve-tonic. The people are blessed with wonderful health for the most part, but the climate induces pulmonary complaints, and jaundice is prevalent. They are very superstitious regarding illness, and frequently placate its various manifestations by soothing language and the burning of incense, addressing it as "Father." But should it prove fatal, they abuse it foully, and beat the air of their houses in order to expel it. This practice is, of course, a remnant of old magico-religious practice. The Tarascans were, until recently, rather given to robbery and brigandage, but the bands of plunderers who infested their country have been wiped out. As a race, they are possessed of wild and ungovernable tempers, but are kind and hospitable among themselves. They are born orators, and many of the distinguished priests which Mexico has produced originated among this people.

Some of the aboriginal tribes of Mexico still exist in a savage or semi-barbarous condition. The Coras, resident in the Pacific State of Tepic, are, many of them, pagans or semi-pagans, suspicious through isolation and difficult to understand. They are a comparatively pure stock, and discountenance intermarriage with Mexicans or even with other Indians. However, they dress like Mexicans, but there the resemblance ends. They are typically Indian in physiognomy, and their chief industry is making ornamental pouches of cotton and wool, which in pattern recall the bead-work of the North American Indians. With them, provisions are plentiful, and life is easy and tranquil. Their houses are built of stone. Their religion takes the form of ritualistic dances, the worship of the morning star, and frequent fasts.