The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-15

before he can be assimiiated by the new coadftlous,
 The Tepehuanes are more impressiona- bae and impulsive than the Tarahumares. loes unsophisticated and more sensitive to r1dtcule. They keep up their religious rites. but in secret and furttvely. They live in log calfns with the corners noton- cd toEsther. They grow corn In plenty, and keep 1t in stcrehouses- Drsnkng mescal and pulQue is their only amnse- ment, as they have no games. Among the southern tribes marriage customs are so strict that many young people can hardly be induced to undergo them I'm prisonment Is sometimes meted out to young people found talking together, ana if love proves to be their topic, they may be whipped and married out of hand. Tn the town of Lajas the arrival or the priest is the signal for arresting all en- gagged persons and keeping them In Jaal until he may perform the marriage cere- mony. qn contrast with this strange Jum- 0le of native simplicity and imported dls- torted artificial regulation, the Hulchols' occupying an inaccessible mountainous territory forty-ave miles long and twenty five wide. have maintained their priml- tive barbarism through the reign Of Mon tezuma and the Spanish conquest down to the present day. They are cunning, not too honest, hospitable proud ana not particularly inclined to fight. Unlike the Tarahumares, they have developed fondness for money, and. though reli- gious, look to their local interests there- in, showing very little solidarity among the divisions of the tribes. In their arts they have a highly developed innate sense of the beautiful in conventional design, which Is always controlled by religious symbolism. As for their contact with the white man, Dr. Lumholtz thinks that so far as it has affected them 1t has been greatly to their advantage.
 The Tarascos, an upright and coura- seous race in themselves, are quick to adopt the bad traits of civilization. They are by nature more choleric, more quickly moved by anger, than the other tribes. Intelligent and industrious, they have considerable commercial instinct and are apt to become small merchants, carrying heavy packs on their shoulders long dist ances for modest gain. Their dislike Of foreigners Is intense, trait which oo- casioned the author no little trouble Tn gaining their confidence In the short time he was able to remain in their country.
 To gather trustworthy facts about primitive people. whose methods or thought and spiritual sanctions are ai- ways difficult for a more advanced race to understand, no better process can ees- fly be conceived than withdrawing into their own environment quietly and sym pathetically and living among them, so far as they can be induced to allow It. It Is slow work. requiring training and equipment Disappointment and large measure of failure and omission are in- evttable. But the results of such study as this, of a people that is fast disap- bearing before a transposed European race or being slowly assimilated into 1t, Is an important contribution to scientific information, and this popular record is of obvious value. The advance of the newer arrivals makes year by year slowly but surely for an obnteration of the traces of the older civilization, and renders the recognition of the automatic counter con- quest more difficult.
 The Indians influence upon the Mexi- can nation and it's destiny has been and always will be profound. Mexico un- doubtedly benefits by the inoculation of aboriginal strength and thought. The Indian has impregnated the newcomers with his religious fervor and has made them more devout Catholics than the Spaniards are, though he has also taught them many pagan supersidons, espe- cially in regard to sorcery. Into the character of the people have been in fused certain honesty of mind and de- votion to duty. The Indian mode of liv- ing and cooking is adhered to through out the land, though the architecture of the dwellings,, where not Indian, is Moro Iberian. To the literature of Spanish America the native mind has brought its peculiar originality, and its inclination toward the unsophisticated fact. The Spanish language of Mexico has been en- riched by many Words of Indian origin.
 The abundant illustrations in these vol umes embrace careful reproductions in color decorated work. The photographs and drawings from them take on an add ed interest when one reads how extreme ly difficult the use of the camera was made by the dread rumors that preceded 1t from pueblo to pueblo, and how the instrument was credited wth the power of bringing down the much desired rain