The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-06-01
SONORA AND The YAd bus.
Continued from Page |

Continued from rage ~
the Yaqu all things considered, Wins the laurel
crown. Plny records that Ahystrs of Sparta and
Philonedes, the herald of eEander the Great, di-
vding the distance between them covered 100 miles
in twenty four hours. HerOdo1us tell that Phied-
dippides, the panHellenic chdnplon, traversed 1875
miles very rocky Territory and In grueling
weather, in less than two dayF, carrying to Sparta
the news of the advancing PersIans. He almost
attained an apotheosis in reward for his perform
ance, showing that amo1tg the athletic Greeks
the feat deemed eXtrad PRIMARY performance.
History also credits Areus with winning the Do
lchas of two and half mllbs IN fraction less
than twelve minutes, at the lOympc games, and
straightway starting on a hdmeWard run OF sixty
miles to be the first to bear the Joyous news to his
native village. In recent time RoWel OF England,
in 1892 travelled $50 miles in TWENTY-FIVE hours and
thirty minutes and Fitzgerald, III Madison Square
| Gardens went in 1885, on quarter-mile circular
track ninety miles in twelve hours. Longboat, the
| Oneida Indian from the Branttord reservation,
Canada, won the Boston Marathon, twenty-five
miles in two hours and twenty-four minutes. These
modern feats however, were performed over care.
fully prepared courses and ought not to take rank
with the rough mountain and desert races OF the
Yaquis and Tarahumaris.
AN HISTORIC FOOTRACE.
The ract of six years ago was run over the same
course as the former and was the same distance
that is ninety miles Piles of blankets brides and
saddles punches of cows, sheep, goats and burrOs
were bet on the result, and when the was over
the Yaqui braves were bankrupt The night before
the event the Indians camped on the starting line,
and when the sun went down opened the betting.
An hour before the start, the course was lined on
each side with men two miles apart. Precisely at
in the morning the racers wearing bullhide sandals
and breech-clothes or, to be more accurate, the q
string toed the mark and sent away encour-
aged by the most extraordinary series of hl-yl-yls,
wells shrieks and cultural shouts heard by civ
ilized man. The path carried them rough
ground along the verge of deep precipices, az
royos or old river beds, across arid sands. Every
two miles the runners stopped for a half minute
rub down and mouth wash of pinola or atOle,
meal Cruel. Then with "win for the YaQuis"
''the Humari women already welcome YOU" whis
pered in his ear the runner bounds into the wilder
ness Three o'clock that afternoon the men We're
sighted from the finish line running shin to shin,
and at 3 Is the Tarahumari crossed the mark amid
chorus of triumphal yelps, retrieving the honors
lost in the former contest and making his hackers
Cheap rich" The ninety miles were run by both
men in eleven hours and fifteen minutes, and con-
sidering the nature of the ground it is doubtful If
any of our great athletes could cover the distance
in the same time.
In addition to his feetness of foot and staying
powers the Yaqui is a of infinite resources.
Years of thirst, starvation and exposure have pro-
duced human type with the qualities and deyel
oped instinct of the coyote of the desert He is
the descendant of many generations of warriors
and is heir to all the acquired information of cen
turtles of experience of bush, desert and mountain
fighting. There is not trick Of strategy, not bit
of savage tactics In war, not a@particle of knowl
edge bearing upon attack engagement and escape
with which he is not familiar for he has been
taught them all from infancy and has practiced
them from boyhood. He is the last of the Indian
fighters and, perhaps, the greatest The world will
never again like him, for the conditions
will never again make for his reproduction. With
him will disappear the perfection of savage cum
ming in and in the hunt, and when he departs,
an unlamented man, but withal picturesque char
acer will disappear from the drama of human life,
will go down into darkness, but not into oblivion.