Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 | Page 3

engineer and photographer, and Mr. A. E.
Meade, mineralogist and zoological collector.
This time we came upon Cave-Dwellers. The Tarahumare Indians of
the Sierra Madre, one of the least known among the Mexican tribes,
live in caves to such an extent that they may properly be termed the
American Cave-Dwellers of to-day. I determined to study these
interesting people, especially the so-called gentiles [1] (pagans), and as
this was not practical, even with the present reduced size of the
expedition, I gradually disbanded the entire company and at last
remained alone.
By selling most of my animals, and a large part of my outfit, and
through the untiring efforts of two American ladies, whose friendship I
highly esteem, I was enabled to continue my researches alone until
August, 1893, when I took my Tarahumare and Tepehuane collections
to Chicago and exhibited them at the World's Fair. Extensive
vocabularies of the Tarahumare and Tepehuane languages, as well as a
vocabulary of the now almost extinct Tubares, were among the results
of this expedition, besides anthropological measurements, samples of
hair and osseous remains.
The great possibilities Mexico offers to ethnology proved an irresistible
incentive to new researches, and seeing the results of my previous
expeditions, the American Museum of Natural History of New York
again sent me out on what was to be my third and most extensive
Mexican expedition, which lasted from March, 1894, to March, 1897.
During these three years I again travelled alone, that is, without any
scientific assistants, at first with two or three Mexicans. Soon, however,
I found that my best companions were the so-called civilised Indians,
or even Indians in their aboriginal state, who not only helped me by
their mere presence to win the confidence of their tribesmen but also
served me as subjects of observation. As before, I stopped for months
with a tribe, discharging all alien attendants, and roughing it with the

Indians. In this way I spent in all a year and a half among the
Tarahumares, and ten months among the Coras and Huichols. At first
the natives persistently opposed me; they are very distrustful of the
white man, and no wonder, since he has left them little yet to lose. But I
managed to make my entry and gradually to gain their confidence and
friendship, mainly through my ability to sing their native songs, and by
always treating them justly.
Thus I gained a knowledge of these peoples which could have been
procured in no other way. When after five or six months of such
sojourns and travel my stock of "civilised" provisions would give out, I
subsisted on what I could procure from the Indians. Game is hard to get
in Mexico, and one's larder cannot depend on one's gun. As in Australia,
my favourite drink was hot water with honey, which, besides being
refreshing, gave a relish to a monotonous diet.
All along my route I gathered highly valuable material from the
Tarahumares, the Northern and the Southern Tepehuanes, the Coras,
the Huichols, and the Tepecanos, all of which tribes except the last
named dwell within the Sierra Madre del Norte; also from the Nahuas
on the western slopes of the sierra, as well as from those in the States of
Jalisco and Mexico; and, finally, from the Tarascos in the State of
Michoacan. Of most of these tribes little more than their names were
known, and I brought back large collections illustrating their ethnical
and anthropological status, besides extensive information in regard to
their customs, religion, traditions, and myths. I also completed my
collection of vocabularies and aboriginal melodies. On my journey
through the Tierra Caliente of the Territory of Tepic, and the States of
Jalisco and Michoacan, I also obtained a number of archaeological
objects of great historical value and importance.
In 1898 I made my last expedition to Mexico under the same auspices,
staying there for four months. On this trip I was accompanied by
Dr. Ales Hrdlicka. I revisited the Tarahumares and Huichols in order to
supplement the material in hand and to settle doubtful points that had
come up in working out my notes. Sixty melodies from these tribes
were recorded on the graphophone.

Thus from 1890 to 1898 I spent fully five years in field researches
among the natives of northwestern Mexico. The material was collected
with a view to shedding light upon the relations between the ancient
culture of the valley of Mexico and the Pueblo Indians in the southwest
of the United States; to give an insight into the ethnical status of the
Mexican Indians now and at the time of the conquest, and to illuminate
certain phases in the development of the human race.
So far the results of my expeditions to Mexico have been made public
in the following literature: