In certain parts of the country, near Aboreachic, for instance, a dance called valixiwami is in vogue.  Here the line of the women faces that of the men, and the two rows dance backward and forward, following 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 their faces and carry on their backs stuffed animals, such as the grey fox, squirrel, or opossum, while dancing to the music of the violin.  They jokingly call the skins their muchachitos, and hold them as women carry their babies.  At present the only object is to make the beholder laugh; but of course the play is a remnant of some ancient custom, the meaning of which is now forgotten through the new associations with which the missionaries of old imbued the ceremonies and rites found among the pagans.