Jose H. Arroyos,

    General.

    To Mr. Picturemaker.

Taking my Mexican attendant with me, I walked over to the place where some twenty Indians and several Mexicans had assembled.  The scheming instigator of the trouble had brought his rifle with him, to give weight to his words; but the Mexican judge was on my side, and after he had read my letters from the Government, he made a speech in which he convinced the people that they must obey the authorities.  The Tepehuanes soon saw the force of his argument, and the defeated agitator slunk away.  The outcome of the dispute was that the Indians expressed their regret that there were not more of them present for me to photograph; if I desired, they would send for more of their tribe to come and pose before the camera.

Around Nabogame grows a plant called maizillo, or maizmillo.  It is more slender than the ordinary corn-plant and the ears are very small.  It grows among the corn and has to be weeded out, as it injures the good plants.  However, several Mexicans assured me that, when cultivated, the ears develop.  After three years they grow considerably larger and may be used as food.  A man in Cerro Prieto raises this kind only; others mix it with the ordinary corn.  I was told that people from the Hot Country come to gather it, each taking away about one almud to mix with their seed corn.  The combination is said to give splendid results in fertile soil.

Can this possibly be the original wild plant from which the ordinary Indian corn has been cultivated?  If the information I received about it in Mexquitic, State of Jalisco, is correct, then this question must be answered negatively, because my informant there stated that the plant is triennial.  In that locality it is called maiz de pajaro, and it is cultivated as a substitute for the ordinary corn, or for use in making atole.  The Huichol Indians also know it and raise it; they call it tats.

For about a month I stopped at Mesa de Milpillas, which is a fertile high plateau.  The country is now almost open, yet magnificent pines still remain, and Cerro de Muinora stands guard to the south.  This is the stronghold of the northern Tepehuanes.

I then descended toward the west to the village of Cinco Llagas, and found the Tepehuanes there pure-bred, although speaking Spanish.  Ascending again to the sierra over the mining camp of San Jose, I arrived in Baborigame (Tepehuane, Vawulile = “where there is a large fig-tree").  The pueblo is finely situated on a llano one mile and a half in diameter, and surrounded by pretty hills.  I took up my abode in a Tepehuane shanty in the neighbourhood of the village.  The owner asked for the rent in advance, and for the amount of fifty centavos Mr. Hartman and I secured the right of occupancy, without time limit.  I stayed there from March 31st to April 30th.  There are a couple of Mexican stores at Baborigame, and the village is more Mexican than Indian.  The Tepehuanes live on their ranches, and come in only on festive occasions, to mingle with their “neighbours,” as the Mexicans are designated by the Indians in all parts of Mexico.