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