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Show BY PATH AND TRAIL. 47 parts of the Sierras. One- half of them are partially civ ilized and are peaceable, the other half continue to wage a guerrilla war in the mountainous regions. These moun taineers are men of toughened fibre, of great endurance and inured to the extremes of heat, cold, and hunger. They have no fear of anything or anybody, except the spirits of evil, which bring disease and calamities upon them, and the " shamans," or medicine men, who act as infernal mediators between these demons and their victims. Their wild, isolated and independent life has given to the Yaquis all those characteristic traits of perfect self-reliance, of boldness and impatience of restraint which distinguish them from the Mayos and other sedentary tribes of northern Mexico. Born in the mountains, they are familiar with the woods and trails. No coyote of the rocks knows his prowling grounds better than a Yaqui the secrets of the Sierra wilderness. Like the eagle, he sweeps down upon his prey from his aerie amid the clouds, and, like the eagle, disappears. His dorsal and leg muscles are withes of steel, and with his dog half coyote, half Spanish hound he'll wear down a mountain deer. With the possible excep tion of his neighbor and kinsman, the Tarahumari of the Chihuahua woods, he is, perhaps, the greatest long dis tance runner in America. Occasionally, friendly contests take place between the noted athletes of the two tribes. Six years ago a Tara humari champion challenged one of the greatest long distance rjinners of the Yaquis. In a former contest the Yaqui runner won out. He covered 100 Spanish miles, equal to 90 of ours, over hilly and broken ground, in eleven hours and twenty minutes. Comparing this per- |
