Indians of North America -- Religion; Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies; Peyotism
[47] The Tarahumari rasp is definitely associated with peyotism,
indicating (Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 71) a Huichol
provenience; but they list rasps for the Cora, Mayo, Pima (“rain
sticks”), Hopi (in the kachina dance) and N. Paiute (to charm antelope
into a corral). The rasp is not exclusively Uto-Aztecan however;
it occurs for the Wichita, Hidatsa, Salinan, and archaeologically
in Illinois. Tarahumari Brazil-wood rasps are brought from the
hikuli-country.
[48] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:313, 363-66; Bennett and Zingg, _op.
cit._, 293; Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_.
[49] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:367-69, 371; Bennett and Zingg, _The
Tarahumara_, 293. Near Eagle Pass a folk-Catholic saint is El Santo Niño
de Jesús Peyotes, whose attributes are a staff, gourd, feathered hat and
basket similar to but distinct from El Santo Niño de Atoche. In Mexican
legend he is a little boy; his statue is in the cathedral or cathedral
square at Rosales, Mexico. Another attribute is said to be the crescent
moon.
[50] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:292-93, 314, 344, 347-48, 371-72, 384;
Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294. The ceremony is called napítshi
nawlíruga, “moving (dancing) around the fire” (Lumholtz, _Unknown
Mexico_, 1:364). In the dry season the Tarahumari dance the yumari
almost nightly to the Morning Star, and sacrifice tesvino to the sun; a
man is often deputed to do the dance alone while the others work in the
fields, to bring rain (Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:352). The Morning Star
is important in the Cora rite too (Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:344; Preuss,
_Nayarit-Expedition_, _passim_) as well as figuring in Plains peyotism,
though somewhat vaguely.
[51] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:357-58, 444; Bennett and Zingg, _The
Tarahumara_, 360, 366-67, 379, 383.
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