CHAPTER VIII.
The Houses of the Tarahumares--American Cave-dwellings of To-day--Frequent Changes of Abode by the Tarahumare--The Patio or Dancing Place--The Original Cross of America--Tarahumare Storehouses.
The houses we saw on this excursion were of remarkable uniformity, and as the people have had very little, if any, contact with the whites, it is reasonable to infer that these structures are original with them.

On a sloping mesa six families were living in such buildings not far from one another.
These houses have a frame of four forked poles, planted firmly into the ground, to form a square or rectangle.

Two joists are laid over them parallel to each other.

Under one of them, in the front of the house, is the doorway.

The joists support the fiat roof of loose pine boards, laid sometimes in a double layer.