CHAPTER XI.
A Priest and His Family Make the Wilderness Comfortable for Us--Ancient Remains Similar to those Seen in Sonora--The Climate of the Sierra--Flora and Fauna--Tarahumare Agriculture--Ceremonies Connected with the Planting of Corn--Deterioration of Domestic Animals--Native Dogs of Mexico.
Called on the padre and found him to be a very social, nice, energetic-looking person with a tinge of the "red man" in his veins.
He complained to me that the Indians were lazy about coming to mass.

None of them paid taxes, and there was no way of forcing them.

Nearly all of them he considered heathens, and only about a thousand came to the feasts.

They arrive in the village on the evening before, and hear vespers.

Then they give themselves up to drinking, and on the feast day proper are not in a condition to go to church.
He thinks there are some great men among the Tarahumares, but that, their mental faculties being entirely uncultivated, they are, as it were, rough diamonds.