Dear Mr. Picturemaker:
Do me the favour not to come to the pueblo to photograph, which I know is your intention. I believe the best for you to do is to go first to Baborigame, because, as far as this pueblo is concerned, I do not give permission. Therefore, you will please decide not to pass this day in this pueblo photographing.
Your obedient servant,
José H. Arroyos,
General.
To Mr. Picturemaker.
Tepehuanes from Nabogame.
Taking my Mexican attendant with me, I walked over to the place where some twenty Indians and several Mexicans had assembled. The scheming instigator of the trouble had brought his rifle with him, to give weight to his words; but the Mexican judge was on my side, and after he had read my letters from the Government, he made a speech in which he convinced the people that they must obey the authorities. The Tepehuanes soon saw the force of his argument, and the defeated agitator slunk away. The outcome of the dispute was that the Indians expressed their regret that there were not more of them present for me to photograph; if I desired, they would send for more of their tribe to come and pose before the camera.
Around Nabogame grows a plant called maizillo, or maizmillo. It is more slender than the ordinary corn-plant and the ears are very small. It grows among the corn and has to be weeded out, as it injures the good plants. However, several Mexicans assured me that, when cultivated, the ears develop. After three years they grow considerably larger and may be used as food. A man in Cerro Prieto raises this kind only; others mix it with the ordinary corn. I was told that people from the Hot Country come to gather it, each taking away about one almud to mix with their seed corn. The combination is said to give splendid results in fertile soil.