410 ETHNOLOGY. 



In course of time a womau ascended this throne, She was very beau- 

 tiful, and many of the warriors adored her, but she refused all offers of 

 marriage, and seemed to be fond of no one except a pet eagle which 

 lived in her house. The rejected suitors, jealous of the eagle, deter- 

 mined to kill him, but he, a wise bird, discovered their intentions, said 

 farewell to his mistress, and flew away toward the rising of the sun, 

 threatening destruction to those who had contemplated to take his life. 



At the death of the queen, who married after the departure of the 

 eagle, the government of the nation fell to her son, who was but a child 

 in years, and weak and incapable. During the reign of this boy the 

 eagle returned, conducting the Spaniards to his former home. These 

 came, well armed and some mounted on horses, which before this time 

 had been unknown to the Pimas. 



The Spaniards approached in three strong columns ; one marched 

 down the Gila Eiver, one came from the north, and the third one from 

 the south. These armies of strange white men terrified the Pimas, who, 

 without competent leader and good arms, were soon defeated. The 

 enemy devastated the whole country, killed most of the inhabitants, 

 and leveled their fine buildings to the ground. The throne of the king 

 was broken into small pieces, and the birds of the air came and swal- 

 lowed the small blue stones, which, afterward, they spit out wherever 

 they happened to be. This, say the Pimas, accounts for the fact that 

 these blue stones are found but rarely and in very difierent localities 

 now. (Stones of this kind are highly prized by the Pimas, and worn as 

 charms.) But few of the Pimas escaped the general massacre, and hid 

 themselves in the neighboring mountains, whence they returned to the 

 valley after the departure of the Spaniards. They found all their wealth 

 destroyed, their towns in ruins, their fields devastated, their friends and 

 relatives slain or carried off by the enemy, and the survivors were in 

 despair. Some few, hoping to be able to liberate some of their kindred 

 who had been captured, followed the white men toward the south and 

 finally settled in Sonora, where their descendants live to this day. The 

 others remained in the Salt Eiver Valley, increased in numbers, and 

 again tilled the soil. But the Apaches, always bitter enemies of the 

 Pimas, took advantage of the situation, and encroached upon their fields 

 to such an extent that the Pimas finally returned to the Gila Eiver Val- 

 ley, where they still live. They never reerected the stately mansions 

 of their forefathers, but, humbled by defeat, were content to live in the 

 lowly huts which are occupied by the Pimas of the present day. Their 

 women were virtuous and strong, and in the lapse of time numerous 

 children were born ; the tribe increased in numbers, and, not many years 

 after their defeat by the Spaniards, the Pimas were strong enough to 

 cope with the Apaches, against whom they have carried on a bitter war- 

 fare ever since. At one time they were very poor indeed. Owing to 

 the poverty of the tribe, their leaders never returned to the luxurious 

 style of living of the former kings. They wei;^ simply called " chiefs," 



