LITTLE REGARDED WILD FRUITS 



the height of sixty feet and tipped in spring with 

 numerous creamy, pink flowers. The fruit com- 

 monly goes by its Mexican name, pitahaya. It 

 ripens in June and July, and somewhat resembles 

 the tuna in form, with a juicy, seedy, crimson pulp. 

 To civilized tastes, the fresh fruit is rather mawkish, 

 less sweet than that of the related pitahaya dulce, 

 which is common on the Mexican side of the border 

 and is borne by Cereus Thurberi, Engelm. Never- 

 theless the Arizona pitahaya is of considerable food 

 value and highly relished by the Indians of the 

 region, particularly the older generation of Papagos, 

 who make a festival of the opening of the pitahaya 

 harvest, dating their new year from that event, and 

 used to intoxicate themselves as a religious duty 

 upon a sort of wine that they made for the occasion 

 from the fermented first fruits. 



The pitahayas are gathered with a twenty-foot 

 pole, made of the rod-like ribs of some dead sahuaro 

 lashed together and having a hook affixed to the tip, 

 with which the fruit is dislodged. Such part of the 

 crop as is not consumed raw is boiled down, as in the 

 case of the tuna, the seeds removed, and then boiled 

 again until the mass is reduced to a syrup. This is 

 of a clear, light brown color, and pleasantly sweet, 



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