18 BtJEEAU OF AMERTCAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 42 



The climate is dry and warm. The summers are very hot, the 

 mercury reaching, on some days, as high as 118° F. The nights 

 during this season are warm, necessitating sleeping in the open. 

 The winters are usually dry, delightful in the daytime and cool at 

 night, without snow or frosts. In February and March and occa- 

 sionally during the summer there are showers, })ut these are seldom 

 heavy. 



As to civilization, these people are in the transitional period. 

 While clinging to their old habits, and living largely as they did 

 before the advent of the white man, they nevertheless wear clothing 

 similar to his, buy his household utensils, bedding, etc., possess 

 horses and wagons, and follow him in other particulars. Their 

 dwellings (pis. 18-22) are mostly large, well-made shelters, open on 

 all sides, a mere frame of cottonwood posts and poles, supporting a 

 roof of brush. In addition to these, a number of families have fairly 

 substantial brush-adobe houses, used chiefly in the colder weather. 

 All of the Mohave dwellings have floors of earth or sand. In the 

 open shelters the warm, soft sand, when cleaned from all large par- 

 ticles by sifting, is suitably hollowed and usetl for a bed, particularly 

 by the old people. It is also the playground of the little children. 

 Yet this sand is at the same time the receptacle of remnants of food, 

 of the expectorations of sick and well alike, and of filth from the 

 chickens, all of which look diseased. 



As already mentioned, the Mohave dress quite similarly to the 

 whites. The calico dresses of the women are, however, of their own 

 picturesque design, and moccasins are worn by the older people. 

 Durins: the summer voung children and old men are often seen nude. 



The Mohave men have no steady occupation. They make small 

 plantings of corn, beans, and melons on a few clearings near the river 

 and work at times on the irrigating ditch operated by the Government. 

 So far, however, neither the farming nor the irrigation has proven 

 very successful. Rabbits, quail, large mice, and occasionally water- 

 fowl are hunted to some extent, and the families living nearest the 

 river catch some fish. When opportunity offers, the able-bodied men 

 work for the whites, but the occasions are not common. 



In addition to doing housework, the women collect large supplies of 

 native foods in season, particularly the mesquite beans and screw 

 beans. They gather also young cactus leaves, cactus fruits, and nu- 

 merous native seeds. The older women, in addition, make consider- 

 able beadwork for sale to the whites. 



The diet of the Mohave consists of the abov(vmentioned native and 

 cultivated articles, also of fish, meat, and wheat tortillas, together 

 with crackers and canned fruits, which are purchased from the store. 

 Mesquite beans and screw beans are collected in large quantities, cured 



