ROBBINS, HARRINGTON 

 FKEIRE-MARRECO 



•] ETHNOBOTANY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 79 



fixed in or near the area of original domestication,^ before it came 

 into the hands of the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. On 

 the other hand, it is not impossible that the development of color- 

 varieties has been carried farther in the Pueblo area than else- 

 where. Certain conditions have furthered this process, even among 

 an uncivilized people: (1) The fact that the coat-color of the seeds 

 lends itself easil}' to observation and selection. (2) The local custom 

 of planting, not in large continuous fields, but in small isolated 

 patches of ground chosen for their soil and natural drainage. In such 

 situations favorite strains of corn would be easily kept apart; for 

 probably a half-mile interval of broken ground would protect them, 

 as a rule, from mixture by means of wind-borne pollen. This is the 

 method still followed by the Hopi and the Tewa of Hano, who have 

 no artificial irrigation except in the rare terrace gardens below 

 springs. Clans and individuals have their separate fields. Thus, at 

 Walpi the Snake clan and their connections plant in a wide sandy 

 wash, in Tewa called a ^otfuMnc^a (po, water; tfii, enter; ^?g^«, 

 field), southwest of the mesa. The Cloud clan plants southeast of the 

 mesa; some of the Fox clan plant ten miles away, near Keam's Can- 

 yon; the Tewa have a group of fields far up the wash to the north- 

 east. These are the clan fields, and they are of considerable size; 

 but individuals make their "first planting," H7nhipa''^del'o, in early 

 spring on tiny isolated flood plains made by damming- the water in 

 sheltered gullies. At Mishongnovi some of the Hopi make their 

 "first planting" in very small walled fields of sand lodged on 

 the rocky hillside. In the scattered farming settlements, or "clan 

 houses " (if we rightly suppose that such existed before the aggrega- 



wheat . . . The grain is about the bigness of our ordinary English peas and not much different in 

 form and shape; but of divers colors, some white, some red, some yellow and some blue." 



Beverley, History of Virginia (2d ed., 1722, vol. n, 125-127): "There are four sorts of Indian corn; two 

 of which are early ripe, and two, late ripe; all growing in the same manner. . . . The late ripe corn is 

 diversify' ed by the shape of the grain only, without respect to the accidental differences in colour, 

 some being blue, some red, some yellow, some white, and some streak'd. That therefore which make 

 the distinction is the plumpness or shrivelling of the grain; the one looks as smooth and as full as the 

 early ripe corn, and this they call flint-corn; the other has a larger grain, and looks shrivell'd with 

 a dent on the back of the grain, as if it had never come to perfection; and this they call she-corn." 



John Gerard, The Herball or General Historic of Plants (London, 1597; 2d edition. 1633, chap. 61): 

 " Of Turkie Come. The kindcs. Of Turkic cornes there be divers sorts, notwithstanding of one stock 

 or kindred, consisting of sundry coloured grains, wherein the difference is easy to be discerned . . . 

 The graine is of sundry colours, sometimes red, and sometimes white, and yellow, as my selve have 

 scene in myne owne garden, where it hath come to ripeness." He figures "/rumentum indicum 

 luteum, Yellow Turkey Wheat," apparently with long dented grains, " frumentum indicum rubrum, 

 Red Turkey Wheat," with small dented grains, and ''frumentum indicum carideum. Blew Turkey 

 Wheat," with full smooth grains. 



• Cf..Cyrus Thomas, in Handbook of American Indians (article Maize): "It is now generally sup- 

 posed to have been derived from native grasses— the Euchhma mexirava ofs. Mexico and £. luxurians 

 of Guatemala, the latter approximating most nearly the cultivated corn." 



