20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



rare meat, yet occasionally a portion of the liver, intestines, or some 

 other internal organ of a freshly killed animal is consumed without 

 being cooked." All show a decided fondness for the small intestines of 

 the larger animals killed for food. Sometimes these are not even well 

 cleaned, but are considered to be ready for consumption after being 

 roasted on hot coals. At Navaho Springs an example of this custom in 

 a repidsive form w as witnessed among the Southern Ute. The flesh 

 of goats and sheep is not relished as much as venison or beef. Pork 

 is rarely eaten, owing, perhaps, to Indian beliefs concerning swine, 

 though the writer has been told a number of times by the natives 

 that they dislike the taste of the meat. The flesh of horses, mules, 

 and burros is eaten by some of the tribes of Sonora, particularly the 

 Yaqui, and b}^ the San Carlos Apache; mules, at least, are known 

 to have been used as food by the Zuni also. Dog flesh is eaten in 

 only a few tribes, and but seldom. Of wild animals, besides the 

 deer and the now rare mountain sheep, the Indians eat the squirrel, 

 the prairie dog, and particularly the fat field mouse. As to other 

 quadrupeds, customs vary with the tribes, some eating animals 

 wdiich others, from traditional or religious motives, tabu, such as 

 the skimk, badger, and beaver. The Indians consume also some 

 poultry and eggs, and the common game birds which they hunt or 

 trap. All the Mexican and the Colorado River Indians like fish and 

 crawfish; but these, together with all other aquatic animals, are 

 avoided by the Zuni and other Pueblos, also by the Apache, and the 

 Navaho.* 



Beans of many varieties are a more important article of diet, espe- 

 cially to the Mexican Indians, than meat. They are much easier to 

 pi'ocure and combine large nutritive value with, palatability. They 

 are generally cooked with a little fat into a sort of stew; this is eaten 

 with the tortilla, which serves as a spoon. 



Other important articles of the Indian diet are squashes, melons, 

 sugar cane in the hot valleys of Mexico, and wild and cultivated fruit 

 of many varieties, as well as pinons and other nuts, and some mush- 

 rooms. Potatoes are seen but seldom. Chile is plentiful and 

 much liked, especially in Mexico. Little native tomatoes are eaten, 

 mostly as a relish. The tribes in the Southwest raise large quantities 

 of peaches, which they consume either fresh or dried. They also 



a Among the Seri, according to McGee, the habit of eating raw flesh is common. See The Seri Indians, 

 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau- of American Ethnology. 



b The reason usually given for this prejudice is that such animals " do not taste good, ' but the real 

 cause must undoulitedly be sought in the now largely forgotten eosmogonic and religious views of these 

 tribes. Some of the San Carlos men said the taste of fish to them was such as to make them vomit; 

 they did not like even to think of it. One of the men gave a more graphic explanation: he said " the 

 fish is a very peculiar animal; he has scales like a snake, wings like a bird, and swims in water," incon-' 

 gruities which to the Apache mind suggest grave doubts as to its suitability for food. A White Moun- 

 tain Apache said the people are afraid of eating fish for fear that they would get sick and perhaps die; 

 beavers are not killed and eaten because then " the rivers would dry up." 



