920 



MOHAVE 



[b. a. e. 



confined to small areas on the skin. 

 According to Kroeber (Am. Anthrop.,iv, 

 284, 1902) their art in recent times con- 

 sists chiefly of crude painted decorations 



MOHAVE MAN. 



NAT. Hist.) 



on their, pottery. Though a river tribe, 

 the Mohave made no canoes, but when 

 necessary had recourse to rafts, or balsas, 

 made of l^undles of reeds. They had no 

 large settlements, their dwelUngs being 

 scattered. These were, four-sided and 

 low, with four supportiug posts at the 

 center. The walls, which were only 2 

 or 3 ft high, and the almost flat roof were 

 formed of brush covered with sand. 

 Their granaries were upright cylindrical 

 structures with flat roofs. The Mo- 

 have hunted but little, their chief reli- 

 ance for food being on the cultivated 

 products of the soil, as corn, pumpkins, 

 melons, beans, and a small amount of 

 wheat, to which they added mesquite 

 beans, mescrew, pinon nuts, and fish to 

 a limited extent. They did not practise 

 irrigation, but relied on the inundation 

 of the bottom lands to supply the needed 

 moisture, hence when there was no over- 

 flow their crops failed. Articles of skin 

 and bone were very little used, materials 

 such as the inner bark of the willow, 

 vegetable fiber, etc., taking their place. 

 Pottery was manufactured. Baskets were 

 in common use, but were obtained from 

 other tribes. 



According to Kroeber, ' ' there is no full 

 gentile system, but something closely akin 

 to it, which may be called either an in- 

 cipient or a decadent clan system. Cer- 

 tain men, and all their ancestors and 



descendants in the male line, have only 

 one name for all their female relatives. 

 Thus, if the female name hereditary in 

 my family be Maha, my father's sister, 

 my own sisters, my daughters (no matter 

 how great their number), and my son's 

 daughters, will all be called Maha. There 

 are about twenty such women's names, 

 or virtual gentes, among the Mohave. 

 None of these names seems to have any 

 signification. But according to the myths 

 of the tribe, certain numbers of men 

 originally had, or were given, such names 

 as iSun, Moon, Tobacco, Fire, Cloud, Coy- 

 ote, Deer, Wind, Beaver, Owl, and others, 

 which correspond exactly to totemic clan 

 names; then these men were instructed 

 by Mastamho, the chief mythological 

 being, to call all their daughters and 

 female descendants in the male line by 

 certain names, corresponding to these 

 clan names. Thus the male ancestors of 

 all the women who at present bear the 

 name Hipa, are lielieved to have been 

 originally named Coyote. It is also said 

 that all those with one name formerly 

 lived in one area, and were all considered 

 related. This, however, is not the case 

 now, nor does it seem to have been so 

 within recent historic times." Bourke 

 (Jour. Am. Folk-lore, ii, 181, 1889) has 

 recorded some of these names, called by 

 him gentes, and the totemic name to 

 which each corresponds, as follows: Hual- 

 ga (Moon), 0-cha (Rain-cloud), Ma-ha 

 (Caterpillar), Nol-cha (Sun), Hipa (Coy- 



MOHAVE WOMAN. 



(am. mus. Nat. Hist.) 



ote), Va-had-ha (Tobacco), Shul-ya 

 (Beaver), Kot-ta (Mescal or Tobacco), 

 Ti-hil-ya (Mescal), Vi-ma-ga (a green 

 plant, not identified), Ku-mad-ha (Oca- 



