BULL. 30] 



MORBAH MORTARS 



943 



Munsee, but properly refers only to those of the 

 tribe under Moravian teachers). Moravins. — Can. 

 Ind. AfY., pt. 2, 65, 1906 (misprint). 



Morbah {Mur-hdh). The Parrot clan of 

 the Pecos people of N. Mex. — Hewett in 

 Am. Anthrop., vi.,439, 1904. 



Morbanas. A former tribe, probably 

 Coahuiltecan, met in 1693 on the road 

 from Coahuila to miss^ion San Francisco, 

 Texas. — Salinas (1693) in Dictamen Fis- 

 cal, Nov. 30, 1716, MS. cited bv H. E. Bol- 

 ton, inf'n, 1906.. 



Morongo. A reservation of 38,600 acres 

 of fair land, unpatented, in Riverside co., 

 s. Cal., occnpied by 286 Mission Indians 

 under Mission Tnle River agencv. — Ind. 

 Aff. Rep., 175, 1902; ibid., 192, 1905; Kel- 

 sey, Rep., 32, 1906. 



Mortars. Utensils employed by Indian 

 tribes for the trituration of food and other 

 substances. The Southwestern or Mexi- 

 can type of grinding stone is known as a 

 metate, and its operation consists in plac- 

 ing the substance to be treated, dry or 

 moist, on the sloping upper surface of 

 the slab and crushing and rubbing it with 

 a flattish hand-stone until it is reduced to 

 the required consistency or degree of 

 fineness (see Metates, Mnllers). This form 

 of the utensil passes with many variations 

 in size and shape into the tyjncal mortar, 

 a more or less deep receptacle in which 

 the substance is 

 pulverized if 

 dry, or reduced 

 to pulp if moist, 

 by crushing 

 with a pestle, 

 which may be 

 cylindrical, dis- 

 coidal, globular, 

 or bell-shaped. 

 Mortars are 

 made of stone, 

 wood, bone 

 (whale verte- 

 brae) , or impro- 

 vised of rawhide 

 or other sub- 

 stances depend- 

 ing on the region 



and the materi- ^ 



als nearest at 



hand. The more primitive stone forms 



are bowlders or other suitable pieces hol- 



ished, the stone in some cases, as in s. 

 California, being obtained by quarrying 

 from the rock in place. California fur- 



Alaskan mort 



ornament; 



H Sculptured 

 1-12. 



SIMPLE FORMS OF STONE MORTARS. ,i 

 6, Rhode island (i-s) 



lowed out on the upper surface suffi- 

 ciently to hold the material to be reduced, 

 while the more highly specialized forms 

 are tastefully shaped and carefully fin- 



GLOBULAR STONE MORTARS FROM AURIFEROUS GRAVELS, 

 CALIFORNIA. ( Holmes) 



nishes the greatest variety of these uten- 

 sils. In one district globular concretions 

 were used: a seg- 

 ment of the shell 

 was broken away 

 and the softer in- 

 terior removed, 

 thus affording a 

 deep symmetrical 

 receptacle. In 

 other localities cy- 

 lindrical forms 

 were worked out of 

 lava or sandstone. In others still, the 

 under surface was conical, so as to be 

 conveniently set 

 in the ground. 

 Ordinary mor- 

 tars when in use 

 are usually set 

 in the ground 

 to give them 

 greater stabil- 

 ity. The re- 

 markable and 

 handsome sand- 

 ^ t o n e vessels 

 and soapstone 

 pots of s. Cali- 

 tornia are not 

 here classed as 

 mortars. Occa- 

 ^ i o n a 1 1 y the 

 r-maller mortars 

 w ere embel- 

 lished with 

 engraved lines or sculptured to rep- 

 resent animal forms. Alaskan mortars, 

 especially those of the Haida, are superior 

 in thi.s respect. An artistic ntortar of 

 this class, illustrated by Niblack, was 

 used for pulverizing tobacco, and this is a 

 type in very general use among the North- 

 western tribes at the present time. 



Perhaps the most remarkable mortars 

 are those occurring frequently in the 

 acorn-producing districts of the Pacific 

 slope, where exposures of massive rock in 

 place have worked in them groups of 

 mortars, the conical receptacles number- 

 ing, in several Ql^seryecl cases, nearly a 



