68 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 26 



cousins to the southward wholly subsisteil upon did not prevent the 

 Pimas from attaining proficiency in agricultiu-e, as will be seen later, 

 and it must manj- times have preserved them from total extinction. 

 With what success they sought for edible plants may be judged from 

 the subjoined list, which is believed to be fairly complete. It con- 

 tains 22 plants of wliich the stems, leaves, or flowers were eaten, 4 

 that furnished roots or bulbs, 24 with seeds or nuts, and 15 that 

 supplied fi'uits or berries. And this in a region that appears to the 

 casual visitor to be a desert with but a few thorny slu-ubs and but one 

 tree that he would deem worthy of the name. 



PREPARATIOX OF FOOD 



Very few articles of Pima diet are eaten raw, and many of them are 

 of such a nature as to necessitate thorough cooking; thus the agave 

 and the fruit of some of the cacti are baked for many hours. It may 

 be well, therefore, to describe the methoils, so far as they could be 

 ascertained, of preparing the various jilants for use. The art of 

 cooking is not well developed among these ])eople ; no such elaborate 

 preparations as Mr Cushhig found at Zufii tempt the Pima palate. 



In tlie olden time maize was ground upon the flat metates and 

 foruied into loaves, which must have been "sad" indeed, to judge 

 from their modern counterparts. With the advent of the wliites 

 came the introduction of a new and ([uickly accepted cereal, wheat; 

 and the bread made from it also, without leavening agent, is heavy 

 and indigestible. One loaf was obtained (pi. vi, a), said to be a com- 

 paratively small one, that weighed 14 pounds and yet was only 3 inches 

 thick and 20 inches in diameter. No knowledge of the pueblo wafer 

 breads exists among the Pimas, who confine their treatment of mes- 

 quite, com, wheat, and other flour to baking as tortillas or as loaves 

 in the ashes, frying in suet, or boiling, either in water to form a gruel 

 or mush, or witli other foods in the shape of dum]ilings. 



A large part of the cereal food of the Pimas is parched before it is 

 ground. 



The process of parching on, or rather among, the coals is dex- 

 terously carried out. The coals are raked into the parchuig pan (pi. 

 XIX, a) and after the grain has been thrown upon them it is given a 

 series of tosses with a (luarter-turn to each which redistributes the 

 light but bulky coals and the heavier grain. A frequent puff of 

 breath carries away the ((uickly gathering flakes of ashes. The con- 

 tents of the pan are separated by a fe\\- short jerks that carry the 

 coals in a mass to the edge of the dish, whence the larger particles are 

 scraped oH" and the smaller blowni out. Another method of parching 

 seeds is to place over the fire an olla that has Ijcen broken so that at 

 least one side is wanting, thus admitting the hand to stu- the contents 

 as they are browned. 



