72 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. ans. 26 



The fruit is eaten without preparation when it ripens. It is of a 

 crimson color and contains many black seeds about the size of those 

 of the fig, wliich fruit it resembles in taste. By a process of boiling 

 and fermentation an intoxicating liquor is obtained from the fresh 

 fruit which has been more highly esteemed than the nutritious food 

 and has rendered tliis new-year a season of debauchery." 



The fruit is dried and preserved in balls 15 or more centimeters 

 in diameter (fig. 3). From either the fresh or dried fruit sirup is 

 extracted by boiling it "all day." The residue is ground on the 

 metate into an oily paste wliich is eaten without further preparation. 

 The seeds may be separated from the pidp at the time of drying the 

 fruit ami may be eaten raw or ground on the metate and treated as 

 any meal — put into water to form a pinole or combined ^vith other 

 meal to bake into bread. 



Ila'valt, Yucca liacatta. The fruit is boiled, dried, ground on the 

 mealing-stone, and boiled with flour. It is also eaten raw as a cathar- 

 tic. The stems are reduced to pulp and used as soap. Y. elata is 

 also used as soap. 



llo'ny, Zea Mays. Corn, the most important crop of the Pueblo 

 tribes, has, in recent years at least, been of less value to the Pimas 

 than wheat. The numerous varieties are all prepared in about the 

 same manner. As the husked corn is brought in by the women, it is 

 piled on a thin layer of brush and roasted by burning the latter, after 

 which it Ls cut from the cob, dried, and stored away for future use. 



o " I arrived at the Pimas Gileiios, accompanied by the governor of the Coco-Maricopas. There was 

 great rejoicement, for there had spread thus far the report that they {the Moquis) had me kiiled. The 

 governor of the l%nas told me that all the relatives were well content, and wishing to make a fcayt, 

 all the pueblos together. I agreed to this, hut on condition that it should be apart from me. foreseeing 

 in this what would come to pass. In a little while I heard that they were singing 'a heap' [de vionton) ; 

 this was stopped presently, but was followed by a great uproar of discordant voices, and shouting, in 

 which tlioy said, 'We are good! We are happy! We know Cod! We are the fellows to fight the 

 vVpaches! We are glad the old man (as they call me) has come, and not been killedl' This e:-trava- 

 gant shouting {cxorbilante grileria), a thing foreign to the seriousness of the Pimas, I knew came from 

 drinking, which produced various effects. Some came and took me by the hand, saluting me. One 

 said, 'I am padre de Pedro.' Another said to me, 'Thou hast to baptize a child.' Another, 'This is 

 thy home— betake not thyself to see the king, nor to Tucson.' Others made the sign of the cross, partly 

 in Spanish, so that though I felt very angry at such general drunkenness, there did not fail me some 

 gusto to 1 ear the good expressions into which they burst, even when deprived of reason. The ne,xt 

 day I complained of these excesses to the governor, who told me that it only happened a few times and 

 in the season of saguaro, and adding that it made his people vomit yellow and kept them in good health. 

 What most pleased me was to see that no woman got drunk; instead of which saw many of them leading 

 by the bridle the horse upon which her husband was mounted, gathering up at the same time the clothes 

 and beads that the men scattered about, in order that none should be lost," (Garcfis's Diary, 438.) 

 " The three pitahaya months," says Father Salva-Tierra [describing the saguaro harvest in Cali- 

 fornia], " resemble the carnival in some parts of Europe, when the men are in a great measure stupi- 

 fied or mad. The natives here also throw aside what reason they have, giving themselves up to feast- 

 ings, dancings, entertainments of the neighboring rancherias, buffooneries, and comedies, such as they 

 are; and in these, whole nights are spent to the high diversion of the audience. The actors are 

 selected for their talent of imitation; and they execute their parts admirably well." (Venegas, His- 

 tory of California, i, 82.) "The gathering of this fruit may be considered as the harvest of the 

 native inhabitants. They can eat as much of it as they please, and with some this food agrees so 

 well that they become corpulent during that period, and for this reason I was sometimes unable to 

 recognize at first sight individuals otherwise perfectly familiar to me, who visited me after having fed 

 three or four weeks on these pltahayas." (Jacol* liaegert, The .\boriginal Inhabitants of the CaU- 

 fornian Peninsula, in Smithsonian Report, 1S03, 3t>3.) 



