RCSSELL] THE FOOD SUPPLY 81 



Ka'vi, Castor canadensis frondator. The beaver was common along 

 the Gila, and was esteemed highly for food." 



Ka'nyo, Eqiiiis cabalhis. The horse is seldom eaten by thePimas. 

 In times of famine, however, liorses are sometimes used, aUhoiigli the 

 more than half-starved condition of the animals suggests anything 

 but nourishuig viands. 



Ko'-orU-, Antilocapra americana mexicana. The antelope is now 

 unknown in Pinieria, but the hunters of former centuries success- 

 fully stalked these animals upon the mesas, particidarly upon the 

 higher grassy plains to the eastward. 



Ma'kUm . These unidentified worms ( ?) are plentiful when a rainy 

 season insures a heav^- crop of desert plants. They are gathered in 

 large quantities, their heads pulled off, and intestines removed. The 

 women declare that their hands swell and become sore if they come 

 in contact with the skin of the worms. The worms are then put into 

 cooking pots fined with branches of saltbush and boiled. Tlie skins 

 are braided together while yet soft and dried a day or two in the sun. 

 The dry and brittle sticks are eaten at any time without further 

 preparation. 



Ma'vit, Felis hippotestes aztecus. The puma is yet abundant in 

 the mountain ranges of Arizona, and in former times one was occa- 

 sionally secured by the Pimas when in quest of other game. 



Rsu'ltk. There are at least six species of ground sqiurrels in this 

 region,'' but m the absence of specimens the writer could not learn 

 if the Pimas distinguished among them. "\Mien water was obtaiii- 

 able it was poured into the burrows of these squirrels until they were 

 driven out, whereupon they were killed with clubs or shot with arrows. 

 They were tabued to the women under penalt}' of nosebleed or 

 deficiency in flow of milk for their babies. 



Si'-%k, Odocoileus couesi. Wliite-tail deer are yet fairly common in 

 the mountains and two deerskins were seen among the Pimas during 

 the period of six months spent with them. Perhaps one in two or 

 three j'ears woidd be an excessive estimate of tlie number killed by 

 the men of the Gila River reservation. The deer figures largely in 

 their traditions and religion. 



Ta'matdlf. During the winter months these birds are caught at 

 nearly every house by means of traps. The trap commonly used is 

 described on page 101. 



a The earliest American invaders of Pimeria were beaver trappers who descended the Gila early in 

 the lust century. One of the first .Vmerieans that the oldest li\ing I*imas remember was KS'vi 

 V&'namam, " Beaver Hat," who told the Pimas that the buildings now in ruins along the Gila and 

 Suit rivers were destroyed by waterspouts. lie lived several years among the Pimas. and was 

 finally killed near Preseott by Apaches. 



b Eutamias dorsalis (?i, Sperniophilus canoscens, S. granimurus, S. harrisi. S. spllosoma macrospi- 

 lotus (Oracle), S. tereticaudus (Fort Yuma). 



26 ETH— 08 8 



