84 THE I'IMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 20 



Domestication of Animals 



Dogs. The only domesticated animal wliich there is any certainty 

 that the Pimas possessed at the time of the discovery is the dog. 

 The old people say that in their youth the dogs were all alike and 

 resembled coyotes. At present there are many small mongrels, 

 obtained principality from the Mexicans (pi. vi, c). The dogs have 

 shared with their masters the misfortunes of the last few years. 

 Scarcity and want has left them gaunt and weak. The}- formerly 

 served a useful purpose in giving warning of the presence of enemies 

 about the villages. There are now no enemies and little witliin to 

 tempt the thief to enter and steal. Dogs are called by the word 

 "toot," "toot," "toot," uttered rapidly in a falsetto voice, the indi- 

 vidual at the same time holding out a morsel of food to lure the 

 animal within reach. A dog that has been bitten by a mad dog 

 is saved by having a cross burned on its head. 



Horses. The horse may have been seen by the Pimas in the 

 sixteenth century, but it is doubtful if they obtained tliis animal 

 before the seventeenth. They have been known so long that their 

 origin has become accounted for by myths without a shadow of 

 historic truth in them. The only individual who ventured to dis- 

 pute the commonly accepted mytliical origin assured me that they 

 came from the West. Font, who visited the Gila in 177.5, stated 

 that his party was met by 1 8 mounted Pimas ; so that the horse was 

 evidently in use at that time. 



There were very few horses among the Pimas until the last cjuarter 

 of a century. The statements of the old persons agree with the calen- 

 dar records, which make it evident that there were horses enough for 

 but a small proportion of the warriors who engaged in conflicts with 

 the Apaches. Hoi'ses stolen in Mexico were sold to the Papagos, 

 who in turn sold them to the Pimas at much less than their true 

 value. As the munber in Pimeria increased, the thieves began to 

 operate in both tlirections, selling Sonoran horses on the Gila and 

 Piman mounts in Sonora. However, this practice has been aban- 

 doned, and the tribe has quite as many horses as are needed. They 

 are rather untlersized animals, as may be seen from the jjinto pony 

 in figure 5. As the fields now yield an insufficient supply of food 

 for their owners, it follows that there is little grain for the horses, 

 which grow poor and thin in winter; indeed, many die of starvation. 

 Their principal food during that season is saltbushes." 



The once famous grassy plains that made the Pima villages a 

 haven of rest for cavalry and wagon-train stock are now barren, 



o Professor Thomber says that ■' the native saltbushes, arranged in the order of their import- 

 ance, that are eaten hy range stoclc are as follows: Woody species, Atriplex canescens, A. nuttallii, 

 A. polycarpa, A. lentiformis, .\. confertifolia. The herbaceous species that are grazed by stoelc are: 

 Atriplex eoronata, A. elegans. A. bracteosa. The tniegreasewood. Sarcobatus vermicularis.a species 

 closely allied to the saltbushes, is also browsed to u considerable extent. 



