RlSSKt-L] 



AGRICULTURE 



91 



Oats are seldom raised in that region. They are called "white 

 tassels" by the Pimas. Barley is the universal grain feed of Arizona, 

 anil there is a ready market for the small ([iiantity the Pimas raise. 



Vegetables 



Watermelons, mu-skmelons, pumpkins, and sciua.shes are exten- 

 sively cultivated. The watermelons are pre.served until after the 

 1st of January l)y l)ur}Tng them in the sands of the river l)ed. The 

 punijikins, s(|uashes, and muskmelons are cut 

 in stri|)s and dried, the best-keeping varieties 

 being left in the storehouses until midwinter 

 (pi. XXXV, /"). According to tradition the 

 first pumpkins, called rsa.s'katfik, were ob- 

 tained from the Yumas and Maricopas." 

 There are tliree species of wild gourds 

 that are C(uite common 

 along the Gila, namely: 

 Cucurbita fcetidissima 

 H. B. K., C. digitata 

 Graj', and Apodanthera 

 imdulata Gray. Culti- 

 vated gourds have been 

 kno^\ii to the Pimas for 

 a long period — how long 

 it is impossible to say. 

 The Papagos have a tra- 

 dition that this plant was 

 introduced liy Xavitco, a 



deity who is honored by ceremonies at intervals 

 of eight years — or, if crops are bountiful, at the 

 eml of every four years — at Santa Kosa. The 

 gourd is used as a canteen (fig. 7), and if it 

 liecomes cracked a rabbit skin is stretched over 

 it whicli shrinks in drying and renders the vessel 

 water-tight agam. Dippers and canteens are 

 occasionally made of gourds, ])ut the chief use of 

 gourds seems to be in the form of rattles (fig. S) which contain a little 



o when Garc<^s was among the Yumas in ma they were raising •• coimtless" calabashes and melons— 

 •• calabazaf u melones. perhaps better translated squashes and cantaloupes, or piunpkins and musk- 

 melons. The Piman and Vuman tribes cultivated a full assortment of cucurbitacoous plants, not 

 always easy to identify by their old Spanish names. The sandia was the watermelon invariably; the 

 melon, usually a muskmelon. or cantaloupe; the calnhiiza. a calabash, gourd, pumpkin, or squash of 

 some sort, including one large rough land Uke our crook-neck squash. * * » Major Heintzelman says 

 oi the Yumans. p. 3(i of his Report already cited [II. U. Ex. Doc. 7(j, 34th Cong.. 3d sess.. 1857]: 

 ■They cultivate watermelons, muskmelons, piunpkins, corn, and beans. The watermelons are small 

 and in<lillerent, muskmelons large, and the pumpkins good. These latter they cut and dry for winter 

 use [they were brougnt to Pimeria before the Maricopas came to Gila Bend].' ' Note in Coui-s' On 

 the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer. New York. 1900. i. 170. 



Fig. 7. Gourd canteen. 



Fig. 8. Gourd rattle. 



