eussbll] artifacts 95 



Artifacts ' 



The manufactures of the Piinas were few in number and simple in 

 character. It is interesting to compare the number of implements 

 and weapons that are of wood with those made of stone, as this is a 

 people classed as belongiiif^ to the Stone A^e. It will be noticed 

 that the articles of stone are of little consequence in point of number 

 as compared with those of wood, but the stone objects are of the utmost 

 importance from a cultural standpoint. The metate admits of no 

 wooden substitute, and without it the full food value of maize could 

 not have been utilized nor could wheat raising have been so readily 

 taken up as an agricultural pursuit. Without the stone ax and 

 knife there could have been little done in wood working; architecture 

 would have l)een modified; agriculture, dependent upon irrigation, 

 would have been all but impossible. In short, these three simple 

 implements, made by striking one stone against another, have sufficed 

 to transform the Pimas from the slaves of a harsh environment, com- 

 pelled to rend their prey with tooth and nail, into an agricultural 

 people who adapt the environment to their needs and make some 

 provision, however slight, for the future. 



WOOD 

 Weapons 



Bow. First in importance among weapons must be placed the 

 bow and the arrow. Pima bows are simple, imdecorated, and not 

 very carefully made. Those which exhibit weakness through split- 

 ting or otherwise are bound with fresh sinew in bands which shrink 

 around the arms at the point where reenforcement is needed. War- 

 riors made their bows of mulberry wood " obtained in the Superstition 

 and Pinal mountains. A bow that has been long used, especially in 

 successful warfare, becomes a highly prized possession with which its 

 owner is loath to part. The writer was so fortunate as to secure 

 such a specimen (pi. xiii, a) which has the gracefid compound curve of 

 the conventional bow; it is of mulberry wood and has a neatly 

 twisted, two-strand sinew string.' Hunting bows'' (pi. xiii, h) are fre- 

 quently made of osage orange wood, a material that is now obtain- 

 able from the whites along the Salt river. When mulberry wood 

 was not available willow was used, and most of the hunting bows 

 which men as well as boys continue to make for hunting hares and 

 similar small game are of that wood. The primary type of arrow 

 release prevails, the bow being held as in plate vn, h. 



a "The mulberry plays an importiint part in the domestic economy of the Apaches; the branches 

 are made into bows, and the small twigs an- used in the fabrication of baskets." John G. Bourke, 

 Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, ill, 210. 



>> Length 1.3.50 m., width at grip 2ti mm., thickness 18 mm. 



c Length 1.366 m., width at grip 2« mm., thickness 22 mm. 



