120 



THE PIMA INDIANS 



[ETII. ANN. 26 



tin bangles at the bottom. Tlie margin is ornamented inside the 

 fringe with a herring-bone pattern burned on. One side of the pouch 

 has a human figure and the other bears two sun symbols. These are 

 very similar to some seen by the writer upon the walls of caves in the 

 Chiricahui mountains, an old Apache stronghold." The pouch is 

 sewed with cotton thread and secured at the top by an American 

 button. The cord for suspension has 4 clusters of 6 bangles each 

 upon it. 



Slinc 



Slings were used by Pima youths before the advent of the whites. 

 They were of the usual elongated oval shape. The National Museum 

 contains a sling, no. 760ol, that was obtainol from 

 the Pimas half a century ago. It is of leather, prol)- 

 ably cut from a boot leg, with strings 68.5 cm. long. 

 The imjierforate center is 18 by 7 cm. (fig. 44). 



Shield 



The fighting men were divided into two parties — 

 those who used the 1)0W and those who fought with 

 ilub and shield. AVhen advancing upon the enemy, 

 the warrior crouched so that the comparatively 

 small shield protected his entire body. He also 

 leaped from side to side for the double purpose of 

 presenting a more difficult target, and of bewildering 

 the enemy and thus unsteadying their nerves through 

 the suggestion of magic, which plays a larger 

 part in the warfare of the American Indian than is 

 generally known. The preparation for a war expe- 

 dition is an invocation to the gods and the cere- 

 monies during the journey are incantations for the 

 development of magic power that shall not only 

 render the party invincible but shall induce its magic 

 power, on its own account, to overwhelm the magic 

 power of the enemy. It is not the strength nor the intelligence 

 of the Apache that they fear, nor his arrow with its sting, but his 

 magic — a creation of their own imagination. And so the shield, 

 with its ma-gic symbols in brilliant colors, is kept in rapid motion 

 not only from side to side but also revolving by the reciprocal 

 twist of the bearer's forearm. 



A long and careful search failed to disclose the presence of a single 

 old shield among the Pimas, but there is a specimen in the National 

 Museum, no. 27830, that was obtained several years ago (fig. 45, «, b). 

 It is a rawhide disk 49 cm. in diameter, provided with a cottonwood 



Fig. 44. Sling. 



a Length, 17 cm.; width, 16 cm. 



