150 



THE PIMA INDIANS 



fETH. AXX. 26 



cotton, which was picked and spreatl on the roofs of their arbors to dry 

 in the pod. When dried and separated from the pods it was stored in 

 large ollas, where, if covered, it would keep for an inilefinite period in 

 that dry climate. Usually, however, it was stored until winter, when 

 there was time for the women to spm it into threads and for the men 

 to weave it" into squares of cloth wliich served as robes for protecting 

 the body by day and as blankets by night, girdles for the waist, and 

 similar but smaller bands for the head. In later times it is said that 

 bolts of cloth of considerable length were woven to be bartered with 

 adjoining tribes, but this woukl seem not to have been in accordance 

 with primitive custom. 



Accounts of the Pimas that were written in the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries contain references to the use of wool as well as 

 native cotton, but very little information is obtainable concerning the 



Fig. 74. Cotton balls, nativo spinning. 



use of wool, and there was not a single sheep on the reservation at the 

 time of the writer's visit. 



No dyes were used except a dark bull' oclicr'' bartered from the 

 Papagos, into which the cotton was dipped. \o mordant was used and 

 the resulting color was neither brilliant nor i)orman('nt. However, it 

 was applied only to the selvage threatl. Bayeta was unraveled to 

 obtain scarlet thread for belts after the inauguration of trade relations 

 with tlie ^le.xicans. 



Sewing was unknown, and holes were ])atched l)y weaving in a new 

 piece. 



Implements and methods. The loom was simpler than that used by 

 the surrounding tribes and was spread horizontally instead of being 

 set upright. Four stakes were first driven firmly in the ground out- 



o It is of interest to note that this di\ision of labor differs from that of the nopis and the Ziifiis. 

 6 A sample of the mineral used was found upon analysis to contain 30.52 per cent ferric oxide. 



