164 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. anx. 26 



ing upon shields, cradle hoods, kiahas, and tobacco pouches was of a 

 crude sort and manifestly inferior to that upon the person. The 

 moderately smooth finish given to all weapons, to trays, ladles, pot- 

 tery paddles, fire-drills, awls, pestles, axes, basketry, and some 

 pottery was of course based upon utilitarian motives, though the 

 gratification of esthetic needs must have been subsidiary thereto 

 and concomitantly developed. That the desire for embellishment 

 was less consciously felt is evident from the fact that the other 

 articles made by the Pimas that may be equally efl'ective, when 

 smoothness and symmetry are lacking are coarse and rough. The 

 metate, for examjile, is unhewn and angular except upon the grinding 

 surface and presents a striking contrast to the symmetrical metates 

 of the Hohokam. Not only do the Pimas not give a pleasing finish 

 to all artifacts, but they exhibit so dull an esthetic sense in their 

 treatment of the beautiful j)olished axes that they find about the ruins 

 that we are moved alike by pity anil indignation. There are tons 

 of stones within easy reach of the villages suitable for roughening the 

 grinding surfaces of metates, yet the Pimas take the axes that are 

 almost perfect in symmetry and polish and batter them into shapeless 

 masses for the purpose. To the writer this afl'ords an argument 

 stronger than all the surmises of the early Spanish writers to the con- 

 trary that the Pimas are not the descendants of the Hohokam. 

 Furthermore, the poverty of design and the absence of symbolism 

 are a verj- strong indication of relationship with the C'alifornia tribes 

 rather than with the Pueblos. 



One of the most striking examples of the poverty of esthetic 

 resource among the Pimas is seen in their textiles. The wonderfid 

 possibilities of this art were almost unknown. True, after the whites 

 brought bayeta to them their weavers produced a very creditable 

 belt by closely copying the oi'namentation from the Hohokam relics 

 and from their southern congeners. But the principal pieces, the 

 blankets, the weaving of which kept the art of making textile fabrics 

 alive, were ornamented with nothing more elaborate than a dingy 

 border of doubled selvage threads. After the red thread was imported 

 we find scant trace of it in the blankets. However, we must credit 

 the Pimas with the rudimentary esthetic sense that found expression 

 in the, smoothness and evenness of weaving in these plain white 

 blankets. 



The arts of basketry and pottery making do not furnish much 

 evidence of a well-developed esthetic sense in the Pimas. The 

 former art is recent and borrowed; at best it is in a mediocre state. 

 If the baskets of the Pimas are compared with those of the Yavapais 

 (pi. XXXIII, a, h, c, d), who have also begun to use similar motives 

 very recently, we see that the latter tribe manifests superior taste. 

 The Yavapai baskets were the only ones at the Fort McDowell 



