BCSSELL] FAMILY ORGANIZATION 101 



As a hunter he made his debut by giving awa}" all the first deer 

 that he killed. ^Vfterwards he took his choice of the meat before 

 sharing with his fellows. 



Everj- youth when about 20 years old was told the ancient tra- 

 ditions, or Ha-ak Aga, Story of Ha-ak. For four days and four 

 nights he remained with the keeper of the legends, who was u.sually 

 a man selected as tribal historian because of possessing a good mem- 

 ory. Durmg that period he was not allowed to eat salt. This and 

 similar tabus with reference to salt nuiy have been due to contact 

 with the Papagos or to survival from the period when the Pimas 

 lived by the sea. 



The advice given Sala Hina by her father may be taken as an 

 example of the kind of instruction given the girls. Sala's mother 

 was careless and uidifferent, so that the responsibility of her traming 

 fell upon the father, as often happens. "Stay at home with your 

 mother," he told her. "Watch and help her handle the cooking 

 pots, the mortar, and metate, that j'ou may know how to ]jrepare the 

 seeds of Pimeria. Keep the fire alive and have wood ever ready. 

 See that the drinking olla is never empty. If j'ou do these things 

 well, 3'ou will not gad about after you are married and leave your 

 hearth vacant so that your husband may come home to fuid the fire 

 out or to put it out to your discomfiture; for it is the office of man to 

 kindle the fire but the part of woman to keep it burning." 



As in the case cited, one parent may neglect the trainmg of the 

 children. It rarely happens that both are wholly indifferent. They 

 are inclined to punish the children more than do the members of any 

 other tribe with which I am acquainted. The youngsters are seldom 

 whipped, but thej' may be scolded, slapped, or shaken for their mis- 

 demeanors until they become 10 or 12 years old. If a girl stum- 

 bles and breaks an olla when going for water, her elders take some 

 of the broken pieces and scratch her naked arm. The girls begin 

 to assist in the cooking at 7 or 8 and at 9 or 10 they begin to make 

 baskets. Some are lazy and are allowed to idle away their time, never 

 making more than the single basket required during their puberty 

 ceremonies. 



The j'ounger girls make very realistic rag dolls, which they carry 

 tlu"ough the drama of life with as great seriousness and "make- 

 believe" as their white sisters. The writer once came upon them 

 when they had twenty or more figures variously posed around them 

 as spectators of the burial of a whole family, with accompanying 

 destniction of (' ' make-believe ") property. In addition to " funerals," 

 they had parties for which they ground wheat for pinole, though an 

 adult observer would have said that they were grinding up weed 

 seed. The "dishes" were molded with mud on their little brown 

 elbows and were ready for use after scarcelj- more than a minute's 



