192 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. an.n. 26 



drying in the sun. One form of mischievous activity was to play 

 hide-and-seek in the wheat fields, but such a game was brief and apt 

 to be attended with unpleasant consequences. In the evenings they 

 played "puberty dances" or listened to the wonderfid tales of prowess 

 of their elders or of the adventures of the mythic animals of ancient 

 Pimeria. The boys practise day after day, year after year, until it 

 is not surprismg that they become such accurate shots with the bow. 

 Woe to the birds and squirrels that cross their path. Unlike the 

 pueblo lads, they are not prohibited from killing the rattlesnake, but 

 they must not use the same arrow agam. If the rattles are desired 

 for ornament, they must be taken from a living snake. We have 

 seen them teasmg a Gila monster, but this and the horned toad are 

 exempt from their arrows. Fish offered a splendid target for them 

 when there was any water in the river and anj^ fish were to be seen. 

 There was no parental prohibition against destro}-ing birds' nests, 

 though the warning "If you touch quail eggs you will go blind" 

 served most effectually to protect one species at least. The owl was 

 not so much a bird of evil as of mystery and death, and its feathers 

 were sought for their magic potency in medicine and other ceremo- 

 nies. If a lad shot one, he had to pluck the feathers from the bird 

 before it died or the magic power of the plumes was lost. Besides 

 the bow and arrows the Pima youngsters possessed the sling of raw- 

 hide, which, by the usual process of evolution, came to be made in later 

 years of boot leg. From the scanty Mexican population with which 

 they came in contact they learned to use stilts, but none were seen 

 in use diiring the ^\Titer's stay among them. As they grew older 

 they were cautioned not to eat from an olla, else when they had to 

 run away from superior numbers of Apaches the olla would get 

 between their legs and obstruct their movements. 



OLD PERSON.S AND THEIR TREATMENT 



Favored by the mildness of the clinuite, the lot of the aged among 

 the Pimas was less unenviable than among most of the other Indian 

 tribes. As they were a sedentary people, the custom of abandoning 

 the aged on the march could not prevail. As a matter of fact, the old 

 and helpless were not killed hj the active members of the community, 

 though they were sometimes neglected until they starved to death and 

 sometimes they set fire to their houses to commit suicide. The heart- 

 lessness of youth sometimes manifested itself in such acts as throw- 

 ing stones at aged persons, merely "to see them act like children." 



One case observed may be mentioned — that of an old man at 

 Sacaton dragging out a miserable existence. Totally blind and 

 scarcely able to walk, he lived in a brush shelter about 8 feet square 

 that contained a little straw and the single blanket that served to cover 

 him. When he ventured al)roail into the world the hmits of liis jour- 



