198 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 26 



score of wTiters have testified, leading to the belief that moral stand- 

 ards in Pimeria at least equaled if they did not resemble our own. 

 Life and property were secure. By their industry they had mas- 

 tered the difficulties of their environment. The relations of the 

 sexes and the division of labor had been adjusted in a mamier credit- 

 able to them." 



The law of vengeance operated to prevent homicide. "Speak not 

 foolisldy," said the elders; "do not (luarrel and kill your neighlior, fur 

 that leads to retaliation." Thus tlie yontii were instructed and the 

 abhorrence of bloodshed grew deep and lasting. Within the tribe 

 there was but one exceotion to tliis — to kill the convicted sorcerer was 

 meritorious. 



No odium attached to the crime of suicide. The body was buried in 

 the usual manner and the property was similarly divided or destroyed. 

 Several instances of self-destruction were ascertained. A l^lind old 

 man had shot liimself and a yoimg man had ended his career because 

 his father would not let him sell some jiiece of personal property. 

 Another man had shot himself because his wife had deserted him and 

 their family of small children. A woman had starved herself and 

 baby in the hills of the desert because lier luis})and had left her. 



The crime of arson was unknown, though dwellings were frequently 

 burned by accident. 



Adultery was jninished ])y turning the woman away from the home. 

 Sometimes tiie husband shot the horse of the offending man and " then 

 he felt all right." 



Prostitution with its train of di.seases has not depleted the numbers 

 of the Pimas as it has the population of so numy surrounding trilies. 

 Loose women are said by the old people to have been rare in the old 

 days. Independent testimony of the whites accords with tlus. 

 ^'They are exceedingly jealous of their females; and their chastity, 

 as far as outside barbarians are concerned, remains, with a few excep- 

 tions, unimpeachable." '' One informant assured the writer's party 

 that the infant daughter of a prostitute by an unknown father was 

 always destroyed lest she "grow up to be as bad as her mother." 



o "The Indians, although they were crowding about our tents, and everything was exposed to them, 

 made no effort to steal anything." Captain Johnston, Journal, COO. 



" Um das Biid dieses indianischen Volksstammcs zu vervollstiindigen, nuiss ich nur noch hinzufiigen 

 dass derselbe mit soinen Iriedlichen und liebenswiirdigen Eigcnschaften eine unbestrittene Tapferkeit 

 verbindet, die selbst dem wilden Apachen Hochaehtimg einllosst. Ich glaube nicht dass sich bei irgend 

 einem anderen'noch erhaltenen Stamme der Charalrter der amerikanischen Urbevolkerung auf eine 

 vortheilhaftere Weise darstellt." Julius Frobel, Aus .\merikn. ii, 448. 449. 



Emory fo\md them 'surpassing many of the Christian nations in agriculture, little behind them in 

 the useful arts, and immeasuraljly before them in honesty and virtue." 



■■ The heathen Indians received us with jubilee, giving of their provision to the soldiers, and we counted 

 two hundred persons, who were gentle and affable." Mange's Diary, from an extract translated by 

 Buckinghara Smith in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, III, 303. 



" These Gila Pimas are gentle and comely." Ibid., 301, from Diary of I'edro Font. 



'C. D. Toston, in report as special Indian commissioner, in Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs 

 1864, 152, 180S. 



