202 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 26 



makai, or magician, swung an owl feather over them. At the close of 

 the songs he foretold the number of the enemy that would be killed. 

 Thus they fared forth, carrying a little roasted meal and a snuill but 

 shapely basket bowl from which to eat it, provided with a little 

 tobacco for the ceremonial smokes that wafted their individiuil 

 prayers to the Sun god. A portion of each band was armed with 

 bows and arrows; the former of the elastic mulberry wood from the 

 same mountains in which the enemy found refuge, the latter of the 

 straight-stemmed arrow bush, whose tufted tips waved in billowy 

 masses on the Pimerian lowlands. When a conu-ade fell in battle his 

 bow was broken and his arrow shafts were snapjjed and left upon tlie 

 spot. Oftentimes the body of a man killed in battle was burned, 

 though this method of disposal of the body was never employed at 

 the villages. It may have been a survival from the time when the 

 Pimas lived on the Colorado or it may have been recently adopted 

 from the Maricopas, who habitually cremate their dead. On the 

 homeward journey no fires were allowed for cooking or warmth, though 

 with due precautions they might be built on the outward trail. 

 Another portion of the war party was provided with circular shields 

 of rawhide and short but heavy clubs of mesquite and ironwood. 

 Their appeal to the God of War was expressed by the sun symbols 

 that decorated the shields, and the latter were kept swiftly rotating 

 upon the supjile forearms of their bearers as the advance was made 

 for hand-to-hand conflict. The frequent use of the figure, "like pred- 

 atory animals or birds of prey," in the ceremonial speeches imbued 

 all with the spirit of agility and fierceness that manifested itself in the 

 leaps from side to side and the speed of their onward nish. Crouch- 

 ing low, springing quickly mth whirling shield that concealed the 

 body, in feather headdress and battle colors, they must have jire- 

 sented a terrifj'uig spectacle." Their courage can not be questioned, 

 and in some conflicts, of which there is independent white testimony, 

 thej^ killed several hundred warriors. But these were rare occasions, 

 and their raids usually terminated with the loss of a man or two and 

 the destruction of an Apache camp, with perhaps a half dozen of the 

 enemy killed and a cliild taken prisoner. 



The head chief, Antonio Azul, thus described to the author the 

 circumstances of his first campaign : With 30 friendly Apaches from 

 the San Xavier settlement, 200 Papagos, and about 500 Pimas he 

 went up the Gila a distance of about 50 miles and encoinitered the 

 enemy in the rough country around Riverside. The Apaches tied 

 the bushes together to prevent the mounted warriors from getting 



a "In battle the Indians are not quiet for a moment, but, with constantly bended knees, leap rapidly 

 from side to side, waving their shield and its long sireainers, !ot the purpose of dazzling the eyes of 

 their adversaries. Apaches are said to oil their joints Ijefore going to battle, in order to make them 

 supple." Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner. Report upon the Indian Tribes, in Pacific Railroad Reports, 

 m, 30. 



