204 THE PIMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 26 



of SO strenuous a life was beginning to manifest itself in an inter- 

 esting manner at the tiiue of the intervention of the Americans. 

 The Spaniards and Mexicans had shown their utter incapacity to 

 cope with the Apaches, and their presence in Sonora was rather an 

 aid to the enemy than otherwise. Tlie Pimas were compelled to 

 light their own battles. In doing so they learned the advantage of 

 concentrating their fields. They perfected a system of attack, 

 appointed runners for bringing m assistance, and organized a fairly 

 satisfactory method of defense. They never used smoke signals 

 except to announce the victory of an incoming war party. They 

 kept themselves constantly in fit condition by their campaigns, and 

 even engaged in sham battles for the practice. These have been held 

 within the last decade at the lower villages on the reservation. Their 

 daily duties were ordered with reference to the possibility of attack. 

 Their arts were modified by the perpetual menace. Their mj'ths were 

 developed and their religion tinged by the same stress. In short, 

 the Pimas were building up a war cult that in time might have led 

 them from the lethargic state in which the natural envu'oument 

 tended to fix them. 



Lustration 



There was no law among the Pimas observed with greater strict- 

 ness than that which required purification" and expiation for the deed 

 that was at the same time the most lauded — the killing of an enemy. 

 For sixteen days the warrior fasted in seclusion and observed mean- 

 while a number of tabus. This long period of retirement immediately 

 after a battle greatly chminished the value of the Pimas as scouts and 

 allies for the United States troops operating against the Apaches. 

 The bravery of the Pimas was praised by all army officers having any 

 experience with them, but Captain Bourke and others have complained 

 of their unreliability, due solely to their rigid observance of this 

 religious law. 



Attended by an okl man, the warrior who liad to expiate the crime 

 of blood guilt retired to the groves along the river bottom at some dis- 

 tance from the villages or wanderetl about the atljoining liills. Dur- 

 ing the period of sixteen days he was not allowed to touch his head 

 witii his fingers or liis hair would turn white. If he touchetl Ins face 

 it would become wrinkled. He kept a stick to scratch his iiead witli, 

 and at the end of every four days this stick was buried at the root and 



a*' All savages have to undergo certain ceremonies of lustration after returning from the war-path 

 where any of the enemy have lieen liiller".. With the Apaches these are baths in the sweat-lodge, accom- 

 panied with singing and other rites. With the Pimas and Maricopas these ceremonies are more elabo- 

 rate, and necessitate a seclusion from the rest of the tribe for many days, fasting, bathing, and singing. 

 The Apache ' bunches ' all his religious duties at these times, and defers his bathing until he gets home, 

 but the Pima and Maricopa are more punctilious, and resort to the rites of relig.on the moment a single 

 one, either of their own numbers or of the enemy, has been laid low." John G. Bourke, On the Border 

 with Crook, New York, 1891, 203. 



