MORGAN.) PIMA VILLAGES ON THE GILA RIVER. Dit 
e 
some skins spread along the floor against the wall, and presently his wife 
brought in a vase of water and a tray filled with a singular substance that 
looked more like sheets of thin blue wrapping paper rolled up into bundles 
than anything else that I have ever seen. I learned afterwards that it was 
made of corn meal, ground very fine, made into a gruel, and poured over 
a heated stone to be baked. When dry it has a surface slightly polished 
like paper. The sheets are folded and rolled together, and form the staple 
article of food with the Moki Indians. As the dish was intended for our 
entertainment, and looked clean, we all partook of it. It had a delicate 
fresh-bread flavor, and was not at all unpalatable, particularly when eaten 
with salt.”? 
Lieutenant-Colonel (now General) Emory visited the Pima villages 
on the Gila River in 1846. ‘TI rode leisurely in the rear through the 
thatched huts of the Pimos. Each abode consisted of a dome-shaped wicker- 
work about six feet high, and from twenty to fifty feet in diameter, thatched 
with straw or cornstalks. In front is usually a large arbor, on top of which 
is piled the cotton in the pod for drying. In the houses were stowed 
watermelons, pumpkins, beans, corn, and wheat, the three last articles gener- 
ally in large baskets. Sometimes the corn was in baskets, covered with earth, 
and placed on the tops of the domes. A few chickens and dogs were seen, 
but no other domestic animals, except horses, mules, and oxen. * * * 
Several acquaintances, formed in our camp yesterday, were recognized, and 
they received me cordially, made signs to dismount, and when I did so 
offered watermelons and pinole. Pinole is the heart of Indian corn, baked, 
ground up, and mixed with sugar. When dissolved in water it affords a 
delicious beverage; it quenches thirst, and is very nutritious. * * * 
The population of the Pimos and Maricopas together is estimated variously 
at from three to ten thousand. The first is evidently too low. This peace- 
ful and industrious race are in possession of a beautiful and fertile basin. 
Living remote from the civilized world, they are seldom visited by whites, 
and then only by those in distress, to whom they generously furnish horses 
and food.”? In this case and in those stated by Lieutenant Ives and Dr. 
1 Report upon Colorado River of the West, Lieut. [ves, p. 121, 
2 Military Reconnaissance in New Mexico, pp. 85, 86, 
