lowed out on the upper surface suffi- 
ciently to hold the material to be reduced, 
while the more highly specialized forms 
are tastefully shaped and carefully fin- 
ished, the stone in some cases, as in s. 
California, being obtained by quarrying 
from the rock in place. California fur- 
Munsee, but properly refers only to those of the' 
tribe under Moravian teachers) . Moravins. — Can. 
Ind. A If., pt. 2, 65, 1906 (misprint). 
Morbah ( Mor-bah ). The Parrot clan of 
the Pecos people of N. Mex. — Hewett in 
Am. Anthrop., vi.,439, 1904. 
Morbanas, A former tribe, probably 
Coahuiltecan, met in 1693 on the road 
from Coahuila to mission San Francisco, 
Texas. — Salinas (1693) in Dictamen Fis- 
cal, Nov. 30, 1716, MS. cited by H. E. Bol- 
ton, infin, 1906. 
AMorongo. A reservation of 38,600 acres 
of fair land, unpatented, in Riverside co., 
s. Cal., occupied by 286 Mission Indians 
under Mission Tule River agency. — Ind. 
Aff. Rep., 175, 1902; ibid., 192, 1905; Kel- 
sey, Rep., 32, 1906. 
Mortars. Utensils employed by Indian 
tribes for the trituration of food and other 
substances. The Southwestern or Mexi- 
can type of grinding stone is known as a 
metate, and its operation consists in plac- 
ing the substance to be treated, dry or 
moist, on the sloping upper surface of 
the slab and crushing and rubbing it with 
a flatfish hand-stone until it is reduced to 
the required consistency or degree of 
fineness (see Metates, Mullers). This form 
of the utensil passes with many variations 
in size and shape into the typical mortar, 
a more or less deep receptacle in which 
the substance is 
pulverized if 
dry, or reduced 
to pulp if moist, 
by crushing 
with a pestle, 
which may be 
cylindrical, dis- 
coidal, globular, 
or bell-shaped. 
Mortars are 
made of stone, 
wood, bone 
(whale verte- 
brge) , or impro- 
vised of rawhide 
or other sub- 
stances depend- 
ing on the region 
and the materi- 
als nearest at 
hand. The more primitive stone forms 
are bowlders or other suitable pieces hoi- 
YOKUTS WOMEN GRINDING SEED. I, SANTA FE RAILROAD,) 
a b 
SIMPLE FORMS OF STONE MORTARS. a CALIFORNIA ( 1 -8 ) ; 
b , Rhode Island (i-s) 
GLOBULAR STONE MORTARS FROM AURIFEROUS GRAVELS, 
CALIFORNIA. (holmes) 
nishes the greatest variety of these uten- 
sils. In one district globular concretions 
were used: a seg- 
ment of the shell 
was broken away 
and the softer in- 
terior removed, 
thus affording a 
deep symmetrical 
receptacle. In 
other localities cy- 
lindrical forms 
were worked out of 
lava or sandstone, 
under surface 
MORTAR WITH SCULPTURED 
ornament; 1-12. 
In others still, the 
was conical, so as to be 
conveniently set 
in the ground. 
Ordinary mor- 
tars when in use 
are usually set 
in the ground 
to give them 
greater stabil- 
ity. The re- 
markable and 
handsome sand- 
stone vessels 
and soapstone 
pots of s. Cali- 
fornia are not 
here classed as 
mortars. Occa- 
sionally the 
smaller mortars 
were embel- 
lished with 
or sculptured to rep- 
resent animal forms. Alaskan mortars, 
especially those of the Haida, are superior 
in this respect. An artistic mortar of 
this class, illustrated by Niblack, was 
used for pulverizing tobacco, and this is a 
type in very general use among the North- 
western tribes at the present time. 
Perhaps the most remarkable mortars 
are those occurring frequently in the 
acorn-producing districts of the Pacific 
slope, w T bere exposures of massive rock in 
place have worked in them groups of 
mortars, the conical receptacles number- 
ing, in several observed cases, nearly a 
engraved lines 
