Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/259

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254
THE PIMA INDIANS
[ETH. ANN. 26

the case of the would-be medicine-man who may be called to his profession by means of persistent dreams. Since Night may cause one to dream as he wishes it is fair to presume that it is that god who oversees the destinies of the medicine-men.

Many years ago Kisatc, in either a swoon or trance, believed that he went far away to a place where a stranger gave him a magnificent bow and a set of beautiful arrows. On regaining consciousness he asked for the things that had been given him while he was away and became quite indignant when they assured him that he had not been out of their sight. To this day he believes that they deceived him.

SACRED PLACES

Hâhâtesumiehĭn or Hâhâtai sʼmaihĭsk, Stones Strike, is a large block of lava located in the eastern Santan hills (see pl. XLI, b). The largest pictograph ever seen by the writer in the Southwest is cut upon it and 2 or 3 tons of small angular stones foreign to the locality are piled before it. There are also many pictographs on the bowlders round about. This was probably a Hohokam shrine; though it is regarded with reverence by the Pimas, who still place offerings of beads, bits of cloth, and twigs of the creosote bush at the foot of the large pictograph. There is a tradition that a young man was lying asleep upon the flat rock and was seen by two young women who were passing along the opposite hillside. They tried to awaken him by tossing the pebbles which are yet to be seen. Pima maids thus awaken their lovers to the present day.

Hâ-âk Vâ-âk, Hâ-âk Lying, is a crude outline of a human figure situated about 5 miles north of Sacaton. It was made by scraping aside the small stones with which the mesa is there thickly strewn to form furrows about 50 cm. wide (fig. 102). The body furrow is 35 m. long and has a small heap of stones at the head, another at a distance of 11 m. from the first, and another at the junction of body and legs. The latter are 11 m. long and 1 m. apart. The arms curve outward from the head and terminate in small pyramids. In all the piles of stone, which have a temporary and modern appearance, are glass beads and rags, together with fresh creosote branches, showing that the place is yet visited. The beads are very old and much weathered. Beside the large figure is a smaller one that is 4.5 m. long, the body being 2.7. Hâ-âk is supposed to have slept one night st this place before reaching Hâ-âk Tcia Hâk, a cave in the Ta-atûkam mountains, where she remained for some time.

Iʼakskʼ, Place of Sacrifice, is a heap of stones on a knoll near Blackwater where it is probable that a Hohokam or Pima medicine-man has been buried.