The Pima Indians/Sociology/Family organization
SOCIOLOGY
Family Organization
RELATIONS BEFORE MARRIAGE
Accurate information concerning the relations between the sexes before marriage can only be obtained from the oldest persons among the Pimas, as the moral atmosphere has been heavily clouded since the advent of the Americans and since the peril from the Apaches has ceased to exist. With all their surplus energies expended in warfare, the young men formerly lived exemplary lives as compared with the youths of the last generation, who would chase and even lasso any girl that they could catch. Nevertheless, the conditions were never as bad as among the Yumas of that period.[1] Before the Pimas came in contact with "civilization" chastity was the rule among the young women, who were taught by compelling precept, though ever witnessing the demoralizing example of free and easy divorce.
PUBERTY DANCE
A girl reached the age of puberty at 11 or 12, sometimes as early as 10. The acquirement by a young woman of the (to them) wholly mysterious functional characteristics of the age of puberty rendered her an object of concern and distrust to the elders. When the fact was discovered her mother selected some favorite woman friend, not a relative, in whose charge she placed the girl for a period of four days. During this time the preceptress taught her how to perform such household tasks as she may not already have learned; also the principles of industry, honesty, chastity, and the like. They cooked their meals and ate together apart from their families. When not otherwise engaged the girl occupied her time in making a basket which must be given as a present to the elder woman. She talked little; if she wished to scratch her head she used a stick—to use the fingers at this critical period would cause lice. She dared not blow the fire or her teeth would come out.
There was "danger" in the girl that must be breathed out by songs ere she, the members of her family, and the community as a whole were exempt from the hazard of the lightning stroke and other perils. Woe to the girl who concealed her condition, for the medicine-man's magic would enable him to discover the culprit and should accident befall he would ascribe it to her. As a matter of fact, however, some girls avoided the "coming-out" ceremonies as long as possible and when the parents were poor no dance was held. When the parents had a sufficient supply of feed on hand to entertain with becoming hospitality they invited friends and neighbors to participate in a dance that occupied four nights. The futher and mother did not dance, but they took care to select the best girls to dance with their daughter "for their good influence." The men and women formed two lines facing each other on the hardened and well-swept plaza outside the house; their arms were extended to embrace those adjoining, and the blankets were stretched along the line to cover as many as they would reach over instead of being wrapped around each individual. The lines advanced and retreated rhythmically while the puberty songs were sung. These songs were in sets that were retained in the memories of certain persons and the set for the night was generally determined by the chance that brought the first leader to the spot when all was ready to begin. It was an exhausting dance, as there was no stopping for rest or food during the night. In the morning all returned to their homes to spend the day in sleep.
During the menstrual period all women were secluded for four days, during which they lived in the bushes near the village, making little shelters to shade them from the sun and occupying their time in making baskets. They lived on pinole, which was brought each morning and left at a short distance from their camp. Sometimes there were several together. They always bathed in the river before returning to their homes.
MARRIAGE
The youth of Pimería marry "early and often." In the majority of cases the choice is made by the girl who seeks to avoid an alliance with a lazy man. A handsome fellow is of course desired, but when she "knows in her heart" that he is the right man even the homely youth is chosen. As to what is the ideal of physical beauty, questioning naturally elicited only general information. For example, he must be tall and strong; dark, because he will not wrinkle as soon as the lighter colored; he must not be too fat. The woman must not be fat nor yet thin; "she must have good hair and a good face." The writer's informant volunteered information that a stranger might distinguish between the married and the unmarried women by the fact that the latter kept their hair in much better condition than the former. No peculiar style of hair dressing such us that in vogue among the Hopis serves to distinguish the unmarried girls (see pl. XLVII); with the change of state they simply "let themselves go" in a very human way, though even at the worst their hair receives probably more attention than that of the vast majority of their white sisters.
When a youth selects a bride he visits her home in company with a young married friend who pleads his cause while he sits in the background. After several nights of wooing by proxy, if his cause is favored he remains and is accepted as a husband without further ceremony. For four days they remain at her home and on the evening of the fourth day they go to the home of his parents. At dawn the next morning the mother-in-law gives the bride a large basket of wheat to grind on the metate. She is expected to have completed the grinding by sunrise. In the quaint language of the interpreter we were informed that "if she ran away and left part of it unground it was a sign that she would not be a very good wife. When she finished her work she went quietly into the house and sat talking with those around her until she got acquainted with her new home." The groom presented the bride with a new blanket and his parents gave her presents, but there was no idea of purchase and no gifts were made to the bride's parents.
Occasionally a man possessed such a character that no woman would marry him, and more rarely a woman would remain unmarried. There is one such at Casa Blanca and one at Blackwater at the present time, the latter being regarded as possessed of supernatural powers because of her spinsterhood.
A rejected suitor might appeal to the medicine-man for assistance. If he stole a hair from her head and the medicine-man buried it the girl would die. How like the folklore of the Caucasian is this bit of superstition that savors more of vengeance than of love. But that the divine passion does take strong hold upon the Pimas there can be no doubt, as disappointed hopes have been known to lead to suicide.
Polygamy was practised to some extent, but the division of labor was such that no great economic advantage resulted. There were seldom more than two or three wives, though a chief's son in recent years had six. The plural wives lived in separate houses, the husband spending most of his time with the first. When a youth married he brought his wife to the home of his parents if there was room for them; if not, a house was built near by and the families ate together.
It was the custom for a widower to wed the sister of his deceased wife. "Supposing that she does not like the man and does not wish to marry him?" the writer inquired. Whereupon the answer was given with an air of superior wisdom, "She always wants to." Uncles and nieces are not permitted to marry and cousins do not marry "out of respect of the parents for each other." The most careful search failed to discover any trace of groups within the tribe between which marriage was prohibited.
DURATION OF UNION
Separation was lightly regarded and easily effected. The woman usually took the initiative, by either going to the home of her parents or going away with another man. Sometimes such remarks as "Rainbow Leaves is trying to get Sand Cloud's husband away from her," "Dawn Tinkle has changed husbands," were heard. Notwithstanding the natural independence of the women, they made an effort to retain the affection of worthy husbands, and even resorted to suicide when deserted. Moreover, the desirability of lasting unions was recognized by some, as, for example, by the father of wise old Sala Hina. "Work well at home," he told her, "Go not to others for the morsel they must needs in hospitality bestow, and then when you serve faithfully your husband he will provide well for you. If the husband you choose proves to be lazy do not desert him; work in the field with him; help and encourage him."
CHILDREN
Further evidence in support of the fact that the Pimas were not a degenerate race at the time of the introduction of the white man's whisky and diseases is found in the size of their families. As many as twelve children have been known in a single family, and twins are received with general rejoicing. Every inhabitant of the village brings gifts and the mother feels assured that she will henceforth be a fortunate woman. Male children were preferred, because "they would grow up to fight Apaches." With the consent of the parents deformed infants were taken by the midwife, who watched them until they died of exposure and want of nourishment. So strong was the feeling of the Pimas against the abnormal that they tried in recent years to kill a grown man who had six toes.
Tribal pride is sufficiently strong to induce the Pimas to destroy infants of American or Mexican fathers in the same manner as those which are deformed. The writer learned of but two persons who had escaped such a fate. Inquiries concerning albinos met with the reply that "there never were any." Probably such a child would share the same fate as that accorded any other exhibiting abnormal characteristics.
A pregnant woman was not allowed to eat anything that an animal had touched. For example, if a gopher had cut a vine on which a melon was ripening, she might not eat the fruit; or, if the mice nibbled at a basket of wheat she might not eat of the tortillas made therefrom. She dared not go where Apaches had been killed, or the baby would die. If her husband killed a rattlesnake at that time, her child's stomach would swell and it would die soon after birth. She must not eat liver or her child would he disfigured by birthmarks.
During confinement the husband absented himself from the home and women friends attended the patient, who sat over a hole in the floor in which a cloth had been spread. The placenta was buried in a hole and covered with ashes. The mother bathed in the river immediately after delivery, and until the umbilicus of the child was healed she dared not eat salt. At times much pain was suffered, and some died in labor, in which case, if the child lived, it was taken in charge by the maternal grandmother.
Babies were nursed until the next child was born. Sometimes a mother nursed a child until it was 6 or 7 years old and if she became pregnant in the meantime she induced abortion by pressure upon the abdomen. The unborn was sacrificed because it was believed to be prejudicial to the welfare of the nursing child, which the mother loved the more "because she could see it." Illegitimate children were aborted at three or four months. One case of abortion at seven months was reported, but it was done with the aid of the medicine-man. These operations were usually successful, but in a small percentage of cases they caused the death of the woman.
No attempt was made by any of the Pimas to explain the cause of sterility.
The tribe has been large enough to prevent ill effects from close inbreeding, and there has been a constant addition of foreign blood. Sala Hina (fig. 51), who is perhaps 65 or 70 years old, recalled the names of three Apache women who had been married by Pimas. One of these had "many children." She had also known two Maricopa men married to Pima women and two Pimas married to Maricopa women. How lasting these unions had been she was unable to say. There is a Hare-eater from Sonora and a Yaqui who have married Pima women at one of the upper villages. Intermarriage with the desert-dwelling Kwahadkʽs has been fairly common. The father of Sala Hina was a Kwahadkʽ and prominent in Piman history as the man who brought the first cattle to the tribe. The few Kwahadkʽ women among the villages make the peculiar pottery that is characteristic of their tribe, and which should not be confounded with that of the Pimas. Detecting a slight dialectic difference in the speech of one of the temporary interpreters the author learned upon inquiry that his mother had been a Kwahadkʽ. Another interpreter said that his people called him "mixed," which is not surprising, as in his veins flowed the blood of Pimas, Maricopas, Papagos, and Apaches, peoples of three distinct linguistic stocks. The greatest influx of foreign blood has been from the related Papago tribe whose caravans annually made their appearance at the harvest season. Some Papago families have always lived with the Pimas, at one time forming an outpost on the north by maintaining a village on the Salt river.
In the past there was also some intermarriage with the Sobaipuris, and there is both traditional and historical evidence of the final amalgamation of the remnants of that tribe with the Pimas. Some were captured by the Apaches, as shown by Bourke in his researches upon the clans of that tribe. "The Apaches have also among them Tze-kinne, or Stone-house people, descendants of the cliff-dwelling Sobaypuris, whom they drove out of Aravypa Cañon and forced to flee to the Pimas for refuge about a century ago."[2]
CEREMONY OF PURIFICATION
As soon as a child began to creep about it was taken by the parents some afternoon to the medicine-man in order that the rite of purification might be administered and the child's future be rendered free 
Fig. 100. Eagle feather aspergills. from harmful magic influences. Putting a sacred pebble and an owl feather into a seashell containing water, the medicine-man waved an eagle feather (fig. 100) about, while the parents and the child
drank the water and ate some white ashes or a little mud. This simple ceremony was sufficient to thwart the malice of all evil demons; lightning would not strike the child, and the possibility of accidents
of all kinds was thus precluded. As a further precaution the mother must not eat salt for four days thereafter.
This appears at first glance to be a modification of the Christian rite of baptism. Further investigation seems to show that it is similar to that and also to a purely aboriginal ceremony that in the opinion of the writer was practised before the advent of the friars. The Pimas declare that their "medicine-men got it up themselves." Cushing found "that the Zuñi of to-day are as eager as were their forefathers for baptism and for baptismal names additional to their own. But it must be remembered," he continues, "that baptism—the purification of the head by sprinkling or of the face by washing with medicine water was a very old institution with this people even before the Spaniards found them."[3] He also ascribes the readiness of various other tribes to receive baptism to the existence of their own similar custom. This readiness is otherwise difficult to account for, as the zeal, and, at times, lack of judgment, of the priests led them to baptize as many of the Indians as they were able to control for the purpose; this procedure must have caused trouble very soon had the ceremony been wholly unknown to the natives.[4]
BAPTISM
Before a child is a year old it is named by friends of the parents in the following manner: The friends, or godparents, accompanied by other visitors, come for four successive mornings and seat themselves just before sunrise on the ground before the house in which the child lives. First one and then another of the company holds the child for a moment, but if it is a boy the kŏmpalt, godfather, repeats a ceremonial speech, passes his hands across the limbs of the infant and holds it aloft to receive the first rays of the rising sun; then he bestows upon the boy the name by which he shall be known throughout life—though nicknames are common and often supplant the baptismal name to some extent. If it is a girl, the kâmûlt, godmother, delivers the speech and gives the name. Beads were formerly held up to receive the first rays of sunlight, and were then placed about the child's neck. Gifts of clothing, food, baskets, and the like were also made by the godparents, who "think as much of the child afterwards as its own father and mother," said one of our informants. The parents in their turn reciprocate by naming the children of the couple that acts as godparents to their own.[5]
The names assumed by the men during later life are very frequently derived from the sexual organs, particularly those of the female, but such names are never bestowed at the time of baptism. Any unusual event or physical peculiarity may impose a name upon an individual. For example, a man who worked several weeks for the missionary was so well fed that he began to lay on flesh. Ever afterwards he was known as Preacher's Fat. One is known as Uvaatuka, Spread Leg, from his peculiar gait.
From the age of 10 until about the time of marriage neither boys nor girls are allowed to speak their own names. The penalty is bad luck in losing arrows in the case of the boys, in losing the rsa’lĭka, or kiâhâ stick in the case of the girls. The name of a deceased person is not used; he is alluded to as the brother of So-and-so. The word or words in the name, however, are not dropped from the language. NAMES
The names of the Pimas proved so interesting to the present investigator that a number of examples were recorded, as follows:
Names of men
| Rainbow Rainbow-Bow Stick-Rainbow Cloud-Rainbow Bear-Rainbow Apache-Back Sand-Arms Cloud-Thundering Cloud-Heart Ant's-Cry Moon-Fragment Big-Moon Sacred-Eagle Tail-Shed Fog Shining-Star Coyote-Footprint Coyote-Shed Coyote-Dust Coyote-Lightning Coyote-Skin Coyote-Flower Coyote-Running-Races Coyote-Runner Coyote-Howl Coyote's-Quiver Bear Bear's-Body Bear's-Paws |
Bird-Eyes Black-Wheat Frozen-Beans Bean-Barter Greasy-Eagle Big-Eagle Evening-Murmuring Evening-Come Closing-Twilight Light-Shines Wind-Milky-Way Wind-Bow Speaking-Bow Evening-Hands Running-Wind Evening-Roaring Soft-Feathers-Morning Sun-Sparks Eagle-Sparks Hawk-Bow Milky-Way-Bow Sun-Bow Foam-Bow Sticking-Feathers Hawk-Shield Telling-Shooting Raven Brown-Eagle Coyote's-Hair |
Squash-Stem Shields-in-Line Eagle-Head Light-Bird-Down Shield-Light Rat-Skin Rattlesnake-Rattle Thin-Leather Hide-Bucket Bad-Bow Running-Noise Red-Corn Scorpion's-Stomach Drum-Stomach Hawk-Beginning-To-Lay-Eggs Shining-Nose Coyote Centiped Centiped's-Rattle Beaver's-Mouth Ducks Bird-Feather Bird-Sharp Cliff-Rainbow Many-Shields Round-Frog Shining-Back |
Names of women
| Cloud-Flower Cloud-Peak Cloud-Curve Flowers Sun-Flower Flowers-Flying Flowers-Running Sun's-Rays Sun-Flying Morning-Rays Morning-Running Morning-Clouds Morning-Waving-Hands Bluish Singing-Rattle Pleasing-Mirage Snowflakes Water-Fern-Leaves Foam-Rolling Ancient-House-Shining Ancient-House-Drops Ancient-House-Sparks Rainbow-Dispelled Rainbow-Leaves Leaves-Flying Bows-Spotted Water-Fern-Tops Song-Flower |
Morning-Disappearing Morning-Beating Clouds-Passing Darkness-Passing Darkness-Loosened Morning-Loosened Morning-Kneading Willow Sing-Tinkle Bird-Down-Feathers Bird-Down-Sprinkle Rainbow-Water-Grass Cloud-Tinkle Gray-Leaves Morning-Dew Big-Leaves Sunflower Night-Wind Dawn-Tinkle West-End Spring-Leaves Morning-Water-Grass Morning-Leaves Sun-Leaves Bow-End Morning-Trail West-Sprinkle Quivering-Heat-Waves |
Foam-Tinkle Morning-End Morning-Tossing-Up Morning-Shadow Cloud-Rolling Water-Grass-Growing Night-Twinkle Many-Leaves Sand-Cloud Night-Flower First-Flower Red-Flower Yellow-Flower Singing-Noise Two-Flowers Basket-Leaves They-Come Sun-Mirage Mirage-End Salty Raw Soft Alone Crooked-Knife Dew-Woman Butterfly |
EDUCATION
In addition to the education that every Pima child received by the method of imitation and apprenticeship, careful oral instruction in moral, religious, and other matters was also given by the elders. While yet quite young the Pima lad was taken up in his father's arms at daybreak and held there while he was told something of the mysteries of the great Sun god that nearly every morning in the year rises bright and free from clouds above the Sierra Tortilla. As he grew too big to be held in arms he had to sit up very straight and pay strict attention while his father or guardian lectured to him on the proper conduct of a Pima warrior and citizen; or, in other words, soldier and gentleman. If he was not fully awake and paid indifferent heed to what was told him, the father's stiffened middle finger would suddenly strike the side of his nose, bringing his face around until he looked straight into his father's eyes. (See pl. XLII, c, XLV, XLVI.)
He learned that he must be ever alert and ready with bow and arrows to repel the attacks of Apaches. Day by day this lesson was taught by precept and example until it became the strongest instinct of the youth to be ready and watchful. He was taught to go on scout duty in the morning or to look after the live stock before he partook of his morning meal. It was well for him to accustom himself to cold food and to that which remained after the family had satisfied their hunger, for it was only by practising abstemiousness that he could hope to be fit for the long war trail into the barren Apache stronghold, "If you are wounded in battle," said the father, "don't make a great outcry about it like a child. Pull out the arrow and slip away; or, if hard stricken, die with a silent throat. Go on the war trail with a small blanket. It is light and protection enough for one aided by the magicians. Inure yourself to the cold while yet a boy. Fight not at all with your comrades; preserve your strength for the combat with the Apaches. Then, if brave, will come to you high honor. Be unselfish or you will not be welcome at the fire of the friendly. The selfish man is lonely and his untended fire dies. Keep your peace when a foolish man addresses the people. Join not in his imprudent councilings. Above all, talk not foolishly yourself. Bathe in the cold water of the early morning, that you may be prepared for the purification ceremony after killing an enemy."
Thus the lad was taught fortitude, courage, forbearance, unselfishness, industry—qualities that might well be adapted to the changed conditions and incorporated in the system of instruction of the white man's "Indian schools." As time went on he learned that if he profited by the advice given him he would become a desirable party for some soft-voiced home keeper, and with his marriage his education ceased.As a hunter he made his debut by giving away all the first deer that he killed. Afterwards he took his choice of the meat before sharing with his fellows.
Every youth when about 20 years old was told the ancient traditions, or Ilâ-âk Aga, Story of Hâ-âk. For four days and four nights he remained with the keeper of the legends, who was usually a man selected as tribal historian because of possessing a good memory. During that period he was not allowed to eat salt. This and similar tabus with reference to salt may have been due to contact with the Papagos or to survival from the period when the Pimas lived by the sea.
The advice given Sala Hina by her father may be taken as an example of the kind of instruction given the girls. Sala's mother was careless and indifferent, so that the responsibility of her training fell upon the father, as often happens. "Stay at home with your mother," he told her. "Watch and help her handle the cooking pots, the mortar, and metate, that you may know how to prepare the seeds of Pimería. Keep the fire alive and have wood ever ready. See that the drinking olla is never empty. If you do these things well, you will not gad about after you are married and leave your hearth vacant so that your husband may come home to find the fire out or to put it out to your discomfiture; for it is the office of man to kindle the fire but the part of woman to keep it burning."
As in the case cited, one parent may neglect the training of the children. It rarely happens that both are wholly indifferent. They are inclined to punish the children more than do the members of any other tribe with which I am acquainted. The youngsters are seldom whipped, but they may be scolded, slapped, or shaken for their misdemeanors until they become 10 or 12 years old. If a girl stumbles and breaks an olla when going for water, her elders take some of the broken pieces and scratch her naked arm. The girls begin to assist in the cooking at 7 or 8 and at 9 or 10 they begin to make baskets. Some are lazy and are allowed to idle away their time, never making more than the single basket required during their puberty ceremonies.
The younger girls make very realistic rag dolls, which they carry through the drama of life with as great seriousness and "make-believe" as their white sisters. The writer once came upon them when they had twenty or more figures variously posed around them as spectators of the burial of a whole family, with accompanying destruction of ("make-believe") property. In addition to "funerals," they had parties for which they ground wheat for pinole, though an adult observer would have said that they were grinding up weed seed. The "dishes" were molded with mud on their little brown elbows and were ready for use after scarcely more than a minute's drying in the sun. One form of mischievous activity was to play hide-and-seek in the wheat fields, but such a game was brief and apt to be attended with unpleasant consequences. In the evenings they played "puberty dances" or listened to the wonderful tales of prowess of their elders or of the adventures of the mythic animals of ancient Pimería. The boys practise day after day, year after year, until it is not surprising that they become such accurate shots with the bow. Woe to the birds and squirrels that cross their path. Unlike the pueblo lads, they are not prohibited from killing the rattlesnake, but they must not use the same arrow again. If the rattles are desired for ornament, they must be taken from a living snake. We have seen them teasing a Gila monster, but this and the horned toad are exempt from their arrows. Fish offered a splendid target for them when there was any water in the river and any fish were to be seen. There was no parental prohibition against destroying birds' nests, though the warning "If you touch quail eggs you will go blind" served most effectually to protect one species at least. The owl was not so much a bird of evil as of mystery and death, and its feathers were sought for their magic potency in medicine and other ceremonies. If a lad shot one, he had to pluck the feathers from the bird before it died or the magic power of the plumes was lost. Besides the bow and arrows the Pima youngsters possessed the sling of rawhide, which, by the usual process of evolution, came to be made in later years of boot leg. From the scanty Mexican population with which they came in contact they learned to use stilts, but none were seen in use during the writer's stay among them. As they grew older they were cautioned not to eat from an olla, else when they had to run away from superior numbers of Apaches the olla would get between their legs and obstruct their movements.
OLD PERSONS AND THEIR TREATMENT
Favored by the mildness of the climate, the lot of the aged among the Pimas was less unenviable than among most of the other Indian tribes. As they were a sedentary people, the custom of abandoning the aged on the march could not prevail. Asa matter of fact, the old and helpless were not killed by the active members of the community, though they were sometimes neglected until they starved to death and sometimes they set fire to their houses to commit suicide. The heartlessness of youth sometimes manifested itself in such acts as throwing stones at aged persons, merely "to see them act like children."
One case observed may be mentioned—that of an old man at Sacaton dragging out a miserable existence. Totally blind and scarcely able to walk, he lived in a brush shelter about 8 feet square that contained a little straw and the single blanket that served to cover him. When he ventured abroad into the world the limits of his journeys were prescribed by the length of the rope which was attached by one end to his doorpost. His food was cooked by some of his adult grandchildren who occupied a house near at hand. His time was spent absolutely alone in the shelter, which was as devoid of utensils or furnishings as any dog kennel. And yet, with a pride that is deathless in the human soul, he boasted of the time when he was a man among men and overcame the ferocious Apaches on the latter's own ground.
VIEWS CONCERNING DEATH
The usual primitive views of death—that it was not a natural event, but a result of magic influences brought to bear by enemies, human or superhuman—prevailed among the Pimas. In the legends the first death that occurred in the history of the human race is attributed to the venom of Soft Child, the rattlesnake, who was given the power of death to protect himself from unmerited abuse by man. The legends also indicate a disposition to view the Destroyer philosophically, inasmuch as the predecessors of the present race are regarded with commiseration on account of their becoming so crowded because of none dying to give place to the oncoming generation.
Again and again the information was elicited that those who died during the day were killed by the Sun, while those who died during the hours of darkness were killed by Night. This the author interprets to mean that the prayers that were regularly addressed to Sun and Night were for preservation, and that death resulted from some lapse or inattention on the part of these two deities. This agrees with the equally emphatic statements that "death is always due to magic, to animals, or to neglect of the ceremonies or tabus."
MODE OF BURIAL
The dead are never cremated, as they are by the adjoining tribes on the west. There is an apparent exception to this rule in the occasional eremation practised while on the warpath. The writer is unable to account for this, unless it be due either to the influence of the Maricopas or to a survival pointing toward western affinities of the Piman stock. So far as ascertained, no disinterment for removal had ever been made by the Pimas. They never buried beneath the floors, as did the Hohokam.
FUNERAL RITES
Water and pinole are placed on the grave for the use of the soul in the other world, not on the journey thither, as that takes but a moment's time. In order that the soul may betake itself to the proper abiding place and not disturb the survivors, the latter are accustomed to say at the grave, "We put you here. Go to your home in the East. Do not come back." Ghosts are uncanny things to have about and are liable to touch sleeping persons, this meaning that the one touched must accompany the visitor back to the land of shades.
When a householder died his ki was formerly burned—an excellent hygienic precaution, but detrimental to the development of architecture. The other structures about the premises were either burned or piled on the grave. Personal property was similarly destroyed, and if there was any live stock, it was killed and eaten by anyone who chanced to be on hand, though the immediate relatives never partook of such food.[6] When a husband was so fortunate as to possess two blankets, his widow sometimes kept one of them. The name of the deceased was not mentioned thereafter, and all things possible were done to obliterate his memory from the minds of the survivors except that the rites of mourning were practised for some time.
Fig. 101. Funeral cache south of Casa Blanca.
The death of a pauper who had nothing to leave at the grave released a vexed soul to wander about until some one in charity placed an offering on the grave. Sometimes the paraphernalia of a medicine-man, when it was not handed down to a successor in the family, was concealed in an olla in the hills instead of being destroyed. More rarely these caches were made of the property of ordinary men. Figure 101 shows such a cache, which was found in a rugged granite hill about 4 miles south of Casa Blanca. The olla was covered with a bowl, and as neither was broken it was perfectly water-tight. Among the contents of the cache (pl. XL) were a number of crystals and concretions, a neatly carved stone rattlesnake, three seashells for use in medicine, and a war club. The last was too large to be placed in the olla, and, being exposed outside, it was somewhat gnawed by rodents.
MOURNING
In mourning for near relatives the men cut their hair so that it does not fall below the middle of the back. The women cut theirs to the level of the ear lobes for husband, child, etc., and an aged widow cropped her hair close to the head "because she felt the worst." In all cases the cut hair was buried in the sand of the river bed; if it were burned it would cause headache and death. And yet when blankets were destroyed at the death of their owner they were burned.
Very few widows mourned for the full period of four years. During that time they were compelled to remain at home, to refrain from washing their hair, and to cry aloud the name of the deceased every morning at daybreak. They were allowed to bring their blankets up around under the armpits, but not over the shoulders, even in the coldest weather. When the chemise was adopted, as the blankets went out of use, it was customary to revert to the blankets during the period of mourning.
- ↑ Compare Rusling, The Great West and the Pacific Coast, 361.
- ↑ Capt. John G. Bourke, Journal of American Folk-Lore, IX, 114.
- ↑ Cushing in Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 335.
- ↑ Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner in the Pacific Railroad Reports, III, 35 , mention the occurrence of the custom of baptism among the Cherokees when the infants are 3 days old. "They believe that without this rite the child can not live. They have a custom of sacrifices and burnt offerings."
- ↑ Cada niño tiene un peri, que es una especie de padrino, que convidan sus padres. Este, despues de haberle hecho un largo discurso al recien nacido sobre las obligaciones propias de su sexo, le va tentandd por todo el cuerpo, estirándole los brazos y piernas, y luego le impone un apellido ó nombre de su lengua, no significativo. Despues de la ceremonia, el peri y el niño se reputan en lo civil como una misma persona, y tienen con sua respectivos parientes la misma relacion. Lo mismo hacen las mugeres en su proporcion con las niñas." Alegre, Historia de la Compañía de Jesus en Nueva-España, II, 217.
- ↑ Compare Bourke, "When a Mohave dies, there is a feast made of some of his horses and other edibles; but none of his clansmen will eat of it." Journal of American Folk-Lore, II, 184.