Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/109

104 hood made of willow bark in the checker style of weaving, the surface being ornamented in geometric patterns colored black and red. Over the hood a loose piece of cloth may be thrown to protect the occupant from flies. The babies when strapped closely in the cradles are frequently carried on the heads of their mothers, who may at the same time have no insignificant burdens in their hands. When the children are about a year old they are carried astride the hip, unless upon a journey, when they are shifted around to the back, still astride, and there supported by a shawl or large cloth bound around the waist. The writer has seen women with children of 2 or 3 years on their backs, each carrying a sack of wheat on her head and lighter bundles in her hands.

Paint brush. The lines of pigment with which the face was formerly ornamented were applied by means of slender bits of arrowwood two or three inches long. The Kwahadk‘s were accustomed to the tufted ends of the arrow-bush branches and carry them southward into Papagueria to be used as paint brushes.

Calender sticks. The Pimas keep a record of passing events by means of sticks carved with arbitrary mnemonic symbols. There are five such records in the tribe to-day—or were a year ago. The oldest of these sticks bears the history of seventy years. There were other sticks before these, but the vicissitudes of war, fire, and the peculiar burial customs of the people made away with them. There are three sticks in the collection, which have been designated Gila Crossing, Blackwater, and Casa Blanca calendars, from the names of the villages whence they came. The Casa Blanca stick (fig. 20, a) is of willow, peeled,