Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/110

] slightly flattened, but otherwise bearing no signs of preparation for the symbols that occupy the greater part of one side. The Gila Crossing calendar (fig. 20, b) is a pine stick on which the record was copied several years ago from a stick yet in the same village. The record begins on the back, passes over the lower end in the figure, and extends again to the back over the upper end. The Blackwater stick (fig. 20, c) is of saguaro wood smoothed and carved for the writer by the keeper of the record, who lost the original some years ago and who has since been using paper and pencil, but the same symbols.

Spurs. Wooden spurs were made from crotched limbs of mesquite of suitable size. They were attached to the foot by a deerskin thong fastened to form two loops of equal size, one passing over the instep and the other under the heel of the foot. So rare have they now become that the writer spent six months on the Gila River reservation without discovering any, and therefore hired an old man to make a pair for the collection. Soon afterwards a single old spur was found, which differs from those made to order only in having deerskin instead of maguey fiber fastenings (fig. 21).

Saddle. Wooden saddletrees are sometimes made, both for riding and pack saddles. The former are covered with rawhide, shrunk on, and provided with stirrups of mesquite or willow wood. They are not common and are at best but crude imitations of the saddles made by the whites. Saddle blankets for use with them are of matted grass or maguey fiber.