Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/122

] These fibers make very satisfactory brushes, but they are not so stiff as brushes made of bristles. The fibers are not set in a handle but are tied in a round bundle a little below the middle, then folded outward from the center so that the upper end or handle is round and smooth while the lower end includes all the free fiber ends. Twine is then wrapped in a coil around the upper end downward until the brush end remains just long enough to give the fibers play in passing through the hair. The wrapping may be either of fiber or of horsehair; in the latter case pleasing geometric patterns are often worked out with contrasted black and white threads. The specimen illustrated in figure 41, b is bound with maguey fiber which has been decorated with three lines of purple dye, put on after the wrapping has been completed.

The use of leather in the manufacture of clothing was reduced to a minimum among the Pimas. For sandals, rawhide sufficed, and if this was not to be had there was an abundance of yucca fiber, which made a fair substitute. For the shields, with the use of which they became adept through training from childhood, rawhide was employed. So the needs which dressed leather alone could satisfy were but few,