Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/125

120 tin bangles at the bottom. The margin is ornamented inside the fringe with a herring-bone pattern burned on. One side of the pouch has a human figure and the other bears two sun symbols. These are very similar to some seen by the writer upon the walls of caves in the Chiricahui mountains, an old Apache stronghold. The pouch is sewed with cotton thread and secured at the top by an American button. The cord for suspension has 4 clusters of 6 bangles each upon it.

Slings were used by Pima youths before the advent of the whites. They were of the usual elongated oval shape. The National Museum contains a sling, no. 76031, that was obtained from tho Pimas half a century ago. It is of leather, probably cut from a boot leg, with strings 68.5 cm. long. The imperforate center is 18 by 7 cm. (fig. 44).

The fighting men were divided into two parties—those who used the bow and those who fought with club and shield. When advancing upon the enemy, the warrior crouched so that the comparatively small shield protected his entire body. He also leaped from side to side for the double purpose of presenting a more difficult target, and of bewildering the enemy and thus unsteadying their nerves through the suggestion of magic, which plays a larger part in the warfare of the American Indian than is generally known. The preparation for a war expedition is an invocation to the gods and the ceremonies during the journey are incantations for the development of magic power that shall not only render the party invincible but shall induce its magic power, on its own account, to overwhelm the magic power of the enemy. It is not the strength nor the intelligence of the Apache that they fear, nor his arrow with its sting, but his magic—a creation of their own imagination. And so the shield, with its magic symbols in brilliant colors, is kept in rapid motion not only from side to side but also revolving by the reciprocal twist of the bearer's forearm.

A long and careful search failed to disclose the presence of a single old shield among the Pimas, but there is a specimen in the National Museum, no. 27830, that was obtained several years ago (fig. 45, a, b). It is a rawhide disk 49 cm. in diameter, provided with a cottonwood