Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/127

122 A similar shield decorated with swastika in red and white (fig. 47) was collected in 1887 by Mr F.W. Hodge, of the Hemenway Expedition, and by him presented to the Free Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.

Some protection for the feet was necessary when on journeys across the stony mesas and mountains that surround the Pima villages. Rawhide was the most widely used material and the sandal was the form of foot gear. It was kept in place by a single thong, which passed through two holes in the front of the sandal, so as to go between the first and second and the fourth and fifth toes, then backward obliquely across the foot, so that the two parts crossed each other over the instep, down through a hole in the end of a heel plate and around behind the heel, where it was doubled back through the hole in the opposite end of the heel plate, and so on forward again. The heel plate passes transversely through two longitudinal slits in the heel of the sandal and is of the same hard and stiff rawhide. The doubled thongs behind the heel are usually wound with softer material to prevent chafing (fig. 48).

Ox yokes were bound to the horns of the animals by long strips of hide that had been roughly dressed without removing the hair. The two straps collected were the only ones seen. It is some years since they were last used for this purpose, and it is not surprising that most such straps should have been employed for other needs (fig. 49).

The use of the lariat was, of course, learned from the whites and was developed gradually with the tardy introduction of live stock. The "rope," as it is universally known in the Southwest, is of rawhide