Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/128

] made in a 4-ply braid, rounded by pounding when wet. The slip noose at the outer end is supplied with an ingenious loop made by folding a heavy piece of rawhide three or four times and bringing the ends together to form an oval ring. The end of the rope is passed through a longitudinal slit in one end of the ring and by a braided enlargement prevented from being pulled out again. A strip of rawhide about 1 cm. in width is rolled in the interior of the ring, and passing through a transverse cut close to one end it is continued around the outside, being itself slit where the rope enters the ring, and also passing under two loops made by catching up the outer layer of hide on the ring it then passes through a transverse slit in the outer and overlapping end of the ring and is knotted. It therefore passes twice around the ring and is the only means of uniting the ends of it. When hardened the ring is large enough to permit free play of the rope through it.

Among the most highly prized objects made of leather by the Pimas, found by the writer, was a life-sized effigy of a horned toad. It is of deerskin, ornamented with white beads, as shown in figure 50, a. It was used in the cure of the toad disease by being passed over the affected part. This act and the singing of the toad songs effected a complete cure, our informant believed. Figure 50, b, is a photograph of a living horned toad.