Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/178

Rh are made of mesquite or paloverde wood (fig. 87, a, b). Stone balls about 6 cm. in diameter are also used, covered with the same black gum (fig. 88, a, b).

Each contestant kicks one of these balls before him, doing it so skillfully that his progress is scarcely delayed; indeed, the Pimas declare that they can run faster with than without the balls, which in a sense is true. Perhaps the occurrence of the stone balls in the ruins gave rise to the idea that they possessed magic power to "carry" the runner along, for all things pertaining to the Hohokam, have come to have more or less supernatural significance. Two youths will sometimes run long distances together, first one and then the other kicking the ball, so that it is almost constantly in the air. The custom of using these balls is rapidly disappearing, as, it is to be regretted, are the other athletic games of the Pimas.

At various points in Arizona the writer has found what appear to have been ancient race tracks situated near the ruins of buildings. One of these was seen on the south bank of the Babacomari, 3 miles above the site of old Fort Wallen. It is 5 m. wide and 275 m. long. It is leveled by cutting down in places and the rather numerous bowlders of the mesa are cleared away. In the Sonoita valley, 2 miles east of Patagonia, there is a small ruin with what may have been a race track. It is 6 m. wide and 180 m. long. At the northern end stands a square stone 37 cm. above the surface. These will serve as examples of the tracks used by the Sobaipuris, a tribe belonging to the Piman stock. The dimensions are about the same as those of the tracks that the writer has seen the Jicarilla Apaches using in New Mexico. The tracks prepared by the Pimas opposite Sacaton Flats and at Casa Blanca are much longer.

The relay races of the Pimas did not differ materially from those among the Pueblo tribes of the Rio Grande or the Apaches and others of the Southwest. When a village wished to race with a neighboring