Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/188

] in a dance that occupied four nights. The futher and mother did not dance, but they took care to select the best girls to dance with their daughter "for their good influence." The men and women formed two lines facing each other on the hardened and well-swept plaza outside the house; their arms were extended to embrace those adjoining, and the blankets were stretched along the line to cover as many as they would reach over instead of being wrapped around each individual. The lines advanced and retreated rhythmically while the puberty songs were sung. These songs were in sets that were retained in the memories of certain persons and the set for the night was generally determined by the chance that brought the first leader to the spot when all was ready to begin. It was an exhausting dance, as there was no stopping for rest or food during the night. In the morning all returned to their homes to spend the day in sleep.

During the menstrual period all women were secluded for four days, during which they lived in the bushes near the village, making little shelters to shade them from the sun and occupying their time in making baskets. They lived on pinole, which was brought each morning and left at a short distance from their camp. Sometimes there were several together. They always bathed in the river before returning to their homes.

The youth of Pimería marry "early and often." In the majority of cases the choice is made by the girl who seeks to avoid an alliance with a lazy man. A handsome fellow is of course desired, but when she "knows in her heart" that he is the right man even the homely youth is chosen. As to what is the ideal of physical beauty, questioning naturally elicited only general information. For example, he must be tall and strong; dark, because he will not wrinkle as soon as the lighter colored; he must not be too fat. The woman must not be fat nor yet thin; "she must have good hair and a good face." The writer's informant volunteered information that a stranger might distinguish between the married and the unmarried women by the fact that the latter kept their hair in much better condition than the former. No peculiar style of hair dressing such us that in vogue among the Hopis serves to distinguish the unmarried girls (see pl. ); with the change of state they simply "let themselves go" in a very human way, though even at the worst their hair receives probably more attention than that of the vast majority of their white sisters.

When a youth selects a bride he visits her home in company with a young married friend who pleads his cause while he sits in the background. After several nights of wooing by proxy, if his cause is favored he remains and is accepted as a husband without further ceremony. For four days they remain at her home and on the evening