Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/52

] Yumas encamped near the river at a spot where they had assaulted some women and a Pima had been killed while defending them. The Yumas had spent the night in singing their war songs. Now and again a medicine-man would come forward to puff whiffs of smoke in order that their cause might find favor with the gods. The Pima-Maricopa council ended about noon and it was decided to surround the Yumas and to make special effort to prevent them from reaching the river to obtain water. Formed in a semicircle, the Pimas and Maricopas shot down the Yumas upon three sides. Soon the Yumas began to waver and become exhausted from thirst in the heat of the day. They made several attempts to break through the line, but failed, and finally gathered in a compact body to make a last attempt to reach the river. At that moment the Pimas and Maricopas who were on horseback rushed in upon the enemy and rode them down. After a hand-to-hand combat the Yumas were all killed except one, who was stunned by the blow of a club and lay unconscious under a heap of dead. During the night he recovered his senses and escaped. This was the bloodiest fight known, and the Yumas came here to fight no more.

Blackwater. During the year Pimas were killed in two places by the Apaches; three south of the river and one north.

Blackwater. The meteor of 1859 was observed by the Pimas, who called it pai-ikam ho-o. During a raid into the Apache country three of the enemy were killed and also one Pima.