face alone was painted, but during festivals and on other special occasions the entire body was painted. On dress occasions the lines on the face were made much narrower, and instead of being applied with the hands the color was laid on with a splinter or twig of arrowwood 2 mm. wide by 80 mm. long. Both men and women painted their bodies and both used the same colors on their faces, but in different proportions. The men used more black and were especially careful to intensify the tattoo marks. The women also emphasized the tattooing, and there were black lines, therefore, under the eyes of both sexes, showing that the permanent embellishment was regarded as especially significant.
The designs were simple vertical and transverse lines, as shown in plate XXXVIII, d. The paint was not often washed off, but additional lines were added as the design became effaced. Each person painted his own face and used an olla of water as a mirror. The men painted the hair of the frontal region either white or red in preparing for a dance, and never both colors at the same time. The women painted their hair in spots and bands of white.
Besides the yellow ocher obtained from the Skâsŏwalĭk hills (pl. XVI, a), the yellow pollen of the cat-tail, Typha angustifolia Linn., was used. Red was obtained from the Mohaves, and in recent years from the Yumas. From the latter also was bartered the bluish black specular iron ore that glistened on the warrior's cheeks. Red and white were brought by the Papagos from out of the vast desert to the southward, the mineral resources of which are yet scarcely known to the invading race. Lastly, diamond dyes were used to some extent, but their day was short, for now no Pima paints at all. Indeed, it was with difficulty that two persons could be hired to paint their faces that the writer might photograph them.
If in the pristine period of Pimerían history the lines upon the rich brown skins were meant to symbolize the thought or fancy of the artists, no knowledge of the fact has survived the vicissitudes of war and strife through the centuries. To-day they are meaningless and to-morrow will have been forgotten.
TATTOOING
A few lines were tattooed on the faces of both men and women. Thorns and charcoal were used in the operation. The thorns were from the outer borders of the prickly-pear cactus; from two to four were tied together with loosely twisted native cotton fiber to enlarge the lower portion to a convenient size for grasping, while the upper end was neatly bound with sinew. The charcoal, from either willow or mesquite wood, was pulverized and kept in balls 2 or 3 cm. in diameter (fig. 78).
