cousins to the southward wholly subsisted upon did not prevent the Pimas from attaining proficiency in agriculture, as will be seen later, and it must many times have preserved them from total extinction. With what success they sought for edible plants may be judged from the subjoined list, which is believed to be fairly complete. It contains 22 plants of which the stems, leaves, or flowers were eaten, 4 that furnished roots or bulbs, 24 with seeds or nuts, and 15 that supplied fruits or berries. And this in a region that appears to the casual visitor to be a desert: with but a few thorny shrubs and but one tree that he would deem worthy of the name.
PREPARATION OF FOOD
Very few articles of Pima diet are eaten raw, and many of them are of such a nature as to necessitate thorough cooking; thus the agave and the fruit of some of the cacti are baked for many hours. It may be well, therefore, to describe the methods, so far as they could be ascertained, of preparing the various plants for use. The art of cooking is not well developed among these people; no such elaborate preparations as Mr Cushing found at Zuñi tempt the Pima palate.
In the olden time maize was ground upon the flat metates and formed into loaves, which must have been "sad" indeed, to judge from their modern counterparts. With the advent of the whites came the introduction of a new and quickly accepted cereal, wheat; and the bread made from it also, without leavening agent, is heavy and indigestible. One loaf was obtained (pl. VI, a), said to be a comparatively small one, that weighed 14 pounds and yet was only 3 inches thick and 20 inches in diameter. No knowledge of the pueblo wafer breads exists among the Pimas, who confine their treatment of mesquite, corn, wheat, and other flour to baking as tortillas or as loaves in the ashes, frying in suet, or boiling, either in water to form a gruel or mush, or with other foods in the shape of dumplings.
A large part of the cereal food of the Pimas is parched before it is ground.
The process of parching on, or rather among, the coals is dexterously carried out. The coals are raked into the parching pan (pl. XIX, a) and after the grain has been thrown upon them it is given a series of tosses with a quarter-turn to each which redistributes the light but bulky coals and the heavier grain. A frequent puff of breath carries away the quickly gathering flakes of ashes. The contents of the pan are separated by a few short jerks that carry the coals in a mass to the edge of the dish, whence the larger particles are seraped off and the smaller blown out. Another method of parching seeds is to place over the fire an olla that has been broken so that at least one side is wanting, thus admitting the hand to stir the contents as they are browned.
