The Pima Indians/Esthetic arts/Athletic sports
ESTHETIC ARTS
Athletic Sports
The men received thorough training in speed and endurance in running during their raids into the Apache country, but they had few sports that tended toward physical improvement except the foot races. Sometimes a woman ran in a contest against a man, she throwing a double ball by means of a long stick, while he kept a kicking ball before him. But the women seldom ran in foot races, though their active outdoor life, engaged in the various tasks that fell to them, kept them in fit condition. However, they had an athletic game which corresponded in a measure to the races of the men and developed skill in running. This game was played as follows:
Âldû
Two of the swiftest runners among the women acted as leaders and chose alternately from the players until all were selected in two groups. Two goals were fixed about 400 yards apart, one side saying, "To the trail is where we can beat you," while the other party declared, "To that mesquite is where we can beat you." Two lines were formed about 25 yards apart, and the ball was put in play by being tossed up and started toward the opponent's goal. It was thrown with sticks until some one drove it beyond the goal and won the game.[1] To touch the ball with the hands debarred the person from further play. This game was abandoned about 1885.
 a |
 b |
Fig. 86. a, Alder stick; b, double ball. |
Kicking-ball races
These races were frequently intertribal, and in their contests with the Papagos the Pimas nearly always won. The use of these balls in foot races is very widespread in the Southwest, and even yet we hear of races taking place that exceed 20 miles in length.
The kicking bail, when of wood, resembles a croquet ball in size, but it is usually covered with a coating of creosote gum. These balls 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).
 a |
 b |
Fig. 87. Kicking balls. a, Wood covered with gum; b, without covering. |
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.
RELAY RACES
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
ab
Fig. 88, Kicking balls. a, Stone covered with gum; b, without covering. 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 one they sent a messenger to convey the information that in four or five days, according to the decision of their council, they wished to test their fortunes in a relay race, and that in the meantime they were singing the bluebird (or, as the case might be, the humming-bird) songs and dancing in preparation. Both had the same time to practise and the time was short; in this preparation the young men ran in groups of four or five. There were 40 or 50 runners in each village, and he who proved to be the swiftest was recognized as the leader who should run first in the final contest. It was not necessary that each village should enter exactly the same number of men in the race; a man might run any number of times that his endurance permitted. When the final race began each village stationed half its runners at each end of the track; then a crier called three times for the leaders, and as the last call, which was long drawn out, closed the starter shouted "Tâʼwai!" and they were off on the first relay. Markers stood at the side of the track and held willow sticks with rags attached as marks of the position of the opposing sides. Sometimes a race was ended by one party admitting that it was tired out, but it usually was decided when the winners were so far ahead that their runner met the other at the center where the markers also met.
The women encouraged their friends with shouts in concert that were emitted from the throat and ended in a trill from the tongue. At the close of the race the winning village shouted continuously for some time; after which the visitors would go home, as there was no accompanying feast.
SWIMMING
Mention is made in the calendar records of parties of Pimas or Maricopas being engaged in swimming and diving to catch fish with their naked hands, and Mr Cook assures the writer that he has seen them do both.
- ↑ The stick in the collection is of willow, 1.230 m. long, with a maximum diameter of 18 mm. The balls are in pairs, 15 cm. apart, connected by a 4-strand 2-ply leather thong, the balls being mere knotty enlargements of the thong (fig. 86, a, b).