# The Pima Indians/Sophiology/Religion

Myths - Nursery Tales - Abstracts of Myths - Abstracts of Nursery Tales - Religion - Medicine-Men - Legerdemain - Cause and Treatment of Disease - Prevalent Diseases Deities · The Soul and its Destiny · Dreams · Sacred Places
SOPHIOLOGY
Religion
DEITIES
The Pimas are far less given than their pueblo neighbors to the outward show of religion, such as is seen in the varied and frequent ceremonies of the Hopis and Zuñis. On the contrary, they appear to have no other than an occasional "rain dance," the navitco (see p. 326), and other ceremonies for the cure of disease. So far as could be ascertained in a comparatively brief sojourn among them their religion comprised a belief in the supernatural or magic power of animals, and especially in the omnipotence of the Sun. When in mourning, sick, or in need, the Pima addressed his prayers to the Sun in the morning: Tars! Oek iʼup sĭnhâ-ĭkuĭ-itûk iup ĭnʼyĭmak kuvʼkutûki! "Sun! Kindly help me through the day!" Or at nightfall his petition was raised: Stcohoʼkomam! iʼup sĭnhâʼĭkuĭ-itûk iup ĭnʼyĭmak kuvʼkutûki! "Darkness! Kindly help me through the night!" The following form of supplication was often employed: Tars! Paʼpûtitcû sinhâʼĭ-iku[ldi], contracted from Tars! Paʼpût itcokʼsi sĭnhâʼĭkuĭt, "Sun! There, have mercy on me." When weary upon a journey, the ​Sun was appealed to, and the first whiff of cigarette smoke was puffed toward him. The disk was not regarded as the "shield" or "headdress," but as the veritable person of the god. He moves unceasingly around the flat earth, going beneath the western rim and passing across below to rise in the east.
It is Sun that, by means of magic power, kills those who die during the day. It is Night who kills those who die during the hours of darkness. Moon is Sun's wife, but she is not accredited with the power that is given to Darkness. Coyote is the child of Sun and Moon, and figures largely in the myths. His character, by its buffoonery and trickery, much resembles that of the culture heroes of some other tribes.
At the present time two deities are recognized, Tcuʼwut Makai, Earth Magician (medicine-man or doctor), and Siʼûû, Elder Brother. They live in the east, dividing the control of the universe between them. The former governs the winds, the rains, etc.; sometimes he is called Tciors, Dios [Spanish]. Their names are pronounced when & person sneezes, or, he may simply exclaim "pity me," referring tacitly to one or the other of these two deities. There is a puzzling mingling of the old and the new in the myths, though it seems probable that the greater part of them have been of ancient origin with recent adaptation of Earth Doctor and Elder Brother from the Christian religion. Among the Pimas themselves opinion is divided as to whether the myths have been largely adopted from the Papagos.
At the solstitial point in the northeast lives Tcopiny Makai, Sinking Magician, who also has a "house" in the northwest. In the southeast lives Vakolif Makai, South Magician, who also occupies the corresponding point in the southwest. Along the Sun's path are the houses of the four minor gods:
Wupuki Makai, Lightning Magician, is the southernmost, and when the Sun is in his neighborhood we have lightning that is not accompanied by thunder.
Toahĭm Makai, Thunder Magician, causes the thunders that are heard during the second month.
Huwult Makai, Wind Magician, produces the strong winds that blow so continuously in the spring.
Tâtrsaki Makai, Foam Magician, causes the river to rise and bear foam upon its waves in the month succeeding the month of wind.
It is difficult to determine the exact position of Coyote in the Pima pantheon, though he is classed with the leading deities in the myths, and his modern but degenerate descendants are regarded as very wise,
When a coyote comes by moonlight and sees the shadow of a chicken he can pounce upon the shadow and so bring down the bird within reach. He has been known to steal a baby from between its ​sleeping parents, an informant declared. Considering the manner in which the moon is supposed to have originated, it is strange that it should contain the figure of a coyote. No explanation of this belief was found.
The stars are living beings: Morning Star is the daughter of a magician; her name is Suʼmas Hoʼ-o, Visible Star. Polaris is the Not-walking Star, but is otherwise not distinguished from his fellows. Possibly this term has been adopted since the advent of the whites. Once a mule with a pack load of flour was going along in the sky, but he was fractious and not gentle, as is the horse. He bucked off the load of flour, which was spilled all along the trail. A part of it was eaten by Coyote, but some remains to form the Milky Way.
THE SOUL AND ITS DESTINY
The soul is in the center of the breast. It makes us breathe, but it is not the breath. It is not known just what it is like, whether it is white or any other color.
The views of the Pimas concerning the destiny of the soul varied considerably. Some declared that at death the soul passed into the body of an owl. Should an owl happen to be hooting at the time of a death, it was believed that it was waiting for the soul. Referring to the diet of the owl, dying persons sometimes said, "I am going to eat rats." Owl feathers were always given to a dying person. They were kept in a long rectangular box or basket of maguey leaf. If the family had no owl feathers at hand, they sent to the medicine-man, who always kept them. If possible, the feathers were taken from a living bird when collected; the owl might then be set free or killed. If the short downy feathers of the owl fell upon a person, he would go blind. Even to-day the educated young people are very chary about entering an abandoned building tenanted by an owl.
By some it is said that after death souls go to the land of the dead in the east. All souls go to Siʼalĭk Rsân, Morning Base, or ​place where the sun rises. The East Land is separated from the land of the living by the chasm called Tcuʼwut Hiʼketany, Earth Crack. When one of the writer's interpreters had gone to school at Hampton, Va., her associates said that she had gone to the abode of spirits. All is rejoicing and gladness in that other world. There they will feast and dance, consequently when one dies his best clothing must be put on and his hair must be dressed with care, as is the custom in preparing for an earthly ceremony. No idea of spiritual reward or punishment for conduct in this life exists.
Again, the souls of the dead are supposed to hang about and perform unpleasant pranks with the living. They are liable to present themselves before the living if they catch the right person alone at night. The ghost never speaks at such times, nor may any but medicine-men speak to them. If one be made sick by thus seeing a ghost, he must have the medicine-man go to the grave of the offending soul and tell it to be quiet, "and they always do as they are bid." Old Kisatc, of Santan, thought that the soul continued to reside in the body as that was "its house." During his youth he had accompanied a medicine-man and a few friends to the grave of aman who had been killed near Picacho, about 40 miles southeast of Sacaton. The medicine-man addressed the grave in a long speech, in which he expressed the sorrow and regret of the relatives and friends that the corpse should thus be buried so far from home. Kisatc avers that the spirit within the grave replied to the speech by saying that he did not stay there all the time, but that he oecasionally went over to hang about the villages, and that he felt unhappy in the state in which he found himself. Of course the medicine-men claim to be in communication with the spirits of the departed as well as with supernatural beings capable of imparting magic power.
DREAMS
Dreams are variously regarded as the result of evil doing, as a natural and normal means of communication with the spirit world, and as being caused by Darkness or Night. During the dream the soul wanders away and passes through adventures as in the waking hours. The young men never slept in the council ki for fear of bad dreams.
To dream of the dead causes sickness in the dreamer and if he dream of the dead for several nights in succession he will die. Dreams are not consulted for information concerning future action except in ​the case of the would-be medicine-man who may be called to his profession by means of persistent dreams. Since Night may cause one to dream as he wishes it is fair to presume that it is that god who oversees the destinies of the medicine-men.
Many years ago Kisatc, in either a swoon or trance, believed that he went far away to a place where a stranger gave him a magnificent bow and a set of beautiful arrows. On regaining consciousness he asked for the things that had been given him while he was away and became quite indignant when they assured him that he had not been out of their sight. To this day he believes that they deceived him.
SACRED PLACES
Hâhâtesumiehĭn or Hâhâtai sʼmaihĭsk, Stones Strike, is a large block of lava located in the eastern Santan hills (see pl. XLI, b). The largest pictograph ever seen by the writer in the Southwest is cut upon it and 2 or 3 tons of small angular stones foreign to the locality are piled before it. There are also many pictographs on the bowlders round about. This was probably a Hohokam shrine; though it is regarded with reverence by the Pimas, who still place offerings of beads, bits of cloth, and twigs of the creosote bush at the foot of the large pictograph. There is a tradition that a young man was lying asleep upon the flat rock and was seen by two young women who were passing along the opposite hillside. They tried to awaken him by tossing the pebbles which are yet to be seen. Pima maids thus awaken their lovers to the present day.
Hâ-âk Vâ-âk, Hâ-âk Lying, is a crude outline of a human figure situated about 5 miles north of Sacaton. It was made by scraping aside the small stones with which the mesa is there thickly strewn to form furrows about 50 cm. wide (fig. 102). The body furrow is 35 m. long and has a small heap of stones at the head, another at a distance of 11 m. from the first, and another at the junction of body and legs. The latter are 11 m. long and 1 m. apart. The arms curve outward from the head and terminate in small pyramids. In all the piles of stone, which have a temporary and modern appearance, are glass beads and rags, together with fresh creosote branches, showing that the place is yet visited. The beads are very old and much weathered. Beside the large figure is a smaller one that is 4.5 m. long, the body being 2.7. Hâ-âk is supposed to have slept one night st this place before reaching Hâ-âk Tcia Hâk, a cave in the Ta-atûkam mountains, where she remained for some time.
* ↑ Having been asked what information they possessed of their ancestors (antepasados), they told me about the same things as (lo mismo poco mas ó menos que) the (Pimas ([Maricopas?]) Gileños said to the señor comandante, and Padre Font put in his diary, concerning the deluge and creation; and added, that their origin was from near the sea in which an old woman created their progenitors; that this old woman is still somewhere (quien sabe en donde), and that she it is who sends the corals that come out of the sea; that when they die their ghost (corazon) goes to live toward the western sea; that some, after they die, live like owls (tecolótes); and finally they said that they themselves do not understand such things well, and that those who know it all are those who live in the sierra over therm beyond the Rio Colorado," Garcés' Diary in Coues, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, I, 122. "After death Mohaves become spirits; then they die again and become a kind of an owl; a second time they turn into a different kind of an owl and a third time into still another; fourthly, they become water beetles; after that they turn into air. "If anything is left of their bodies, the arms, the muscles of the upper arms become one kind of an owl and the heart another." J.G. Bourke, Journal of American Folk-Lore, II, 181.
* ↑ Compare the Navaho belief as recorded by Matthews: "For is it not from the west that the snow comes in the winter, the warm thawing breezes in the spring, and the soft rains in the summer to nour- ish the corn in the valleys and the grass on the hills? Therefore it is that when we are in need we pray to Estsanaltehi, the Goddess of the Sunset Land. "But first man and first woman were angry because they were banished to the east, and before they left they swore undying hatred and enmity to our people. And for this reason all evils come from the east—smallpox and other diseases, war, and the white intruder." The Navajo Mythology, in American Antiquarian, V, 224, 1883.
​Patʼanĭkäm, Place of the Bad One, is the name of a grave at Gila Crossing. It seems probable that the grave of some Hohokam medicine-man has been taken for that of the son of Kâkanyp.
There is another similarly inclosed but unnamed grave at Gila Crossing, also one between Sweetwater and Casa Blanca, and there are three at Blackwater. Such inclosures are called oʼnamûksk, meaning unknown. Beads are to be found strewn about all of them.
Maʼvĭt Vâ-âk, Puma Lying, or Tciʼapatak, Place of the Mortar, is a heap of small stones (pl. XLI, c) between the Double buttes, 10 miles west of Sacaton. Stones are there piled over a shallow mortar in which beads have been placed and partly broken. Bunches of fresh creosote branches were mingled with the decaying fragments of arrow shafts at the time of the writer's visit, showing that while the shrine is yet resorted to it is of considerable antiquity, for wood does not decay rapidly in that climate.
Evil spirits dwell in the Picacho and Estrella mountains, but this belief may be presumed to be an inheritance from the Apache period. The writer has not learned of any shrines being located in those ranges.
​Near the summit of one of the lava-formed Santan hills is a small cave in which the Hohokam placed sacrifices. A number of articles were discovered there a quarter of a century ago and sent to some eastern museum. Since that time the Pimas deposited the body of a child and some other things in the cave, which were secured by an Arizona collector in 1901. The cave is known as Vaʼrsa Vâʼ-âk, Basket Lying, because it contained a basket such as the Pimas use for their medicine paraphernalia. It was discovered by two Pima warriors, who were serving their sixteen-day period of lustration for having killed Apaches. The basket contained sinew from the legs of deer, and sticks, which the finders assumed to be for the same purpose as those with which they were scratching their own heads at the time.
When a medicine-man dies his paraphernalia, if not transmitted to his descendants, may be placed in an olla and hidden under a heap of stones in the hills. He may also sacrifice a part of his stock in a similar way during his lifetime. The property of warriors is sometimes similarly cached.
Such places were formerly respected by the tribe, but they are now robbed with impunity to get "relics" to sell. A man at Pe-eʼpûtciltkʼ informed the author's interpreter, José Lewis, of the location of one of these caches in the low hills south of Casa Blanca. We found that a number of concretions, crystals, shells, a bird carved from stone, and a war club had been deposited in an olla with a bowl turned over it, rendering it water-tight. The whole had been hidden under a heap of stones at the summit of a spur of the hill about 4 miles from the villages.