Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights: The Myths And Legends Of The Pimas

Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights: The Myths And Legends Of The Pimas

by J. William Lloyd


This is a rare book of Pima folklore, transcribed by a sympathetic amateur ethnographer at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Pima live in the arid deserts of southern Arizona, and originally survived by horticulture and hunting/gathering. Lloyd was not a linguist, and collected the stories through an interpreter. All of the Pima words and phrases are written using a crude 'phonetic' system, which no doubt is fairly inaccurate. However, this does not invalidate the folklore, which is well-told and consistent with other southwestern Native American mythology, particularly in its repetition of the number four.