rently would be an admission of loss of vigour which no Washo
oldster wishes to make. Menstruating women today will eat meat purchased
from a butcher but refrain from eating venison or other game taken by
someone they know, for fear of spoiling his luck. Menstrual taboos also
hold today in regard to touching firearms or fishing poles, although at
least some Washo women own fishing poles, and in the early part of this
century a woman who lives at Carson City was reputed to be a great hunter.
In times past, certain women are reported to have made excellent bows but
not to have used them.

Stewart reports dances to bring deer which none of my informants
remembered. However, even in his time the dances were said to be "mainly
for pleasure," which suggests the sacred nature of such dances has
gradually faded out of the consciousness of most modern Washo,
particularly as deer hunting has become entirely an individual enterprise
and is no longer central to Washo subsistence.

Gathering

As stated earlier, there appears to have been much less ritual involved in
gathering activities, perhaps because there was much less chance of
failure than in hunting. However, Stewart reports that sometimes dances
were held to make seeds grow (2619-2621). Such gatherings appear to be
remembered, if at all, by living Washo only as social occasions.

The fall pine-nut dance was clearly part of the ritual of the pine-nut
harvest (2617, 2622). The pine nut was central to Washo winter survival,
and its production was a matter of extreme concern. Even today the
pine-nut harvest becomes a paramount interest among all the Washo during
the last part of the summer. Speculations as to its size, wishes for rain,
and survey trips into the pine-nut hills become common, and according to
one informant: "If we have a couple of bad years somebody will say, 'We
ought to have a pine-nut dance,' and then we'll have one."

The following account of the pine-nut dances of the past was given to me
by a man, now almost blind, of between seventy-five and eighty. His father
claimed to be chief of the Washo through an affinal relationship to the
famous Captain Jim, and my informant maintains the claim, stoutly denied
by all other Washo except his relatives and admitted by them only when
they are forced to depend on his hospitality. The account is one of a
well-regulated four-day ceremony of the first fruit. However, it will
become apparent as other information