The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))McGee, W J
History
The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))
McGee, W J
Seri Indians; Seri language; Yuman languages
The Seri, with their affines, the Tepoka, Salinero, Guayma, and
Upanguayma, were included by Bancroft in his arbitrarily defined
“Northern Mexican family”.[195] The accompanying map (which is highly
inaccurate) located the “Salineros” on the gulf coast, considerably
north of the common embouchure of “R. de Horcasitas” and “Rio de
Sonora”; while the “Seris” were more conspicuously represented about
the broad estuary into which the rivers embouch, and the “Tepocas”
were located still farther southward on both Tiburon and the mainland,
the island being placed too far southward and the river much too far
northward.[196] Numerous data relating to the Seri were incorporated in
his text; all were second-hand, though many were taken from unique or
rare manuscripts. The coastwise natives of Sonora were said to “live
on pulverized rush and straw, with fish caught at sea or in artificial
enclosures”; mention was made of the allegation that “the Salineros
sometimes eat their own excrement”; anthropophagy was noted, but as
pertaining rather to the interior than to the coastwise tribes;[197]
and prominence was given to the Seri arrow poison, of which an early
author wrote:
[195] Op. cit., vol. I, pp. 604-605.
[196] Ibid., p. 471.
[197] The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. III (The Native Races,
vol. III, 1882, p. 576.)
The poison with which they envenom the points of their arrows
is the most active that has ever been known here.... It has not
been possible to ascertain with certainty the deadly materials
of which this pestilential compound is brewed. Many things
are alleged, e. g., that it is made from the heads of vipers,
irritated and decapitated at the moment of striking their teeth
into a piece of lung or of half putrefied human flesh.
Reference was made also to the “magot” (probably the yerba mala of
the modern Mexicans) as a source of arrow poison.[198] The girls’
puberty feast was said to be kept up for several days among the Seri
and Tepoka, and the former were said to “superstitiously celebrate
the new moon, and bow reverentially to the rising and setting sun”,
and also to “employ charms in their medical practice”.[199] Finally,
the constituent tribes were discriminated in a manner recalling the
persistent assumption that the parasite-converts at the missions fairly
represented the Seri:
[198] Ibid., p. 579.
[199] Ibid., pp. 584, 587, 589.
The Tepocas and Tiburones are fierce, cruel, and treacherous,
more warlike and courageous than the Ceris of the mainland, who
are singularly devoid of good qualities, being sullenly stupid,
lazy, inconstant, revengeful, depredating, and much given to
intemperance. Their country even has become a refuge for evil
doers. In former times they were warlike and brave, but even
this quality they have lost, and have become as cowardly as
they are cruel.[200]
[200] Ibid., p. 590.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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