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
[231] Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology, Chicago,
1894, p. 104. In a letter to Mr F. W. Hodge, under date of September
11, 1900, Dr Lumholtz says: “After renewed investigation I have come to
another opinion regarding the meaning of the tribal name _Tarahumari_.
This word is a Spanish corruption of the native name ‘Raramuri’. Though
the meaning of this word is not clear, that much is certain that
_rala_ or _tara_ means ‘foot’, and I therefore take it that we must
be at least approximately correct when we say that the word signifies
‘foot-runner’.”
An Indian has been known to carry a letter from Guazapares
to Chihuahua and back again in five days, the distance being
nearly 800 miles. In some parts where the Tarahumaris serve
the Mexicans they are used to run in the wild horses, driving
them into the corral. It may take them two or three days to
do it, sleeping at night and living on a little pinole. They
bring in the horses thoroughly exhausted, while they themselves
are still fresh. They will outrun any horses if you give them
time enough. They will pursue deer in the snow or with dogs
in the rain for days and days, until at last the animal is
cornered and shot with arrows or falls an easy prey from sheer
exhaustion, its hoofs dropping off.[232]
[232] American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, 1895, p. 92.
The Papago, of the same region and linguistic stock, have a racing
game in which a ball of wood or stone caught on the foot is thrown,
followed, and thrown again until the two or more rival racers have
covered 20 to 40 miles in the course of a few hours; and their feats
as couriers and trailers are quite up to those of the Opata. Yet among
all these tribes, and among the Mexicans as well, the Seri are known
as _the_ runners par excellence of the Sonoran province; and it is but
natural that their astounding swiftness and lightness of foot should
have brought them an appellation among contemporaries to whom these
qualities peculiarly appeal.
Accordingly, both derivation and connotation give meaning to the name,
and warrant the rendering (much weakened by linguistic infelicities)
of “spry” or “spry-moving”, used in substantive sense and with an
intensive implication.
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