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
Among the conspicuous but nondistinctive somatic characters of the Seri
is luxuriant straight hair, habitually worn long and loose. Commonly
the hair is jet-black for most of the length, growing tawny toward the
tips; sometimes it is black throughout, while again the tawny tinge,
or perhaps a bleached appearance, extends well toward the scalp.
Age-grayness seems not to be characteristic; the most aged matrons
known have no more than a few inconspicuous and scattered gray hairs,
though the pelage of some is slightly bleached or faded. None of the
warriors at Costa Rica showed the slightest grayness except Mashém
(aged about 50 years), who had a few gray strands about the temples;
but it maybe significant that the hair of the tribal outlaw Kolusio,
who has lived with white men for full three score years, is iron-gray.
Kolusio’s pelage is trimmed in Caucasian fashion; that of Mashém is
cut off mid-length in a manner exciting comment, if not derision, on
the part of his fellows and others, and resulting in his (Spanish)
sobriquet, Pelado (literally, Peeled, or idiomatically, Shorn); but
with few exceptions the hair is kept long as it can be made to grow,
and receives careful attention, to this end. Naturally the length
is somewhat variable; in many cases it depends to or slightly below
the waist, while in other cases it merely sweeps the shoulders; and
in general it appears to increase in both length and luxuriance not
only throughout adolescence, but up to late maturity, for the best
pelages are presented by moderately aged persons, while none of the
youths are so luxuriantly tressed as their elders. Not the slightest
trace of baldness appears. The infantile pelage is short, brownish in
color, soft or even silky, and inclined to curl toward the tips. It is
not until the age of several months that the hair begins to acquire
the adult character, and at least some children retain traces of the
infantile pilary character up to 5 or even 10 years; and none of the
children display such jet-black shock-heads as are frequently found
among other tribes, whose adult pelage may nevertheless be much less
luxuriant than that of the Seri. On the whole, it may be said that the
Seri hair is luxuriant and vigorous beyond the aboriginal average, and
that it, like various other somatic features, indicates a relatively
late maturation in the life-history of the individual.
Both sexes are beardless. The female faces seen were entirely free of
strong pilary growth; one or two of the warrior faces showed scattering
hairs, and Mashém sported a feeble and downy but jet-black mustache
with an exceptional number of scattered hairs about the chin; while
Kolusio shaved regularly, and might, apparently, have grown moderately
stiff but straggling mustaches and beard. Axillary hair seems to be
wanting; pubic hair is said to be scanty; otherwise the bodies are
practically hairless (more nearly so than those of average Caucasians).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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