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
Flotsam and stolen metal have played a rôle in the industries
of Seriland so long that it is difficult to learn much of the
turtle-fishing during premetal times; but an intimation from Mashém
that the old men thought it much better to take the turtle with the
teeth of an “animal that goes in the water”, and the similarity in
terms for “harpoon” (or arrow) and “teeth” both suggest that the
aboriginal point may have been a sea-lion tooth, and that the foreshaft
itself may have been a larger tooth of seal or cetacean. While the
modern harpoon is shaped with the aid of metal (hoop-iron, etc.),
the forms are quite evidently vestigial of knifeless manufacture, in
which a naturally rounded or abraded or fire-shaped foreshaft was
fitted into the natural socket afforded by a cane-stalk broken at its
weakest point—i. e., just below the joint; and both function and socket
arrangement (as well as the linguistic evidence) strongly suggest the
cylindrical tooth as the germ of the apparatus.
* * * * *
It is probable that water-fowl, considered collectively, stand second
in importance as Seri prey; and the foremost fowl is undoubtedly the
pelican, which serves not only as a fruitful food-supply but as the
chief source of apparel.
The principal haunt and only known breeding ground of the pelican in
the Gulf of California is Isla Tassne, an integral part of Seriland;
and while the great birds are doubtless taken occasionally in Bahia
Kunkaak, El Infiernillo, Bahia Tepoka, and other Seri waters, this
island is the principal pelican hunting ground. According to Mashém’s
account, the chase of the pelican here is a well-organized collective
process: at certain seasons, or at least at times deemed propitious
by the shamans, pelican harvests are planned; and after some days
of preparation a large party assemble at a certain convenient point
(presumably Punta Antigualla) and await a still evening in the dark
of the moon. When all conditions are favorable they set out for the
island at late twilight, in order that it may be reached after dark;
on approaching the shore the balsas are left in charge of the women,
while the warriors and the larger boys, armed only with clubs, rush on
the roosting fowls and slaughter them in great numbers—the favorite
coup de grâce being a blow on the neck. The butchery is followed by
a gluttonous feast, in which the half-famished families gorge the
tenderer parts in the darkness, and noisily carouse in the carnage
until overcome by slumber. Next day the matrons select the carcasses
of least injured plumage and carefully remove the skins, the requisite
incisions being made either with the edge of a shell-cup or with a
sharp sliver of cane-stalk taken from an injured arrow or a broken
balsa-cane. The feast holds for several days, or until the last bones
are picked and the whole party sated, when the clans scatter at will,
laden with skins and lethargic from the fortnight’s food with which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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