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 chase of the hare is closely parallel to that of the deer save
that it is conducted by striplings, who thereby serve apprenticeship
in hunting and at the same time enrich the tribal larder with a game
beneath the dignity of the warriors; while still smaller boys similarly
chase the rabbit, which is commonly scorned by the striplings. The
conventional hare-hunting party is three, and it is deemed disreputable
to increase this number greatly. The youths spread at sight of the game
and seek to surround it, taking ingenious and constant advantage of the
habit of the hare to run obliquely or in zigzags to survey more readily
the source of its fright; for some time they startle it but slightly
by successive appearances at a distance, but gradually increase its
harassment until it bounds hither and thither in terror, when they
rapidly close in and seize it, the entire chase commonly lasting but a
few minutes. The quarry is customarily taken alive to camp, where it is
quickly rent to fragments and the entrails and flesh and most of the
bones consumed; the skin usually passes into possession of a matron for
use as infantile clothing or cradle bedding, while the ears are kept by
the youth who first seized the game until his feat is eclipsed by some
other event—unless chance hunger sooner tempts him to transmute his
trophy into pottage.
While the collective, semiceremonial style of chase alone is thoroughly
good form in Seri custom, it is often rendered impracticable by the
scattering of the tribe in separate families or small bands, in
which case the bura and its associates, like the larger carnivores
customarily, are taken by strategy rather than by strength. This form
of chase is largely individual; in it archery plays a leading rôle;
and in it, too, ambuscade, stealthy lying in wait, and covert assault
attain high development. It is closely analogous with the warfare
typical of the tribe; and it is especially noteworthy as one of the
most effective stimuli to intellectual activity, and hence to the
development of invention—if the term may be applied to industrial
products so lowly as those of the Seri.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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