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 chief artifact produced by the strategic chase on land would seem
to be the analogue of the harpoon used at sea, i. e., the arrow. This
weapon is one of the three or four most highly differentiated and
thoroughly perfected of the Seri artifacts, ranking with canteen-olla
and balsa, and perhaps outranking the turtle-harpoon. It is fabricated
with great care and high skill, and with striking uniformity in
details of material and construction. A typical example is 25 inches
in length and consists of three pieces—point, foreshaft, and main
shaft (feathered toward the nock). The foreshaft is 8½ inches long,
of hard wood carefully ground by rubbing with quartzite or pumice
into cylindrical form, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter at
the larger end and tapering slightly toward the point; the larger
end is extended by careful grinding into a tang which is fitted into
the main shaft, the joint being neatly wrapped with sinew. This main
shaft is a cane-stalk (_Phragmites communis?_) 15 or 16 inches long,
carefully selected for size and well straightened and smoothed; it is
feathered with three equidistantly-placed wing-feathers of hawk or
falcon, neatly prepared by removing a thin strip of the rachis bearing
the wider vexillum and attaching it by sinew wrappings at both ends,
the feathers being about 5½ inches in length. The nock is a simple
rounded notch, placed just below a joint and supported by the sinew
ferrule; there is no foot-plug. The favorite point is a bit of flotsam
hoop-iron, ground into elongate triangular shape with projecting barbs,
and a short tang or shank fitted into a shallow notch in the foreshaft,
cemented there with mesquite gum, and finally fixed firmly with sinew
wrappings. A typical iron-point arrow, with bow and quiver, is depicted
in plate XXX. Alternative points are of rudely chipped stone (two
examples are illustrated in figure 37) somewhat clumsily attached to
the foreshaft by mesquite gum and sinew wrapping; while the arrows used
by boys and hunters of small game are usually pointless, the tip of
the foreshaft being sharpened and hardened by slight charring. In some
of the arrows, especially those designed for use in war, the foreshaft
is notched, or else loosely attached to the main shaft, in order that
it may be detached from the main shaft and remain in the body of enemy
or prey. The foreshaft is commonly painted some bright color (red
is prevalent), while the points and attachments of the “poisoned”
specimens are smeared with some greasy substance.
The aboriginal Seri arrow has undoubtedly been modified during the
centuries since the coming of Cortés and Mendoza with their metal-armed
troopers; yet certain inferences as to the indigenous form of the
weapon are easily drawn from its construction and the homologies of its
parts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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