“The savages living in the northern part of the peninsula have found the secret, unknown to mortals in general, to eat and re-eat the same meal repeatedly. They tie a string around a mouthful of meat dried and hardened in the sun. After chewing it for a while they swallow it, leaving the string hanging from the mouth. After two or three minutes, by means of the string they draw the meat up again to be rechewed, and this they repeat as many times as may be necessary until the morsel is consumed or so softened that the string will not hold it any longer. In extracting it from the throat they make such a noise that to one who has not before heard it it appears that they are choking themselves. “When many individuals are gathered together to eat in this manner it is practiced with more ceremony. They seat themselves on the ground, forming a circle of eight or ten persons. One of them takes the mouthful and swallows it, and afterwards draws it up again and passes it to the next one, and this one to another, proceeding thus around the circle with much enjoyment until the morsel is consumed. This has astonished the Spaniards who have seen it, and indeed it would not be credible if it had not been unanimously testified to by all who have been in that country. Several Jesuits who did not believe this, notwithstanding that sincere and prominent persons confirmed it, having afterwards gone to California saw it with their own eyes. Among those Indians who have embraced Christianity this loathsome and dangerous method of eating has been abandoned in consequence of the continual reproofs of the missionaries.” (Historia de la Antigua ó Baja California, obra postuma del Padre Francisco Javier Clavijero; Mexico, 1852, p. 24.) The records of Clavigero and Baegert indicate fair correspondence in the food habits of the California Indians and the Seri, though there are certain noteworthy differences, e. g., the tabu of the badger among the former and of the ground-squirrel among the latter; it would also appear that the Californians were the more largely vegetarian and the better advanced in culinary processes. The customs of the Seri throw light on the genesis of “re-eating”, for the process would appear to be but an extension of the repeated mouthing and swallowing of tendonous strings still attached to the bones of larger animals.