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 largest ahst seen in Seriland is illustrated in plates XXXIX and
XL, on a scale of one-third linear (its maximum length being 15⅜
inches=39.5 cm.); it is a dark, fine-grained silicious schist or
quartzite, quite obscurely laminated; it weighs 33 pounds 8 ounces
(15.20 kilograms). It is a natural slab, probably washed from a talus
and slightly wave-worn; it might have come originally from either
the southwestern flanks of Sierra Seri or the more southerly half of
Sierra Kunkaak—certainly hundreds of similar slabs strew the eastern
shore of Bahia Kunkaak, while the western shore, especially about Punta
Narragansett, would yield thousands. Its artificial features (aside
from miscellaneous battering) are limited to grinding of the two faces
defined by structure planes. The principal face is abraded into an
oblong or spoon-shape basin, about 8 inches (20 cm.) long, 5 inches
(16 cm.) broad, and fully three-fourths of an inch (2 cm.) deep, the
basin penetrating two or three laminæ of the slab in such wise as to
produce the annular markings faintly shown in plate XXXIX; the obverse
is slightly rubbed and ground and somewhat battered, like the face of
the preceding specimen; and both sides are flecked with a fine but dark
flour-like substance (doubtless derived from grinding mesquite beans,
etc.) forced into the texture of the stone by the grinding process. The
entire slab is greasy and blood-stained, while battered spots about the
edges and angles of the principal face record considerable use as an
anvil for breaking up quarry—indeed, shreds of turtle flesh and bits of
intestinal debris still lodge in some of the interstices. The specimen
was taken from the old rancheria at the base of Punta Tormenta, where
it had apparently been in desultory use for generations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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