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
A typical hupf is illustrated in plate XLIII. The specimen is of
fine-grained, dense, and massive quartzite, its homogeneity being
interrupted only by a thin seam of infiltrated silica and by an obscure
structure-plane brought out by weathering toward the thinner end.
Its weight is 1 pound 14 ounces (0.85 kilogram). In general form and
surface the specimen is an absolutely natural pebble, such as may
be found in thousands along the shores of Seriland. Its artificial
features are limited to slight battering about the edges, especially
at the thinner end; partial polishing of the lateral edges by repeated
handling (as imperfectly shown in the edge view); very perceptible
polishing of both faces by use as a grinder; some fire-blackening on
both sides; semisaturation with grease and blood; and the flecks of
red face-paint shown in the reproduction. The specimen was obtained
at Costa Rica after some days’ observation of its use. The chief
observed functions of this implement were as follows: (1) Skinning
the leg of a partially consumed horse; this was done by means of
centripetal (i. e., downward and inward) blows, so directed that the
thinner end fell obliquely on the tissue, bruising and tearing it with
considerable rapidity. (2) Severing tough tendons already sawed nearly
through by rubbing over the edge of an ahst, the hupf in this case
being in the hands of a coadjutor and used in rather random strokes
whenever the tissue seemed particularly refractory. (3) Knocking off
the parboiled hoof of a horse to give access to the coffinbone. (4)
Crushing and splintering bones to facilitate sucking of the marrow.
(5) Grinding mesquite beans; the process being begun by vertical
blows with the end of the implement on a heap of the pods resting on
an ahst, continued by blows with the side, and finished by kneading
and rubbing motions similar to those of grinding on a metate. (6)
Pounding shelled corn mixed with slack lime, in a ludicrously futile
attempt to imitate Mexican cookery. (7) Chopping trees; in this
case the implement was grasped in the centripetal manner and used
in pounding and bruising the wood at the point of greatest bending
under the pull of a coadjutor. (8) Cleaving and breaking wood
for fuel. (9) Dethorning okatilla stems, by sweeping centripetal
strokes delivered adzwise from top toward butt of a bunch of stems
lying on the ground. (10) Severing a stout hair cord; in this use it
was grasped between the knees of a matron squatting on the ground,
while the cord was held in both hands and sawed to and fro over the
use-roughened thinner end. (11) Supporting a kettle (shown in plate
X) as one of the fire-stones used in frontier mimicry of the Papago
custom. (12) Triturating face-paint by pounding and kneading; in one
case the specimen served as a hand implement, while in another case
it took the place of the ahst, the ocher lump itself being struck and
rubbed against it. (13) Beating a troop of dogs from a pile of bedding
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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