231 Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology, Chicago, 1894, p. 104. In a letter to Mr F. W. Hodge, under date of September 11, 1900, Dr Lumholtz says: “After renewed investigation I have come to another opinion regarding the meaning of the tribal name Tarahumari. This word is a Spanish corruption of the native name ‘Raramuri’. Though the meaning of this word is not clear, that much is certain that rala or tara means ‘foot’, and I therefore take it that we must be at least approximately correct when we say that the word signifies ‘foot-runner’.”

232 American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, 1895, p. 92.

233 In view of the clear indications, both a priori and a posteriori, that the latest Guayma survivors must have taken the language of the Piman (Yaqui) tribesmen with whom they found refuge, and in view of his failure thus far to present his data for public consideration, M Pinart’s inference that the Guayma belonged linguistically to the Piman stock can hardly be admitted to hold against the specific statements of the Jesuit missionaries and such accomplished inquirers as Ramirez and Pimentel.

234 Indian linguistic families, by J. W. Powell, in Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-86 (1891), p. 11.

235 Ibid., p. 10.

236 These names seem rather to be Yuman; cf. Cocopa, Coconino, Cocomaricopa, Kohun, etc.

237 It seems probable that the Seri were nearer to tribes of southern Baja California than to those of Sonora at the time of the earliest explorations, yet that the distinction was sufficiently strong to warrant the extension of the proposition to these tribes also.

238 The Beginning of Agriculture, American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, 1895, p. 350. The Beginning of Zooculture, ibid., vol. X, 1897, p. 215.

239 The average net height and weight of the unit figure (that of the author) are about 5 feet 8⅝ inches and 200 pounds, respectively.

240 Or about 1.6176 meters estimated by the method of Rollet (cf. The Races of Man, J. Deniker, London, 1900, p. 33).

241 The photo-mechanical reproductions do but meager justice to the splendid chest development of the Seri, young and old; for they were not only at semisomnolent rest during the hotter hours at which photography was most feasible, but invariably quailed before the mysterious apparatus and crouched shrinkingly in such wise as to contract their chests and lose their habitually erect and expansive carriage.

242 A separate cranium was obtained by the 1895 expedition, having been sought and picked up by a Mexican member of the party in verification of his account of the killing of one of the Seri; but, in view of the possibility of erroneous identification, this skull was not submitted in connection with the complete skeleton. Subsequently this specimen also was put in Dr Hrdlička’s hands (at his request), and was kindly examined, with, the results recorded in the following letter:

March 29, 1900.
Professor W J McGee,
Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir: The skull which you submitted to me for examination shows the following:

The skull is that of a male between 40 and 50 years of age. The facial parts and a portion of the left temporal bone are wanting; otherwise the specimen shows nothing pathologic. There are signs that the skull belonged to a very muscular individual. The occipital depressions, ridges, and protuberance are very marked, and the temporal ridges approach to within 1.7 cm. on the left and 2.3 cm. on the right of the sagittal suture. The whole skull is rather heavy and massive; thickness of parietal bones 4-8 mm.

The shape of the skull is unusual. The frontal region is rather broad (frontal diameter, minimum, 9.7; frontal diameter, maximum, 12.1 cm.), but quite flat and sloping. Frontal ridges wanting (broken away).

The sagittal region is elevated into a crest which begins 4cm. posteriorly from the bregma, is most marked at the vertex, and proceeds in two tapering diverging crura to the lambdoid suture. The whole vertex region is considerably elevated and forms a blunt cone, which is particularly noticeable when the skull is viewed from the side.

The temporo-parietal regions are moderately convex and expanded anteriorly, but become flattened and gradually narrow toward the parietal bosses. The parietal bones measure each 11 cm. along the coronal, but only 8.8 cm. along the lambdoid suture. The gradual tapering of the parietal regions from their middle backward continues on the occipital bone up to the inion, and gives the norma verticalis of the skull a peculiar appearance.

The occipital region, as a whole, does not protrude much, as in true dolichocephals, but it shows a prominent broad crest, formed by the two superior semicircular lines and the region between them. The extreme occipital protuberance is pronounced and shows signs of strong muscular attachments. A small distance above the foramen magnum, on each side of the median line, is a very marked depression, surmounted by a dull ridge.

Of the mastoids, the right has been broken off and the left is damaged, but they do not seem to have been of extraordinary size.

The base of the skull is fairly well preserved and shows the following characters: The basilar process and the petrous portions of the temporal bones are more massive than usual. The glenoid fossæ are broad and of fair depth. The styloids are quite diminutive (right 0.7, left 0.5 cm. long). The foramen magnum is hexagonal in outline; it is 4.4 cm. long, 3.4 cm. wide; its plane is inclined backwards in such a way that its antero-posterior diameter prolonged would touch about the lower borders of the nasal aperture.

The cranial cavity can be well inspected through the opening caused by injury. The internal surface of the frontal bone shows but very few traces of brain impressions. There are several large impressions on each parietal bone, and deep, though rather small, fossæ for the extremities of the occipital lobes on the occipital bone. The superior border of the dorsum sellæ shows in the middle a rounded notch about 3 mm. deep.

The serration of the sutures is throughout very simple.

Measures—The glabello-occipital length and maximum width of the skull can not be accurately determined on account of injuries to the bones. They amount, respectively, to about 18.8 and 14 cm., giving the cephalic index of about 74.4 (moderate dolichocephaly). The basion-bregma height is 14.1 cm.; basion-vertex, 14.8 cm.; basion-obelion, 13.0 cm.; basion-lambda, 12.2 cm. The two more anterior of these measures characterize the skull as a rather high one. The two more posterior measures show the rapid downward slope of the posterior half of the sagittal region. The maximum circumference of the skull (above the ridges) is 52 cm.

The bregma-lambda arc measures 13.3, the lambda-opisthion arc 12.2 cm. Diameter between the asterions=10.7 cm.

If the skull under examination is considered from a purely evolutionary standpoint, it must be pronounced to be in many points inferior to the average white and even to the majority of Indian crania. An anthropological identification of the specimen is difficult, for the reason that we are still very imperfectly acquainted with the craniology of the peoples of southwestern United States and northern Mexico. From what we know of the crania of the Pima, and the extinct Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, etc., Californians, it is possible to say that the individual whose skull is here reported upon may have belonged to a people physically related to either of these groups. The skull is very distinct from that of an Apache. The female Seri cranium examined by me before does not show certain of the peculiarities of this specimen; nevertheless it is very possible that both crania belonged to individuals of the same tribe.

Aleš Hrdlička.

243 Both these incisors were apparently lost at the same time, not from general lesion, and some years previous to the death of the individual, as the sockets appear exactly alike, bear no signs of violence, and are almost filled up with cancellous tissue (some religious or social rite?).

244 If allowance is made for the effects of flattening of the occipital on the long diameter, and hence on the index, of a skull, it becomes apparent that the true index of this skull is probably of a low brachycephalic, or, at most, of mesocephalic order. It is very doubtful if the deformity is intentional; its moderate extent and the total lack of signs of counter-compression would indicate with more probability that the deformity might have been produced by the individual lying, when an infant, by compulsion or habit, on something hard, probably a board.

245 The “biauricular” signifies the distance between points of the skull immediately above the commencement of the superior zygomatic border on the temporal.

246 Quain, Anatomy, 1893: Osteology, p. 127.

247 Hovelacque et Hervé, Précis d’Anthropologie, 1887, pp. 112, 2937.

248 Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie, 1868.

249 Hovelacque et Hervé, op. cit., p. 113.

250 Histoire Naturelle des Races Humaines, 1826, p. 304.

251 Hovelacque et Hervé, op. cit., p. 291.

252 The term Amerind (with the self-explanatory mutations Amerindian, Amerindize, etc.) has been established by the Anthropological Society of Washington as a convenient collective designation for the aboriginal American tribes (American Anthropologist, new series, 1, 1899, p. 582).

253 Defined postea, p. 188.

254 The Trend of Human Progress, American Anthropologist, new series, vol. 1, 1899, p. 401.

255 The marital customs of the tribe are described postea, pp. 279-287.

256 The law of conjugal conation was indeed suggested by observations on the peculiar marriage custom and peculiarly developed race-sense of the Seri tribe, and it has already been applied in certain of its aspects as an explanation of the initial humanization of mankind (The Trend of Human Progress, American Anthropologist, new series, vol. 1, 1889, pp. 415-418).

257 This tutelary may be the shark; it was described as a water monster instrumental in the creation and good for food, but the identification is not beyond doubt. Cf. p. 278.

258 American Naturalist, vol. XXII, 1888. pp. 201-207.

259 Wild Animals I Have Known, 1898, p. 119; Century Magazine, vol. LIX, 1900, pp. 656-660. In his lectures, Mr Seton-Thompson extends his interpretations to anterior as well as to posterior markings, especially the conspicuous and persistent facial features of deer, antelope, mongrel (or ancestral) dog, etc. Such facial markings seem especially characteristic of gregarious animals; and they are peculiarly significant as social symbols rather than as mere beacons for guidance in flight.

260 The fundamental distinction is none the less valid by reason of the occasional combination of functions, as in the antelope “chrysanthemum” interpreted by Seton-Thompson.

261 The essentially zoocratic nature of Seri law and custom is set forth postea, p. 294.

262 Travels, p. 286.

263 Hardy noted the use of “a small leathern bag, painted and otherwise ornamented”, as a medicine rattle (Travels, p. 282), and also described a wind-symbol and an effigy used for thaumaturgic purposes (ibid., pp. 294, 295).

264 Cf. American Anthropologist, new series, vol. 1, 1899, p. 374.

265 The spontaneous arrangement of organisms in accordance with mental grade is well illustrated by that solidarity of desert life which matures in the cultivation of plants and the investigation of animals (The Beginning of Agriculture, in The American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, October, 1895, pp. 350-375; The Beginning of Zooculture, ibid., vol. X, July 1897, pp. 215-230.)

266 The laws of growth recognized herein have been somewhat more fully outlined elsewhere, notably in The Earth the Home of Man (Anthropological Society of Washington, Special Papers 2, 1894, pp. 3-8), and in Piratical Acculturation (American Anthropologist, vol. XI, 1898, pp. 243-249).

267 The place of water among food substances is more fully discussed in The Potable Waters of Eastern United States, 14th Ann. Rep. of the U. S. Geol. Survey, 1894, pp. 5-8; the physiologic consequences of deprivation of water are outlined in The Thirst of the Desert, Atlantic Monthly, April 1898, pp. 483-488.

268 The preciousness of water in this hard province was impressed in the 1895 expedition, during which the cost of the commodity, reckoned on the basis of the time and labor involved in obtaining it, was estimated at, $10 or $12 per gallon, or about the wholesale price of the finest champagnes.

269 In this table the ratio is expressed by the weight in kilograms for each liter in capacity. The Papago and Pueblo specimens were selected from typical material in the National Museum and at random, save that in the Pueblo ollas choice was made of specimens corresponding approximately in size with those of the Seri.

270 A lively and explicit account of Seri turtle-fishing appears in Hardy’s Travels in the Interior of Mexico, 1829, pp. 286-297: “Bruja’s bay is of considerable extent, and there are from five to three fathoms water close to Arnold’s island, in the neighborhood of which the Indians catch abundance of turtle in a singular manner. I have already described their canoes, which in Spanish are called ‘balsas’. An Indian paddles himself from the shore on one of these by means of a long, elastic pole of about 12 or 14 feet in length, the wood of which is the root of a thorn called mesquite, growing near the coast; and although the branches of this tree are extremely brittle, the underground roots are as pliable as whalebone and nearly as dark in color. At one end of this pole there is a hole an inch deep, into which is inserted another bit of wood, in shape like an acorn, having a square bit of iron 4 inches long fastened to it, the other end of the iron being pointed. Both the ball and cup are first moistened and then tightly inserted one within the other. Fastened to the iron is a cord of very considerable length, which is brought up along the pole, and both are held in the left hand of the Indian. So securely is the nail thus fixed in the pole that although the latter is used as a paddle it does not fall out.

“A turtle is a very lethargic animal, and may frequently be surprised in its watery slumbers. The balsa is placed nearly perpendicularly over one of these unsuspecting sleepers, when the fisherman, softly sliding the pole through the water in the direction of the animal till within a foot or two of it, he suddenly plunges the iron into its back. No sooner does the creature feel itself transfixed than it swims hastily forward and endeavors to liberate itself. The slightest motion of the turtle displaces the iron point from the long pole, which would otherwise be inevitably broken and the turtle would as certainly be lost; but in the manner here described it is held by the cord fastened on to the iron which has penetrated its back till, after it has sufficiently exhausted its strength, it is hoisted on board the canoe by the fisherman, who proceeds to the shore in order to dispose of his prize.”

271 The universal stone implement of the Seri, improvised from a cobblestone and used in nearly every industrial occupation (see postea, p. 235); the designation is mimetic, or onomatopoetic, from the sound of the stroke, particularly on animal tissue.

272 These details were furnished largely by Mashém and Señor Encinas, but were verified in essentials by personal observation of dietetic customs at Costa Rica in 1894; and they were corroborated by observations on both shores of El Infiernillo and Bahia Kunkaak in 1895. Especially significant were the remnants of a turtle feast on the southern beach of Punta Miguel interrupted by the approach of the exploring party. The indications were clear that the turtle had been landed and largely consumed before the fire was kindled, and that the cooking of the firmer portions had hardly been commenced before the camp was abandoned so hurriedly that not only the nearly eaten turtle and the glowing embers, but the harpoon (the specimen illustrated in figure 20), the still bloody and greasy hupf (that represented in plate LIV), and the fire-sticks were left behind. Gnawed fragments of charred plastrons are common relics about hastily abandoned camps generally.

273 One of the smaller vertebræ and part of a rib are shown in the upper figure of plate vi.

274 Travels, p. 290*.

275 History of California, 1789, vol. I, p. 41.

276 Fire-making apparatus in the U. S. National Museum; Smithsonian Report for 1888, pt II, 1890, pp. 531-587, and elsewhere.

277 Ordinarily the nether fire-stick is of soft and porous wood, flotsam palm-wood and water-logged pine being preferred.

278 The Arrow; Proceedings Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. XLIV, 1895, pp. 232-240.

279 Glave’s Journey to the Livingston Tree, The Century Magazine, vol. LII, 1896, p. 768.

280 A single incident expressing the Seri sentiment toward travailing animals must be noted: a few minutes after the group shown in plate XI was photographed, a starveling cur—a female apparently of nearly pure coyote blood and within a week of term—slunk toward the broken olla-kettle in the left center of the picture, in which a rank horse-foot was simmering; the woman bending over the kettle suddenly straightened and shot out her foot with such force and directness that the cur was lifted entirely over the corner of the nearest jacal, and the poor beast fell stunned and moaning, a prematurely born pup protruding from her two-thirds of its length. The sound of the stroke and fall attracted attention throughout the group; the women smiled and grunted approval of the well-aimed kick, and a dozen children gathered to continue the assault. Partially recovering, the cur struggled to its feet and started for the chapparal, followed by the jeering throng; at first the chase seemed sportive only, but suddenly one of the smaller boys (the third from the left in the group shown in plate XVI) took on a new aspect—his figure stiffened, his jaws set, his eyes shot purple and green, and he plunged into the lead, and just before the harried beast reached cover he seized the protruding embryo, jerked it away, and ran off in triumph. Three minutes afterward he was seen in the shelter of a jacal greedily gorging his spoil in successive bites, just as the Caucasian boy devours a peeled banana. Meanwhile, two or three mates who had struck his trail stood around begging bites and sucking at chance blood spatters on earth, skin, or tattered rags; and as the victor came forth later, licking his chops, he was met by half jocular but admiring plaudits for his prowess from the dozen matrons lounging about the neighboring jacales. Parallel instances, both observed and gathered at second hand, might be added in numbers; but this may suffice as the sole specific basis for the generalization which places the Seri below the plane of possible zooculture—a generalization so broad as to demand some record of data which it would be more agreeable to ignore.

281 This warrior’s clutch, and the notion that it is discreditable if not criminal for the masculine adult to take recourse to weapons in hand-to-hand slaughter, are strongly suggestive of zoomimic motives and of studied mimicry of the larger carnivores, such as the jaguar—the “neck-twister” of the Maya.

282 Cf. The Beginning of Agriculture; The American Anthropologist, vol. VIII Oct., 1895, pp. 350-375.

283 An Account of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Californian Peninsula, as given by Jacob Baegert, a German Jesuit missionary.... Translated and arranged for the Smithsonian Institution by Charles Rau; Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. for 1863, pp. 352-369. Baegert’s account of foods (pp. 363-367) is so apposite as to be worthy of quotation nearly entire:

“Notwithstanding the barrenness of the country, a Californian hardly ever dies of hunger, except, perhaps, now and then an individual that falls sick in the wilderness and at a great distance from the mission, for those who are in good health trouble themselves very little about such patients, even if these should happen to be their husbands, wives, or other relations; and a little child that has lost its mother or both parents is also occasionally in danger of starving to death, because in some instances no one will take charge of it, the father being sometimes inhuman enough to abandon his offspring to its fate.

“The food of the Californians, as will be seen, is certainly of a mean quality, yet it keeps them in a healthy condition, and they become strong and grow old in spite of their poor diet. The only period of the year during which the Californians can satisfy their appetite without restraint is the season of the pitahayas, which ripen in the middle of June and abound for more than eight weeks. The gathering of this fruit may be considered as the harvest of the native inhabitants. They can eat as much of it as they please, and with some this food agrees so well that they become corpulent during that period; and for this reason I was sometimes unable to recognize at first sight individuals, otherwise perfectly familiar to me, who visited me after having fed for three or four weeks on these pitahayas. They do not, however, preserve them, and when the season is over they are put again on short rations. Among the roots eaten by the Californians may be mentioned the yuka, which constitutes an important article of food in many parts of America, as, for instance, in the island of Cuba, but is not very abundant in California. In some provinces it is made into a kind of bread or cake, while the Californians, who would find this process too tedious, simply roast the yukas in a fire like potatoes. Another root eaten by the natives is that of the aloë plant, of which there are many kinds in this country. Those species of this vegetable, however, which afford nourishment—for not all of them are edible—do not grow as plentifully as the Californians might wish, and very seldom in the neighborhood of water; the preparations, moreover, which are necessary to render this plant eatable, require much time and labor.... I saw the natives also frequently eat the roots of the common reed, just as they were taken out of the water. Certain seeds, some of them not larger than those of the mustard, and different sorts in pods that grow on shrubs and little trees, and of which there are, according to Father Piccolo, more than sixteen kinds, are likewise diligently sought; yet they furnish only a small quantity of grain, and all that a person can collect with much toil during a whole year may scarcely amount to 12 bushels.

“It can be said that the Californians eat, without exception, all animals they can obtain. Besides the different kinds of larger indigenous quadrupeds and birds, they live nowadays on dogs and cats; horses, asses, and mules; item, on owls, mice, and rats; lizards and snakes; bats, grasshoppers, and crickets; a kind of green caterpillar without hair, about a finger long, and an abominable white worm of the length and thickness of the thumb, which they find occasionally in old rotten wood, and consider as a particular delicacy. The chase of game, such as deer and rabbits, furnishes only a small portion of a Californian’s provisions. Supposing that for 100 families 300 deer are killed in the course of a year, which is a very favorable estimate, they would supply each family only with three meals in three hundred and sixty-five days, and thus relieve but in a very small degree the hunger and the poverty of these people. The hunting for snakes, lizards, mice, and field-rats, which they practice with great diligence, is by far more profitable and supplies them with a much greater quantity of articles for consumption. Snakes, especially, are a favorite sort of small game, and thousands of them find annually their way into the stomachs of the Californians.

“In catching fish, particularly in the Pacific, which is much richer in that respect than the Gulf of California, the natives use neither nets nor hooks, but a kind of lance—that is, a long, slender, pointed piece of hard wood—which they handle very dexterously in spearing and killing their prey. Sea-turtles are caught in the same manner.

“I have now mentioned the different articles forming the ordinary food of the Californians; but, besides these, they reject nothing that their teeth can chew or their stomachs are capable of digesting, however tasteless or unclean and disgusting it may be. Thus they will eat the leaves of the Indian fig-tree, the tender shoots of certain shrubs, tanned or untanned leather, old straps of rawhide, with which a fence was tied together for years; item, the bones of poultry, sheep, goats, and calves; putrid meat or fish swarming with worms, damaged wheat or Indian corn, and many other things of that sort which may serve to appease the hunger they are almost constantly suffering. Anything that is thrown to the hogs will be also accepted by a Californian, and he takes it without feeling offended, or thinking for a moment that he is treated below his dignity. For this reason no one took the trouble to clean the wheat or maize, which was cooked for them in a large kettle, of the black worms and little bugs, even if the numbers of these vermin had been equal to that of the grains. By a daily distribution of about 150 bushels of bran (which they are in the habit of eating without any preparation) I could have induced all my parishioners to remain permanently in the mission, excepting during the time when the pitahayas are gathered.

“I saw one day a blind man, 70 years of age, who was busily engaged in pounding between two stones an old shoe made of raw deerskin, and whenever he had detached a piece he transferred it promptly to his mouth and swallowed it; and yet this man had a daughter and grown grandchildren. As soon as any of the cattle are killed and the hide is spread out on the ground to dry, half a dozen boys or men will instantly rush upon it and commence to work with knives, flints, and their teeth, tearing and scratching off pieces, which they eat immediately, till the hide is full of holes or scattered in all directions. In the mission of St. Ignatius and in others further toward the north there are persons who will attach a piece of meat to a string and swallow it and pull it out again a dozen times in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste.

I must here ask permission of the kind reader to mention something of an exceedingly disgusting and almost inhuman nature, the like of which probably never has been recorded of any people in the world, but which demonstrates better than anything else the whole extent of the poverty, uncleanness, and voracity of these wretched beings. In describing the pitahayas I have already stated that they contain a great many small seeds resembling grains of powder. For some reason unknown to me these seeds are not consumed in the stomach, but pass off in an undigested state, and in order to save them the natives collect during the season of the pitahayas that which is discharged from the human body, separate the seeds from it, and roast, grind, and eat them, making merry over their loathsome meals, which the Spaniards therefore call the second harvest of the Californians. [This statement is corroborated in all particulars by Clavigero in his Storia della California, Venice, 1789, vol. I, p. 117.] When I first heard that such a filthy habit existed among them I was disinclined to believe the report, but to my utter regret I became afterwards repeatedly a witness to the proceeding, which they are unwilling to abandon, like many other bad practices [probably because of the fiducial character of the custom—W J M.]. Yet I must say in their favor that they have always abstained from human flesh, contrary to the horrible usage of so many other American nations who can obtain their daily food much easier than these poor Californians.

“They have no other drink but the water, and heaven be praised that they are unacquainted with such strong beverages as are distilled in many American provinces from Indian corn, the aloë, and other plants, and which the Americans in those parts merely drink for the purpose of intoxicating themselves. When a Californian encounters during his wanderings a pond or pool, and feels a desire to quench his thirst, he lies flat on the ground and applies his mouth directly to the water. Sometimes the horns of cattle are used as drinking vessels.

“Having thus far given an account of the different articles used as aliment by the aborigines of the peninsula, I will now proceed to describe in what manner they prepare their victuals. They do not cook, boil, or roast like people in civilized countries, because they are neither acquainted with these methods nor possessed of vessels and utensils to employ for such purposes; and, besides, their patience would be taxed beyond endurance if they had to wait till a piece of meat is well cooked or thoroughly roasted. Their whole process simply consists in burning, singeing, or roasting in an open fire all such victuals as are not eaten in a raw state. Without any formalities, the piece of meat, the fish, bird, snake, field mouse, bat, or whatever it may be is thrown into the flames or on the glowing embers, and left there to smoke and to sweat for about a quarter of an hour; after which the article is withdrawn, in most cases only burned or charred on the outside, but still raw and bloody within. As soon as it has become sufficiently cool, they shake it a little in order to remove the adhering dust or sand, and eat it with great relish. Yet I must add here, that they do not previously take the trouble to skin the mice or disembowel the rats, nor deem it necessary to clean the half-emptied entrails and maws of larger animals, which they have to cut in pieces before they can roast them. Seeds, kernels, grasshoppers, green caterpillars, the white worms already mentioned, and similar things that would be lost, on account of their smallness, in the embers and flames of an open fire, are parched on hot coals, which they constantly throw up and shake in a turtle shell or a kind of frying pan woven out of a certain plant. What they have parched or roasted in this manner is ground to powder between two stones, and eaten in a dry state. Bones are treated in like manner.

“They eat everything unsalted, though they might obtain plenty of salt; but since they cannot dine every day on roast meat and constantly change their quarters, they would find it too cumbersome to carry always a supply of salt with them.

“The preparation of the aloë, also called mescale or maguey by the Spaniards, requires more time and labor. The roots, after being properly separated from the plants, are roasted for some hours in a strong fire, and then buried, twelve or twenty together, in the ground, and well covered with hot stones, hot ashes, and earth. In this state they have to remain for twelve or fourteen hours, and when dug out again they are of a fine yellow color, and perfectly tender, making a very palatable dish, which has served me frequently as food when I had nothing else to eat, or as dessert after dinner in lieu of fruit. But they act at first as a purgative on persons who are not accustomed to them, and leave the throat somewhat rough for a few hours afterwards.

“To light a fire the Californians make no use of steel and flint, but obtain it by the friction of two pieces of wood. One of them is cylindrical, and pointed on one end, which fits into a round cavity in the other, and by turning the cylindrical piece with great rapidity between their hands, like a twirling stick, they succeed in igniting the lower piece if they continue the process for a sufficient length of time.

“The Californians have no fixed time for any sort of business, and eat, consequently, whenever they have anything, or feel inclined to do so, which is nearly always the case. I never asked one of them whether he was hungry who failed to answer in the affirmative, even if his appearance indicated the contrary. A meal in the middle of the day is the least in use among them, because they all set out early in the morning for their foraging expeditions, and return only in the evening to the place from which they started, if they do not choose some other locality for their night quarters. The day being thus spent in running about and searching for food, they have no time left for preparing a dinner at noon. They start always empty-handed; for if perchance something remains from their evening repasts they certainly eat it during the night in waking moments or on the following morning before leaving. The Californians can endure hunger easier and much longer than other people; whereas they will eat enormously if a chance is given. I often tried to buy a piece of venison from them when the skin had but lately been stripped off the deer, but regularly received the answer that nothing was left; and I knew well enough that the hunter who killed the animal needed no assistance to finish it. Twenty-four pounds of meat in twenty-four hours is not deemed an extraordinary ration for a single person, and to see anything eatable before him is a temptation for a Californian which he cannot resist; and not to make away with it before night would be a victory he is very seldom capable of gaining over himself.”

Clavigero’s account of the food-habits of the California Indians is similar, though generally less explicit. According to him the seeds forming the “second harvest of pitahayas” are extracted carefully while fresh, and are afterward roasted, ground, and preserved in the form of meal against the ensuing winter. Of the reswallowing habit, he says:

“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.

284 Cf. Scatologic Rites of all Nations, by Captain John G. Bourke, 1891, especially chapter LI, pp. 459-460. The Seri custom, resting, as it does, on an evident economic basis, tends to explain the scatophagy of the Hopi and other tribes described by Bourke.

285 About 200 turtle-shells were noticed about the rancherias at Punta Tormenta and Rada Ballena alone in 1895, all being less than two years old, as judged from the degree of weathering.

286 Hardy, Travels, p. 291.

287 Only the finer cording shown in plate XXXI is original, the coarser ropes having been added to facilitate handling.

288 Publication No. 56, U. S. Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Navigation, 1880, plate XV, p. 136.

289 The law of fable in its relation to primitive surgery is formulated in the Sixteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Eth., 1897, p. 22.

290 Hardy (Travels, p. 298) describes the ceremonial wearing of the heads of deer with horns attached.

291 Cf. Hardy, Travels, p. 290.

292 A rope-twisting device of the sort commonly employed by southwestern Indians was found in use by Seri boys at Costa Rica in 1894, and was included in the Seri collection; but the indications were that the device was a mere toy used, like the horse-hair riatas made by its aid, only in youthful sports.