Chapter IX: Introduction: Salient Features (8)

The ethnic relations of the Seri people attracted early and repeated attention. Humboldt gave currency, albeit not unquestioningly, to a supposed Chinese or related Oriental affiliation; Hardy noted the similarity of the Seri tongue to that of the Patagonians; Lavandera classed the language as Arabic; Stone and Bancroft circulated a supposed identification of the speech with the Welsh; Ramirez, and more especially Pimentel, narrowed the field of affiliation to Mexico and defined the tongue as distinct; Orozco y Berra, and more especially Malte-Brun, slightly reextended the field and suggested affiliation with the Caribs; while Herzog, Gatschet, and Brinton reextended the field in another direction and saw, in a vocabulary obtained from a Seri scion but alien thinker, similarities between the Serian and Yuman tongues. The recent researches tend strongly to corroborate the evidence collected and the conclusions reached by Ramirez and Pimentel; for the somewhat extended comparisons between the Serian and neighboring languages (introduced and discussed in other paragraphs) indicate that the Seri tongue is distinct save for two or three Cochimi or other Yuman elements, which may be loan words such as might readily have been obtained through the largely inimical interchange of earlier centuries described by Padre Juan Maria de Sonora and other pioneer observers—certainly the slight and superficial similarities with other tongues of the region seem insufficient to meet the classific requirement of supposititious descent from “a common ancestral speech”.[234] Accordingly the group may be defined (at least provisionally) as a linguistic family or stock, and may be distinguished by the family name long ago applied by Pimentel and Orozco, with the termination prescribed in Powell’s fifth rule,[235] viz., _Serian_. Conformably, the classification of the group would become—

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

[235] Ibid., p. 10.

Serian stock, comprising—
Seri tribe, including Tiburones and (certain) Salineros;
Tepoka tribe;
Guayma tribe;
Upanguayma tribe.

Naturally this classification is provisional in certain respects. It is little more than tentative in so far as the Tepoka are concerned, since no word of the Tepoka tongue has ever been recorded, so far as is known, and since the tribe is still extant and within reach of research; it must be held provisional also in respect to the separateness of the stock, which may be found in the future to be affiliated with neighboring stocks, though the effect of the more recent and more critical researches in eliminating supposed evidences of affiliation points in the opposite direction. The arrangement is in some measure provisional also with respect to the relations between the long-extinct Guayma and Upanguayma and the type tribe, especially since contrary suggestion has been offered in terms implying the existence of unpublished data; yet the presumption in favor of the critical work by Ramirez, Pimentel, and Orozco is so strong that practically this feature of the classification may be deemed final.

* * * * *

No attempt has been made to render the tribal synonymy exhaustive, though search of the records has incidentally brought out the more important synonyms, as follows:

_Seri Tribe_

CERES—1826; Hardy, Travels, p. 95.
CERI—1875; Pimentel, Lenguas Indígenas, tomo II, p. 229.
CERIS—1745; Villa-Señor, Theatro Americano, p. 391.
CERIS TEPOCAS—1850; Velasco, Noticias Estadísticas, p. 132.
HERI—1854; Buschmann, Die Spuren der aztekischen Sprache, p. 221.
HERIS—1645; Ribas, Triumphos de Nuestra Santa Fee, p. 358.
HERISES—1690 (?); Van der Aa, map.
SADI—1896; San Francisco Chronicle, January 24.
SE-ERE—Etymologic form.
SERES—1844; Mühlenpfordt, Republik Mejico, Band I, p. 210.
SERI—1754; [Ortega], Apostolicos Afanes, p. 244.
SERIS—1694; Mange, Resumen de Noticias (Documentos para la Historia
de Mexico, série 4, tomo I, p. 235).
SERI SALINEROS—1842; Alegre, Historia de la Compañia de Jesus,
tomo III, p. 117.
SERIS SALINEROS—1694; Mange, Resumen de Noticias (Documentos,
série 4, tomo I, p. 321).
SERYS—1754; [Ortega], Apostolicos Afanes, p. 367.
SORIS—1900; Deniker, The Races of Man, p. 533.
SSERI—1883; Gatschet, Der Yuma Sprachstamm, p. 129.
ZERIS—1731; Dominguez, Diario (MS.).
KMIKE—1879; Pinart, MS. vocabulary.
KOMKAK—1879; Pinart, MS. vocabulary.
KUNKAAK—1896; McGee and Johnson, “Seriland”, Nat. Geog. Mag., vol.
VII, p. 133.
SALINEROS—1727; Rivera, Diario y Derrotero, I. 514-1519.
TIBURON—1799; Cortez (Pacific Railroad Reports, vol. III, p. 122).
TIBURONES—1792; Arricivita, Crónica Seráfica, segunda parte,
p. 426.
TIBUROW CERES—1826; Hardy, Travels, p. 299.

_Tepoka Tribe_

TEPECO—1847; Disturnell, Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Mejico,
New York.
TEPOCA—1748; Villa-Señor, Theatro Americano, p. 392.
TEPOCA CERES—1826; Hardy, Travels, p. 299.
TEPOCAS—1748; Villa-Señor, Theatro Americano, p. 391.
TEPOCOC—1865; Velasco, Bol. Soc. Mex. Geog. y Estad., tomo XI,
p. 125.
TEPOKA—Phonetic form.
TEPOPA—1875; Dewey, map.
TEPOQUIS—1757; Venegas, Noticia, tomo II, p. 343.
TOPOKIS—1702; Kino, map (in Stocklein, Der Neue Welt-Bott).
TOPOQUIS—1701; Kino, map (in Bancroft, Works, vol. XVII, 1889,
p. 360).

_Guayma Tribe_

BAYMAS—1754; [Ortega], Apostolicos Afanes, p. 377.
GAYAMA—1826 (?); Pike (Balbi), (in Pimentel, Lenguas Indígenas,
tomo II, p. 234).
GUAIMA—1861; Buckingham Smith, Heve Grammar, p. 7.
GUAIMAS—1702; Kino, map (in Stocklein, Der Neue Welt-Bott).
GUAYAMAS—1757; Venegas, Noticias, tomo II, p. 79.
GUAYMA—1701; Juan Maria de Sonora, Report (Documentos para la Historia
de Mexico, série 4, tomo V, p. 154).
GUAYMAS—1700; Juan Maria de Sonora, Report (Documentos para la
Historia de Mexico, série 4, tomo V, p. 126).
GUAYMI—1882; Bancroft Works, vol. III, (Native Races, vol. III),
p. 704.
GUAYMIS—1844; Mühlenpfordt, Republik Mejico, Band I, p. 210.
GUEIMAS—1748; Villa-Señor, Theatro Americano, p. 401.
GUEYMAS—1748; Villa-Señor, Theatro Americano, p. 402.
GUIAMAS—1763; [Nentwig?], Rudo Ensayo, p. 229.
GUIMIES (?)—1701; Kino, map (Bancroft, Works, vol. XVII, 1889,
p. 360).

_Upanguayma Tribe_

HOUPIN GUAYMAS—1829; Hardy, map.
JUMPANGUAYMAS—1860; Velasco, Bol. Soc. Mex. Geog. y Estad., tomo
VIII, p. 292.
JUPANGUEIMAS—1748; Villa-Señor, Theatro Americano, p. 401.
OPAN GUAIMAS—1763; [Nentwig?], Rudo Ensayo, p. 229.
UPANGUAIMA—1864; Orozco y Berra, Geografía de las Lenguas, p. 42.
UPANGUAIMAS—1878; Malte-Brun, Congrès International des Américanistes,
tome II, p. 38.
UPANGUAYMA—Synthetic form.
UPANGUAYMAS—1882; Bancroft, Works (Native Races, vol. I, p. 605).
UPAN-GUAYMAS—1890; Bandelier, Investigations in the Southwest, p. 75.

Possibly the name _Cocomagues_ (1864, Orozco y Berra, Geografía de las Lenguas, p. 42), or _Cocomaques_ (1727, Rivera, Diario y Derrotero, I. 1514-1519) should be introduced among the synonyms of the Seri, but in the absence of definite information it may perhaps better be left unassigned.[236]

[236] These names seem rather to be Yuman; cf. _Coco_pa, _Coco_nino, _Coco_maricopa, _Ko_hun, etc.

Of the four tribes assigned to the stock, the Upanguayma have been extinct probably for more than a century; the Guayma may survive in a few representatives probably of mixed blood and adopted language; the Tepoka have never received systematic investigation, but appear to survive in limited numbers on the eastern coast of Gulf of California about the embouchure of the Rio Ignacio sand-wash; while the Seri alone continue to form a prominent factor in Sonoran thought.

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

The most conspicuous characteristic of the Seri tribe as a whole is isolation. The geographic position and physical features of their habitat favor, and indeed measurably compel, isolation: their little principality is protected on one side by stormy seas and on the other by still more forbidding deserts; their home is too hard and poor to tempt conquest, and their possessions too meager to invite spoliation; hence, under customary conditions, they never see neighbors save in chance encounters on their frontier or in their own predatory forays—and in either case the encounters are commonly inimical. The natural isolation of the habitat is reflected in modes of life and habits of thought; and during the ages the physical isolation has come to be reflected in a bitter and implacable hereditary enmity toward aliens—an enmity apparently forming the strongest motive in their life and thought, and indeed grown into a persistent instinct. Thus the Seri stand alone in every respect; they are isolated in habitat and still more intensely isolated in habits of thought and life from all contemporaries; they far out-Ishmael the Ishmael of old on Araby’s deserts.

The isolation of the Seri in thought and feeling is well illustrated by the relations with their nearest neighbors (activitally as well as geographically), the Papago Indians. The Papago are much esteemed in Sonora as fearless fighters, always ready to join or even to lead a forlorn hope; yet when the expedition of 1895 was projected it was found no easy matter to induce the picked Papago guards quartered at Costa Rica to enter Seriland. They were ready, indeed mildly eager, for fray, provided it were on the frontier; but they held back in dread from actual invasion of the territory of the hereditary enemy. Like representatives of the faith-dominated culture-grades generally, they spoke weightily of inherent rights descended from the ancient time, even back unto the creation; they repeatedly declared the right of the Seri to protect their territory because it was _theirs_; yet their converse but served to show the depth and persistence of their abhorrence of the Seri and of everything pertaining to them. And when gales arose to delay the work, when the frail craft of the party was storm-buffeted and lost for days, when they were seized with the strange sickness of the sea, when the salt and sugar mysteriously disappeared (having been secretly sacrificed to diminish suffering from thirst), when all of the earth-powers and air-powers seemed to be arrayed against the expedition, they stoically held it to be but just punishment for a sacrilegious infraction of the ancient law—and their steady adherence to duty, despite tradition and physical difficulty and constant danger, revealed a real heroism. The strain was no slight one; it may have been felt more by the stay-at-homes than by the men in action; certainly a sister of one of the party (Anton Castillo) and spouse of a supporter at the supply station broke under the strain, and died of her terrors—and the return of the party was, to the Papago women and oldsters at least, as the rising of the dead. The dread inspired by the personal presence of the alien is stronger still; when the Seri rancheria at Costa Rica was visited in 1894 it was found needful to keep the Papago interpreter and others of the tribe at a distance, since the mere sight of the inimical tribesmen threw even the women and children into watchful irritation, like that of range-bred horses at scent of bear or timber-wolf, or that of oft-harried cats and swine at sight of passing dog—they instinctively huddled into circles facing outward, and ceased to think connectedly under the stress of nervous tension. The irritation was so far mutual that it was days before the usually placid interpreter, José Lewis, recovered his normal spirits; while the 1895 interpreter, Hugh Morris, was actually rendered ill by the mere entrance into Seriland at Pozo Escalante. And the antipathy between Seri and Yaqui is nearly as great as that between the common-boundary neighbors.

The instinctive antagonism, or race antipathy, between the Seri and the widely distinct Caucasian is less trenchant and intense than the local antipathy; yet even between Seri and Caucasian there would seem to be hardly a germ of sympathy. In the days of his prime, the Tiburon islanders flocked around Don Pascual, first as a provider of easy provender and later as a superpotent shaman whose wrath bore destruction; yet their allegiance was never more than that of the cowed and beaten brute to a hated trainer, and his coming never brought a smile to their stolid features—indeed, his passage among their jacales was met with the same stolid yet sinister indifference accorded the solitary visitor to a menagerie of caged carnivores. And no sooner did his vision become impaired than their fear-born veneration evaporated, and their native antipathy reappeared in original virulence. The 1894 party was fortunate in successfully treating a sick wife of sub-chief Mashém, and subsequently spent days in the rancheria, distributing gifts to old and young in a manner unprecedented in their experience and making liberal exchanges for such small possessions as they wished to spare; yet, with a single possible exception, they succeeded in bringing no more human expression to any Seri face or eye than curiosity, avidity for food, studied indifference, and shrouded or snarling disgust. Among themselves they were fairly cheerful, and the families were unobtrusively affectionate; yet the cheerfulness was always chilled and often banished by the approach of an alien. The Sonorenses generally hold the Seri in indescribably deep dread as uncanny and savage monsters lying beyond the human pale; while the reciprocal feeling on the part of the Seri toward Caucasians, and still more toward Indian aliens, seems akin to that of the average man toward the rattlesnake, which he flees or slays without pause for thought—it seems nothing less than intuitive and involuntary loathing. The Seri antipathy is at once deepened into an obsession and crystallized into a cult; the highest virtue in their calendar is the shedding of alien blood; and their normal impulse on meeting an alien is to kill unless deterred by fear, to flee if the way is clear, and to fawn treacherously for better opportunity if neither natural course lies open.

Concordantly with their primary characteristic, the Seri have avoided ethnic and demotic union beyond the narrow limits of their own kindred; and even of these they seem to have cast out parts, annihilating the Guayma and Upanguayma, displacing and nearly destroying the Tepoka, and outlawing individuals and (apparently) small groups. The earlier chronicles indicate that the Jesuit missionaries, and after them the Franciscan friars and the secular officials, sought to scatter the tribe by both cajolery and coercion, and endeavored to divide families by restraint of women and children and by banishment of wives; there are loose traditions, too, of the capture and enslavement of Indian and Caucasian women in Seriland; yet the great fact remains that not a single mixed-blood Seri is known to exist, and that no more than two of the blood (Kolusio and perhaps one other) now live voluntarily beyond the territorial and consanguineal confines of the tribe. The romantic story of a white slave and ancestress of a Seri clan, sometimes diffused through pernicious reportorial activity, is without shadow of proof or probability; the tradition of the captivity of a Papago belle was corroborated, albeit indefinitely, by Mashém’s naive admission that an alien women was once kept as a slave to a childless death due to her inaptitude for long wanderings; and there is not a single known fact indicating even so much as miscibility of the Seri blood with that of other varieties of the genus _Homo_. Naturally the presumption of miscibility holds in the absence of direct evidence; yet the presumption is at least partially countervailed by conspicuous biotic characters, such as color, stature, etc., so distinctive as almost to seem specific: the Seri are distinctively dark-skinned, their extreme color-range (so far as known) being less than their nearest approach to any neighboring tribe; they are nearly as distinctive in stature, the difference between their tallest and shortest normal adults being apparently less than that between their shortest and the tallest of the neighboring Papago—though they are not so far from the more variable and often tall Yaqui; and they appear to be no less distinctive in such physiologic processes as those connected with their extraordinary food habits. Still more distinctive are the demotic characters connected with their habits of life and modes of thought; and when the sum of biotic and demotic characters is taken, the Seri are found to be set apart from all neighboring Sonoran tribes by differences much more striking than the individual range among themselves.[237]

[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.

It is especially noteworthy that the Seri have held aloof from that communality of the deserts which has brought so many tribes into union with each other and with their animal and vegetal neighbors through common strife against the common enemies of sun and sand—the communality expressed in the distribution of vital colonies over arid plains, in the toleration and domestication of animals, in the development of agriculture, and eventually in the shaping of a comprehensive solidarity, with the intelligence of the highest organism as the controlling factor.[238] Dwelling on a singularly prolific shore, the Seri never learned the hard lesson of desert solidarity, but looked on the land merely as a place of lodgment or concealment, or as a source of luxuries such as cactus tunas, mesquite beans, and tasty game; they never formed the first idea of planting or cultivating, and their only notion of harvesting and storing against time of need was the intolerably filthy one of nature’s simplest teaching; they apparently never grasped the concept of cooperation with animals, and came to tolerate the parasitical coyote only in that its persistence was greater than their own, and in so far as it was stealthy enough to hide its travail and the suckling of its young against their ravening maws; and they apparently never rose to real recognition of their own kind in alien forms, but set their hands against agricultural and zoocultural humans as peculiarly potent and hence especially obnoxious animals. Naturally their racial intolerance was seed of battle and blood-feud; and they would doubtless have melted away under the general antagonism but for the natural barriers and unlimited food of their restricted domain.

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

At present, as for the later and best-known decades of their history, the Seri are absolutely without extratribal affiliations, or even sympathy. When the chronicles of three centuries are scanned in the light of recent knowledge, it seems practically certain that they have been equally isolated since the dawn of Caucasian history in Mexico; and both recent data and the chronicles combine with the principles of demotic development to indicate that the Seri have stood alone from the beginning of their tribal career, and have never foregathered with the neighboring tribes of distinct blood, distinct arts and industries, distinct organization, distinct language, and distinct thought and feeling.

The present isolation of the Seri throws light on their early history and reveals the extent of the misapprehension of the pioneer missionaries, who half deluded themselves and wholly deluded distant readers into the notion that the Seri were really proselyted and actually collected in the mission-adjuncts of military posts established to protect settlers against forays of the tribe; for, as illumined by later and fuller knowledge of the tribal characteristics, the chronicles are seen to indicate merely that a few captives, malingerers, cripples, spies, and tribal outcasts were harbored at the missions until death and occasional escapes brought the colonies to a natural end, with no real assimilation of blood or culture on either side. So, too, the persistent tribal antipathy reveals the error of confounding the independent or even inimically related outbreaks of the Seri and of the Pima or Apache with the concerted action of confederated tribes. Doubtless the ever-watchful spies from Tiburon habitually gave notice of the disturbance due to outbreaks of contemporary tribes, just as they do today when the local soldiery are withdrawn for duty on the Yaqui frontier; naturally the civil and military authorities were thereby led to provide for protection against the Seri and Piato, against the Seri and Pima, or against the Seri and Apache at each period of disturbance, just as they provided against the Seri between periods; and it would appear that this association in thought and speech led to the unconscious magnification, in the minds of the chroniclers, of a supposed alliance.

In brief, the tribal relations of the Seri seem always to have been antipathetic, especially toward the aboriginal tribes of alien blood, in somewhat less measure toward Caucasians, and in least—yet still considerable—degree toward their own collinguals and (presumptive) consanguineals.

POPULATION

So far as could be ascertained by inquiries of and through Mashém in 1894, the Seri tribe then comprised about 60 or 70 warriors, with between three and four times as many women and children—i. e., the population was apparently between 250 and 350. The group of about 60 (including 17 warriors) seen at Costa Rica was evidently growing rapidly, to judge from the proportion of youths of both sexes, infants in arms, and pregnant women; and there are other indications that the tribe is prolific and well-fitted to survive unless cut off in consequence of the hereditary antipathy toward alien blood and culture.

The population estimates of the past are naturally vague. In 1645 Ribas spoke of the tribe as “a great people”; and a century later Villa-Señor expressed himself in somewhat similar terms, and described their range in such manner as to indicate a population running into thousands. A few years after Villa-Señor (in 1750), Parilla claimed to have annihilated the entire tribe, with the exception of 28 captives; but according to Velasco’s estimates, the people numbered fully 2,000 some thirty years later, when the tribe was, however, once more nominally annihilated. In 1824 Troncoso estimated the Seri at over 1,000, and two years later Retio reckoned the population of Isla Tiburon alone at 1,000 or 1,500, while Hardy thought the entire tribe might number 3,000 or 4,000 at the utmost. About 1841 De Mofras put the aggregate population at 1,500; and at the time of the vigorous invasion by Andrade and Espence (1844), when a considerable number of the tribe were captured and a few slain, the total population was estimated at about 550—though it is probable that a good many tribesmen were left out of the reckoning. According to the chroniclers, a number of the Seri were slain after, as well as before, this invasion; and in 1846 Velasco estimated the tribe at less than 500, including 60 or 80 warriors. This estimate was in harmony with that made by Señor Encinas, who reckoned the tribe at 500 or 600 at the beginning of his war, in which half the tribe lost their lives. The figures of Velasco and Encinas correspond fairly with the reckoning by Mashém in 1894, due allowance being made for natural increase and for the losses through occasional skirmishes; and Mashém’s count is shown not to be excessive by the considerable number of jacales and rancherias and well-trodden pathways found throughout Seriland in 1895.

On the whole it seems probable that the Seri population extended well into the thousands at the time of the Caucasian invasion; it seems probable, also, that the body was then too large for stability under its feeble institutional bonds, and hence threw off by fission the Guayma and Upanguayma fractions, and the Angeles, Populo, and Pueblo Seri fragments. Furthermore, it seems probable that the prolific group fairly held its own against these normal losses and repeated decimations by battle up to the Migueletes-Cimarrones war of 1780, despite the vaunted annihilation in 1750; but that thenceforward the death-rate due to increasingly frequent encounters with incoming settlers exceeded the birth-rate, gradually reducing the tribe from some 2,000 to the 250 or 300 surviving the Encinas conflict. Finally, it seems probable that the tribe has again held its own and perhaps increased slowly under the renewed isolation of the last decade or two.

SOMATIC CHARACTERS

Several physical characteristics of the Seri Indians are so conspicuous as to attract attention even at first sight. Perhaps the most striking is the noble stature and erect yet easy carriage; next in prominence is the dark skin-tint; a third is the breadth and depth of chest; another is the slenderness of limbs and disproportionately large size of extremities, especially the feet; still another is length and luxuriance of hair; and an impressive character is a peculiar movement in walking and running.

The mean stature of the adult Seri may be estimated at about 6 feet (1.825 meters) for the males, and 5 feet 8 inches (1.727 meters) or 5 feet 9 inches (1.73 meters) for the females, these estimates resting on visual comparisons between Caucasians of known stature and about forty adult Seri of both sexes at Costa Rica in 1894. In several of the accompanying photomechanical reproductions (e. g. plates XIII, XVI, XIX, XXIII, and XXVIII) a unit figure, introduced partly for the encouragement of the individuals and groups but chiefly to afford a basis for approximate measurement, gives opportunity for test of the estimate, the figure measuring 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 meters) to 5 feet 11½ inches (1.812 meters), and weighing about 215 pounds in the costume shown, including hat and boots.[239] These pictures and some thirty unpublished photographs, like the observations on the ground, indicate that practically all of the fully adult males and several of the females overtop the Caucasian unit. The only definite measurement known is that of the youthful and apparently immature female skeleton examined by Dr Hrdlička, of which the dimensions indicate a stature (estimated by the method of Manouvrier) of about 5 feet 3¾ inches (1.62 meters),[240] or 3½ inches above the female normal of 5 feet ¼ inch (1.53 meters) given by Topinard; but this considerable stature is, probably on account of the youth of the subject, much below the mean indicated by the ocular and photographic comparisons (it corresponds fairly with that of the Seri maiden represented in plate XXV, whose age was estimated at 18 years). Naturally this striking stature, especially that of the warriors, has been much exaggerated by casual observers; the typical warrior, El Mudo, depicted in plate XIX, is indeed commonly reckoned as a 7-footer, though his actual stature (diminished somewhat in the pictures by fearsome shrinking from the ordeal of photographing) can hardly exceed 6 feet 3 inches (1.90 meters); while for centuries the folk have been reputed a tribe of giants.

[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).

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIII

GROUP OF SERI INDIANS ON THE FRONTIER]

The estimation of Seri stature is difficilitated by the impossibility of defining maturity; and the effort to determine whether particular individuals were adult brought out clear indications of slowness in reaching complete maturity, i. e., of the continuation of somatic growth throughout an exceptionally long term in proportion to other stages in the life of the individual. Thus, with scarcely an exception, the polyparous matrons were taller than the mean of 5 feet 9 inches, while the apparently adult maidens (with one exception) and the younger wives were below this mean; and in like manner the stature of the warriors varied approximately with appearance of age, all of the younger men falling below the mean, and all of the older (except Mashém) rising above it. The difficulty of estimation is further increased by the absence of age records and the impracticability of ascertaining and standardizing the habitually guarded expressions for relative age implied in the kinship terminology; so that the age determinations were roughly relative merely, and there was no means of fixing the absolute age of maturity, of puberty, of marriage, or of the assumption of manhood and womanhood howsoever defined.

Under the conditions, the determination of stature-range in the Seri rancheria at Costa Rica in 1894 was not only difficult but uncertain; yet in general terms it may be said that the women having two or more children—about twenty in number—were notably uniform in stature, ranging from about 5 feet 7½ inches (in the case of an aged and shrunken elderwoman) to 5 feet 11 inches; that the younger women were more variable; and that the warriors (seventeen in number), of whom only a part were apparently heads of families, were more variable still, though the variation, apart from that apparently correlated with age, was less than is customarily found among the exceptionally uniform Papago, and decidedly less than that seen among the Yaqui or the local Mexicans.

The Seri skin-tint is of the usual Amerindian bronze, save that it is exceptionally dark, with a decided tone of black. Essayed representations of the characteristic color appear in plates XVIII and XXIV; but the essays are little more satisfactory than the innumerable attempts at depicting the skin-color of the American aborigines that have gone before. Experienced observers of the native tribes may form an impression of the Seri color from the explanation that they are as much darker than the neighboring Papago as the Papago are darker than the average tribesmen about the Great lakes; the Papago themselves being as much darker than the southern plains or Pueblo folk as these are darker than those of the Lake region. The range in color seems to be slight; the variation among the 60 individuals of both sexes and all ages seen at Costa Rica was hardly perceptible, being less than that usually observed in a single family of any neighboring tribe; while the color distinction alone sufficed to distinguish the Seri from any other people at a glance.

* * * * *

Foremost among the general somatic distinctions between the Caucasian and the American native is the peripheral development of the former, displayed in better-muscled limbs, more expressive features, etc.—i. e., the Caucasian body expresses a readily perceptible but difficultly describable peripheralization, in contradistinction from the centralization displayed by the aboriginal body. Save in a single particular (the large feet and hands), the Seri exemplify this distinction in remarkable degree: their chests are strikingly broad, deep, and long, recalling the thoroughbred racer or greyhound; their waists are shortened by the chest development, yet are rather slender; their hips are broad and deep, with a clean-cut yet massive gluteal development; and, in comparison with the robust yet compact bodies, the tapering arms and legs seem incongruously slender.[241] This physical characteristic, like that of color, is insusceptible of quantitative expression, at least without much more refined observations than have been made; but its value may be indicated roughly by the statement that the Seri differs from the average aboriginal American in degree of somatic concentration as much as the average aborigine differs from the average Caucasian—though it is noteworthy that the departure in this direction from the aboriginal mean is in some measure regional (i. e., the Seri differ less in this respect from the Papago and other swift-footed natives than from the average tribesmen of the continent). The Seri robustness of body and slenderness of limb are brought out by the absence (in appearance at least) of adipose; the skin is strikingly firm and hard and evidently thick, yet the play of muscle and tendon beneath indicate a dearth of connective tissue and convey that impression of physical vigor which their familiars so miss in the photographs; and in no case, save perhaps in the young babe, could the slightest trace of obesity be discerned. Thus the Seri, male and female, young and old, may be described as notably deep-chested and clean-limbed quick-steppers, or as human thoroughbreds.

[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.

The somatic symmetry of the average Seri, marred somewhat by the slenderness of limb, is still more marred by the large extremities. The hand is broad and long, the fingers are relatively long as those of the Caucasian, the nails are peculiarly thick and strong, and the skin is so thick and calloused as to give a clumsy look to the entire organ; the feet are still larger and thicker-skinned, appearing disproportionately long and broad for even the heroic stature of the tallest warriors. The integument covering the feet, ankles, and lower legs is incredibly firm and hard, more resembling that of horse or camel than the ordinary human type; its astounding protective efficiency being attested by the readiness with which the Seri run through cactus thickets so thorny as to stop horses and dogs, or over conglomerated spall-beds so sharp that even the light coyote leaves their trail. In the absence of measurements it may merely be noted that the hands and feet of the Seri are materially larger, not only absolutely but relatively to their stature, than those of neighboring tribesmen or even of Mexican and American workmen. And, on the whole, it may be said that in their proportions, as in their stature and color, the Seri are strikingly uniform, their range being less than that commonly observed in contemporary tribes, and the differences between them and their neighbors much exceeding the range among themselves.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIV

SERI FAMILY GROUP]

Somatically distinctive as is the Seri at rest, he (or she) is much more so in motion—though the characteristics so readily caught by the eye are not easily analyzed and described. Perhaps the most conspicuous element in their walk is a peculiarly quick knee movement, bringing the foot upward and forward at the end of the stride; this merges into an equally quick thrust of the foot forward and downward, with toe well advanced, toward the beginning of the next stride; and these motions combine to produce a singular erectness and steadiness of carriage, the body moving in a nearly direct line with a minimum of lateral swaying or vertical oscillation, while the legs neither drag nor swing, but spurn the ground in successive strokes. Thus the walk seems notably easy and graceful, while the walker carries an air of alertness and reserve power, as if able to stop short at any point of a pace or to bolt forward or backward or sidewise with equal facility; he simulates the “collected” animal whose feet tap the ground lightly and swiftly while his body appears to yield freely to voluntary impulse. In this deer-like or antelope-like movement all the Seri are much alike, and all are decidedly removed from their neighbors, even the light-footed Papago. The component motions are most conspicuous in leisurely walking, though the resultant movement is more striking in rapid walk or the incredibly swift run of youths and adults. The general movement is akin to that shaped by the habit of carrying burdens balanced on the head, as the Seri women actually carry their water ollas for astonishing distances; but the carriage is shared—indeed, best displayed—by the warriors and growing boys, who are not known to carry water in this way.

Among the conspicuous but nondistinctive somatic characters of the Seri is luxuriant straight hair, habitually worn long and loose. Commonly the hair is jet-black for most of the length, growing tawny toward the tips; sometimes it is black throughout, while again the tawny tinge, or perhaps a bleached appearance, extends well toward the scalp. Age-grayness seems not to be characteristic; the most aged matrons known have no more than a few inconspicuous and scattered gray hairs, though the pelage of some is slightly bleached or faded. None of the warriors at Costa Rica showed the slightest grayness except Mashém (aged about 50 years), who had a few gray strands about the temples; but it maybe significant that the hair of the tribal outlaw Kolusio, who has lived with white men for full three score years, is iron-gray. Kolusio’s pelage is trimmed in Caucasian fashion; that of Mashém is cut off mid-length in a manner exciting comment, if not derision, on the part of his fellows and others, and resulting in his (Spanish) sobriquet, Pelado (literally, Peeled, or idiomatically, Shorn); but with few exceptions the hair is kept long as it can be made to grow, and receives careful attention, to this end. Naturally the length is somewhat variable; in many cases it depends to or slightly below the waist, while in other cases it merely sweeps the shoulders; and in general it appears to increase in both length and luxuriance not only throughout adolescence, but up to late maturity, for the best pelages are presented by moderately aged persons, while none of the youths are so luxuriantly tressed as their elders. Not the slightest trace of baldness appears. The infantile pelage is short, brownish in color, soft or even silky, and inclined to curl toward the tips. It is not until the age of several months that the hair begins to acquire the adult character, and at least some children retain traces of the infantile pilary character up to 5 or even 10 years; and none of the children display such jet-black shock-heads as are frequently found among other tribes, whose adult pelage may nevertheless be much less luxuriant than that of the Seri. On the whole, it may be said that the Seri hair is luxuriant and vigorous beyond the aboriginal average, and that it, like various other somatic features, indicates a relatively late maturation in the life-history of the individual.

Both sexes are beardless. The female faces seen were entirely free of strong pilary growth; one or two of the warrior faces showed scattering hairs, and Mashém sported a feeble and downy but jet-black mustache with an exceptional number of scattered hairs about the chin; while Kolusio shaved regularly, and might, apparently, have grown moderately stiff but straggling mustaches and beard. Axillary hair seems to be wanting; pubic hair is said to be scanty; otherwise the bodies are practically hairless (more nearly so than those of average Caucasians).

The teeth are solid, close-set, and even, and impress the observer as large; they close with the upper incisors projecting slightly beyond the lower denture in the usual manner.

* * * * *

The skeletal characteristics of the Seri are known only from a single specimen obtained in the course of the 1895 expedition in such manner as to establish the identification beyond shadow of question. This skeleton was submitted to Dr Aleš Hrdlička for measurement and discussion.[242]

[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.

In making his examination, Dr Hrdlička compared the unquestionably authentic cranium of the entire skeleton with two skulls preserved in the American Museum of Natural History, viz., No. 99/84, designated as a skull of a Tiburon mound-builder, and No. 99/85, labeled as having been found in a shell mound at Tiburon, California; but, in view of the possible error in identification in these cases, the comparisons are omitted. Otherwise, Dr Hrdlička’s determinations are as recorded in the following report (and his drawings of the anterior and left lateral aspects of the cranium are reproduced in figure 6):

REPORT ON AN EXAMINATION OF A SKELETON FROM SERILAND

[By Dr Aleš Hrdlička, Associate in Anthropology, Pathological Institute, New York]

_The Skeleton_

All the bones of the skeleton are present, except the sternum, the coccyx, a few of the teeth, and a few of the small bones of the extremities.

It is a skeleton of a young adult, between 20 and 24 years of age, female. The age of the subject is indicated mainly by the unattached epiphyses of the long and some of the short bones, those epiphyses, namely, which are the last to coossify. The femininity of the subject is indicated by the generally slightly marked ridges, etc., of muscular attachment, and by the decidedly feminine character of the pelvis (light, well-spread ilia, broad subpubic arch) and of the skull (lack of supraorbital ridges, thin dental arches, small mastoids, etc.).

There are no wounds or pathological conditions noticeable on the skeleton. Several peculiarities and anomalies are observable. They will be described with the parts they concern.

The measurements to follow are expressed in centimeters. The French anthropometric methods and nomenclature have been adopted.

_The Skull_

The skull is of fair size, and is symmetrical throughout, with the exception of a slight irregularity in the occipital region. All the sutures, with the exception of the basilar, open; nerve foramina all large; serrations rather simple; no intercalate bones of any kind.

_Norma frontalis_—Visage symmetrical. Forehead well arched, medium height. Supraorbital ridges almost absent; glabella convex. Nasion depression medium. Orbits obliquely quadrilateral; their axes (internal inferior corner—internal superior corner) meet at ophryon. Spheno-maxillary fissure, lachrymal canal, and nerve foramina all above average in size. Nasal bones well bridged, very slightly concave; nasal aperture regular; no “gouttières”; turbinated bones well formed; septum wanting; spine 0.65 long, bifid at the end. Zygomæ of medium size and strength. Superior maxilla of medium size, well formed. Dental arches regular; no prognathism. Bone of lower jaw moderately strong; does not protrude anteriorly; conformation normal.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XV

SERI MOTHER AND CHILD]

_Norma basalis_—Contour almost round. Whole base symmetrical, except as noted below; the middle structures appear shortened antero-posteriorly, slightly more on the left than on the right; basilo-vomeric angle rather acute (100°); foramina of the base all spacious; the petrobasilar suture is large (average diameter, 5 mm.) and is throughout pervious. Superior dental arch regular and of medium thickness. Dentition incomplete—right upper wisdom tooth not fully erupted; left lower wisdom tooth wanting entirely. Denture fine and regular; no teeth decayed. Both upper first incisors absent.[243] Teeth set regularly in socket and of medium size. Palatine arch symmetrical. Shape of palate normal. Posterior nasal foramina oblong. Styloids small, shell-like, flattened.

[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?).

_Norma occipitalis_—The posterior part of the skull is somewhat flattened. The sides of the surface present a pentagonal outline with rounded corners, the apex corresponding to the sagittal suture, or obelion. There is a slight asymmetry, the right side being somewhat flattened. Exterior occipital protuberance not well marked.

_Norma verticalis_—Outline an irregular ovoid, wider posteriorly and more prominent on the left and posteriorly. Slight symmetrical depression of the parietals, beginning about 1 cm. and ending 5 or 6 cm. behind the coronal suture and extending laterally from the sagittal suture to the upper temporal ridge.

_Norma lateralis_—Outline ovoid, larger posteriorly. Pterions en H, of medium breadth. Temporal ridges not very distinct. Parietal bosses prominent.

cc.

Skull capacity, Broca’s method 1,545
Skull capacity, Flower’s method 1,490
Antero-posterior diameter, maximum 16.3
Lateral diameter, maximum 14.4
Cephalic index, 88.3=Brachycephalic.[244]
Chin-bregma 21.2
Chin-ophryon 13.2
Alveolar point-ophryon 8.6
Bizygomatic breadth, maximum 13.0
Facial index 98.5
Superior facial index (Broca’s), 66.1=Mesoseme.
Height of nose aperture 5.4
Breadth of nose aperture 2.65
Nasal index, 49.0=Mesorhine.
Mean height of orbits 3.80
Mean breadth of orbits 3.95
Orbital index, 96.2=Megaseme. cc.
Mean depth of orbits 4.6
Dacryon to dacryon 2.3
Frontal diameter, minimum 9.2
Frontal diameter, maximum (interstephanic) 11.4
Biauricular diameter[245] 12.3
Diameter through parietal bosses 14.3
Bimastoid diameter 10.55
Distance from superior alveolar arch to inferior
occipital ridge 14.35
Distance between supramastoid eminences 13.9
Length of basilar process (notch of vomer to basion) 2.95
Basion-bregma height 13.45
Basion-obelion height ? (obelion indistinct.)
Basion-ophryon 14.0
Basion-inion 8.1
Circumference, maximum 49.4
Nasion-ophryon arc 1.8
Nasion-bregma arc 12.3
Nasion-inion arc 30.0
Nasion-opisthion arc 35.5
Pterion-bregma arc 11.2
Arc external meatuses, over forehead 29.2
Arc external meatuses, over frontal bosses 30.4
Arc external meatuses, over bregma 34.0
Arc external meatuses, maximum 35.7
Arc external meatuses, over inion 23.6
Temporal ridges to sagittal suture (stephanions-bregma),
(arc) mean 7.5
Lateral diameter of foramen magnum, maximum 2.75
Antero-posterior diameter of foramen magnum, maximum 3.60
Index of foramen magnum 76.4
Length of hard palate, maximum 4.6
Height of hard palate at first molars 1.55
Breadth of hard palate at first bicuspids 2.9
Breadth of hard palate at first molars 3.55
Breadth of hard palate at third molars 4.1
Height of posterior nares 3.1
Breadth of posterior nares 2.55
Index of posterior nares 82.2
Angle of mandibles 114°
Length of mandibular rami 9.55
Bigoniac diameter of mandibles 9.85

[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.

_The Vertebral Column_

_Cervical vertebræ_—Number complete; characters normal. All cervical spinous processes bifid; vertebra prominens well defined. All epiphyses absent.

cc.
Transverse diameter of third cervical vertebra (between
posterior tubercles of the pedicles), maximum 5.05
Antero-posterior diameter of third cervical vertebra
(body-spinous process), maximum 4.20
Greatest lateral diameter of foramen, same vertebra 2.15
Greatest antero-posterior diameter of foramen, same
vertebra 1.45
Height of body in center, same vertebra .90

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVI

GROUP OF SERI BOYS]

_Dorsal vertebræ_—Number complete; characters absolutely normal. Resemblance to lumbar processes begins with tenth dorsal vertebra; a number of the epiphyses of the various processes either imperfectly united or detached; body epiphyses absent.

cc.
Antero-posterior diameter of body of sixth dorsal vertebra,
maximum 2.55
Lateral diameter of body of sixth dorsal vertebra, maximum 2.90
Height of body in center 1.67
Separation of transverse processes 5.63
Edge of upper articular processes-tip of spinous processes 5.50
Breadth of foramen, maximum 1.60
Length of foramen, maximum 1.50

_Lumbar vertebræ_—Number complete; characters absolutely normal. Only disk epiphyses detached.

cc.
Antero-posterior diameter of body, maximum 3.12
Antero-posterior diameter of whole vertebræ, maximum 7.10
Lateral diameter of body, maximum 4.55
Lateral diameter of transverse processes, maximum 7.10
Height of articular processes, maximum 4.33
Height of body in center, maximum 2.20
Antero-posterior diameter of canal, maximum 1.50
Lateral diameter of canal, maximum 2.10

_The Sacrum_

Aspect normal with the following exception: There are distinct intervertebral disks between the different segments (5 segments); there are deep lateral incisures in places where the lateral processes unite, and the fourth and fifth segments are entirely separated (in one piece) from the upper three (four small spots of coossification along the posterior border of the articulation are visible). The articular processes of the first and second sacral segments are similar in form to the lumbar, and form open articulations. There is a large foramen situated below the spinous processes of the first and third segment, and a smaller beneath the second. Coccyx absent. Curvature medium.

cc.
Breadth of the sacrum, maximum 10.5
Height of the sacrum, maximum 11.2
Index of the sacrum 93.7

_The Thoracic Cage_

Aspect of ribs normal. Strength medium. Sternum absent.

Length second right rib (arc) 21.8
Long diameter second right rib 12.5
Maximum height of the curve 7.2
Length ninth right rib (arc) 28.8
Long diameter ninth right rib 18.7
Maximum height of curve 8.45

_Bones of the Upper Limbs_

_Clavicles_—Form normal, slender; epiphyses united. Length, maximum, 13.5. Muscular attachments of slight prominence.

_Scapulæ_—Form normal, spine directed somewhat more upward than is usual; whole bone light and slender; acromial epiphyses absent.

Height (middle of glenoid fossa-tip of inferior angle) 12.0
Breadth (middle of glenoid point, maximum) 8.7

_Humeri_—Form normal; bone slender; head-epiphyses not united; left head perforated by large oval foramen from coronoid to olecranon fossa (8 mm. by 4½ mm.)

Length of left humerus (with epiphysis) 31.3
Length of right humerus (with epiphysis) 31.0

_Ulnæ and radii_—Form normal; bones slender; lower epiphyses ununited.

Length of left radius (head and end of styloid) 24.1
Length of left ulna (olecranon-styloid) 25.8

_Metacarpus, carpus, and phalanges_—Nothing special.

_Bones of the Pelvis and Lower Limbs_

All the bones of the pelvis and lower limbs of normal shape and medium size. Pelvis apparently that of a female (subpubic angle 100°). Bones well united, all traces of the union in acetabulum effaced. Epiphyses ununited except on the ischiatic protuberances, where bony union just begins. Above the fossa acetabuli (8 mm. postero-superiorly from the uppermost edge of the fossa) there is in both acetabula an irregularly triangular depression of about 2 water-drops capacity (accessory tendon?).