JicGEK] GENERAL CHARACTERS 11 



greatly reduced. The leading clans are tbose of the Pelican, the chief 

 tribal tutelaiy, and the Turtle, a minor tutelary. At present polygyny 

 prevails, professedly and evidently because of the preponderance of 

 females due to the decimation of waiTiors in battle: but both custom 

 and tradition tell of former monogamy, with a suggestion of polyandry. 

 The i)rimary marriage is negotiated between the mothers of the would- 

 be gToom and the prospective bride; if the mother and daughter in the 

 latter family look with favor on the proposal, the candidate is subjected 

 to rigorous tests of material and moral character; and if these are suc- 

 cessfully jjassed the marriage is considered complete, and the husband 

 becomes a privileged and permanent guest in the wife's household. 

 Family feeling, especially maternal affection, is strong; but petty dis- 

 sensions are common save when internal peace is constrained by 

 external strife. The strongest tribal characteristic is implacable 

 animosity toward aliens, whether Indian or Caucasian; certainly for 

 three and a half centuries, and probably for many more, the Seri have 

 been almost constantly on the warpath against one alien groui) or 

 another, and have successfully stayed Spanish, Mexican, and American 

 invasion. In their estimation the brightest virtue is the shedding of 

 alien blood, while the blackest crime in their calendar is alien conjugal 

 union. 



The Seri vocabulary is meager and essentially local; the kinship 

 terms are strikingly scanty, and there are fairly full designations for 

 food materials and other local things, while abstract terms are few. 

 Two (ir three recorded \ocables seem to resemble those of the Yuman 

 languages, while the numerals and all other known terms are distinct. 

 The grammatic construction of Seri speech appears not to differ greatly 

 from that of other tongues of Sonora and Arizona ; it is highly comf)lex 

 and associative. The speech is fairly euphonious, much more so than 

 that of the neighboring Papago and Yaqui Indians. 



The Seri Indians appear to recognize a wide variety of mystical 

 potencies and a number of zoic deities, all of rather limited powers. 

 The Pelican, Turtle, Moon, and Sun seem to lead their thearchy. Crea- 

 tion is ascribed to the Ancient of Pelicans — a mythical bird of marvel- 

 ous wisdom and melodious song — who first raised Isla Tassne, and 

 afterward Tiburon and the rest of the world, above the primeval 

 waters. Individual fetishes are used, and there is some annual cere- 

 mony at the time of ripening of cactus fruits, and certain observances at 

 the time of the new moon. The most c()nsi)icuous ceremony is the girls' 

 puberty feast. The dead are clothed in their finest raiment, folded 

 and fastened in small compass like Peruvian mummies, placed in shal- 

 low graves, and covered with turtle-shells, when the graves are tilled 

 with earth and heaped with stones or thorny brambles for protection 

 against beasts of prey. Fetishes, weapons, and other personal belong- 

 ings are buried with the body, as well as a dish of food and an olla 

 of water, and there are curious customs connected with the place of 



