92 THE SERI INDIANS (eth.asnIT 



cooked; they endure a thousand miseries on tlie island, yet the love they have for it 

 is incredible. They are always accoiupanied by innumerable dogs, . . . which 

 they have domesticated. ' 



Velasco adds: 



The Ceris subsist on fish, the seeds of grass, and coastwise shrubs, as well as on 

 the-llcsh (if horses and deer, which they kill. There is lui better proof of this fact 

 than this — on approaching the said Ceris, one instantly perceives that their bodies 

 exhale an intolerable stench, like that of a corpse of eight or more days, totally rot- 

 ten, so that it is necessary to withdraw far as possible from them. - 



Of all the Indian tribes known in Sonera, none are more barbarous and uncivilized 

 than the Ceris. They are perverse to the limit, vicious beyond compare in drunken- 

 ness, infinitely filthy, the bitterest enemies of the whites, like the worst of the 

 Indians. ^ 



He adds ahso that the men wear a pelicanskiu robe aud a breecbcloutof 

 cotton cloth, with most of the body uncovered; "they have their faces 

 painted or barred with prominent black lines. They use no foot-gear of 

 any kind, and many liave the nasal sejitum pierced and adorned with 

 pieces of greenstone or ordinary glass." "They are robust in stature, 

 tall and straight, generally with bright black eyes. The women are not 

 uncomely, and of bronzy color [de color abronzado]. Their clothing 

 is made of pelican skins fa.stened together, retaining the feathers; with 

 this they are covered from the waist downward ", the remainder of the 

 body being bare. The women of Hermosillo provide them with cast oft' 

 garments when they api)roach the <'ity, and these they wear, unwashed, 

 until they fall to pieces. " The said tribe, in addition to being the vilest 

 and most brutal known in the country, are preeminently treacherous 

 and traitorous, so that forty of their outbreaks may be counted during 

 the eftbrts to reduce them to civilized life." At the time of the Oimar- 

 rones outbreak, the Seri of Tiburon aud Tepoka numbered 2,000; 

 "today [about 1846 or 1847], counting the 259, which ai-e all that 

 inhabit Tiburon and the most that can be presented, including the 

 Tepoka Seri [los t'eris Tei>ocas], who have always been much fewer, 

 their whole number will not amount to 500 persons of all sexes and 

 ages, and the warriors can not exceed (iO or 80 at the most." The Seri 

 are not polygamous, though ajjparently promi.scuous (" se nota en sus 

 matrimonies mucha tolerancia mutameute"). They "adore the moon, 

 which they venerate and respect as a deity; when they see the new 

 moon, they kneel and make obeisance; they kiss the earth and make a 

 thousand genuHectious, beating their breasts."^ 



The remarkably vigorous expedition of Andrade and Espence 

 occurred within the memory of men still active, and naturally it lives 

 in tradition at Hermosillo aud Bacuache. aud among the ranchos lying 

 toward the border of Serilaud; indeed, one of the two ilexicans 

 accompanying the 1895 expedition, Don Ygnacio Lozania, retained 

 shadowy impressions of participating in an invasion of the island, 

 which could have been none other than that planned by Governor De 



I Velasoo, Uoticias Estadlsticas, ]ip. 1U9-171. 'Ibid., pp. 127-128. 



sjliid., p. :29. •■ Ibid., pp. 131-133. 



