100 THE SERI INDIANS [eih.axn.17 



premature terniinatioii of the work, few of the observations and other 

 results were ever published, (reneral Stone himself traveled exten- 

 sively in Souora, and delved deeply iu the Idstorical records of northern 

 Mexico; and, while there is no indication that he ever came in jiersonal 

 contact with the Seri, he collected and sifted current local information 

 relating to the tribe with notable acumen. In certain "Notes" i)re 

 pared in Washington in December, 1860, he wrote: 



The Ceria are a peculiar tribe of Indian8 occupying the island of Tiburon and the 

 ueigliboring coast. They lire yet in a perfectly savage state, and live solely by 

 fishing and hunting. Having been at war with the whites from the time of the first 

 missions, they have become reduced in numbers to about 300, counting some 80 war- 

 riors. They are of large stature, well made, and athletic. In war and in the chaste 

 they make use of poisoned arrows, the wounds from which are almost always fatal. 

 In preparing the poison, it is said they procure the liver of a deer or cow, and by 

 irritating rattlesnakes and scorpions with it, cause it to be struck by a great many 

 of these reptiles. They then hang up the mass to putrefy in <a bag, and in the drip- 

 pings of this bag they soak their arrowheads. I can not vouch for the truth of this 

 statement, but it is current in Sonora. I w.as informed by a gentleman in Hermo- 

 sillo that one of his servants, who was slightly shot by a Ceri's arrow, died quickly 

 from the ett'ect of the wound (which uiortitied almost immediately) iu spite of the 

 best medical treatment. Their language is guttural, and very ditierent from any 

 other Indian idiom in Sonora. It is Siiid that on one occasiou some of these Indians 

 pa.s.sed by a shop in Guaymas, where some Welsh sailors were talking, and on heav- 

 ing the Welsh language spoken, stopped, ]isteue<l, and appeared much interested, 

 declaring that those white men were their brothers, for they had a tongue like their 

 own. They are very lilthy in their habits, and are said to l)e worshipers of the 

 moon.' 



Another Mexican traveler of note who collected local and coutem- 

 poi'ary information concerning the Seri, though enjoying no more than 

 slight inimical contact with them, was Herr Clemens A. Pajeken, of 

 Bremen (for some time a resident of California). He classed as wild 

 Indians ("Wilde Indianer, Indios broncos") the Seri and Apache tribes. 

 Of the former he wrote : 



Ceris. This is a small tribe, their number not exceeding 400 souls, or rather head 

 [desseu Seelenzahl oder besser Kopfzahl] ; yet the government of the State could 

 not restrain this little band of robbers and marauders that for more than twenty 

 years have perpetrated their atrocities on travelers between the port of Guaymas 

 and the city of Hermosillo, the metropolis of the State. . . . The Ceris appear 

 not to grasp the idea that they are human. Like the prey-beasts of the wilderness, 

 they go out to slay men and animals, sparing only their own kind. In many respects 

 they are viler than the beasts, since they slay without need merely to satisfy a lust 

 for slaughter. They are not only the stupidest and laziest of the Indians of Sonora, • 

 but also the most treacherous and deceitful. During the Spanish rule, from the 

 time the lirst visit was made to lead them toward .social life, they have rebelled 

 more than forty times. Only a couple of families [ein paar Familien] still reside 

 in the village [Pueblo Seri], where they make oU.as and subsist on the oft'al of the 

 shambles. The propir home of these barbarians is the island of Tiburon and the 

 adjacent coasts, whither they return after their outbreaks, although it is ,an incred- 

 ibly desert region. Thence they repair to the highways to kill travelers and arri- 



'Notes on the State of Sonora, by Charles P. Stone, ISliO; Washington, 1861, p. 19. Reprinted in 

 Historical Magazine, vol. v, 1861, pp. 161-169. 



