MCGEE] THE SCIENTIl'IC RECORDS CIRCA 1860 101 



eros, or to tlio ninges to ste.il cattle. They conliue themselves to the bow aud arrow, 

 aud the bitter are poisoned, so that every wound made by them is deadly, or at best 

 highly dangerous. On my second journey into the interior of the country my horse 

 received an arrow iu the hip; the arrow, which entered 4 inches, could not be with- 

 drawn until the t'ollowing day; aud for seven mouths the wound aujipurated. 

 . . . Their <;hief food consists of oysters, muasehs, snakes, with fish and other 

 sea food, which they consume entirely raw aud which surrounds them with an intol- 

 erable stench; though this may bo partly due to their exceeding uncleanliness. since 

 the process of washing is wholly unknown to them. Their clothing consists of a 

 kilt of iielican skin. They tattoo their faces, and some pierce their noses to insert 

 a certain green stone [obsidian]. They are of dark copper c(dor, large aud strongly 

 built. Although in their faces no hnuum sentiments ('an be discerned, yet they can 

 not lie called u^ly. Their limbs are so beautifully jiroportioueil that the Spanish ladies 

 in Hermosillo view with envy the slender shapes and the comely hands and feet of the 

 young Ceris maidens. They wear, no headdresses, and as their coarse, shaggy hair 

 is neither combed nor cleaned, it sticks out in tangled tufts in all directions like 

 spines on a hedgehog; this .alone gives thera a forbidding appearance. Their speech 

 is (luite like their character: it is guttural, discordant, and meager, resembling 

 more the howling of wild animals than human speech, wherefore it is diOicult for a 

 human to learn. They have no religion — at least, I do not deem the gambols and 

 amusing capers in which they indulge at the new moon to be religioiis customs. 

 The tribe is constantly diminishing iu numbers, and it is hoped they may soon dis- 

 appear from the earth by natural decrease — unless the State government sooner 

 undertakes a war of extermination.' 



Hen- Pajeken's record bear.s iuhereut evidence (at least to one familiar 

 with the region) of reflecting the current local knowledge and opinion 

 concerning the Seri with unsnrpas.sed — indeed uuetiualed — fidelity; 

 and it is also of value in that it indicates the approximate number of 

 the tribe then surviving in Pueblo Seri, and in that it gives the con- 

 temporary estimate of the tribal population. 



Among the more careful students of the Seri at second hand should 

 be mentioned Buckingham Smith, an enthusiastic collector, translator, 

 and publisher of rare Americana. In the introduction to an anonj^- 

 mous and dateless grammar of the Heve language he wrote in ISfil : 



The lower Pima are in the west of the province [of Sonora], having many towns 

 extending to the frontier of tlie indomitable Seri, who live some 30 leagues to 

 the north of the nu)uth of the Hiaqui, and have their farthest limit inland some 

 dozen leagues from the sea, finding shelter among the ridges and in the neighboring 

 isliind of Tiburon. 



He added in a note : 



The Guainia speak nearly the same language as the Seri, are few in number, and 

 live among the Hiai|ui in Belen and elsewhere, having retreated before the san- 

 guinar.v fury of their comiuerors. 



While the scicntitic knowledge of the Seii began witli Hartlett's 

 visit, it assumed delinite shape only through the classic rcsearclies of 

 JJon Francisco Pimentel (Count Herras) in the early sixties. His 

 analysis and classification of the Seri tongue rest on a short voi^abulary 



' Reise-Erinnerungen rnict Abenteiicr .ins der neueu Welt in elhuugrapliisclieii liihleru, \oii ( '. A. 

 Pa.jekPii; liremeii, 1861, jip. 97-99. 



*A Graiuiiiatical Sketch of the Heve Lun^uage. traD.slate(l i'roin an unpublished Si»ani.<ili nianur^cript ; 

 in Lihrary of Aniei-ican ingiiistics, vnl. ni. New York, 1861, p. 7. 



