102 THE SERI INDIANS 



|ETH. AN.N. 17 



collected by Senor D. A. Teuochio and trausmitted to the Mexican 

 Society of GeogTaphy and Statistics. Noting the condition of the tribe 

 at the time, Seiior Piinentel wrote : 



Tbu Seiis are now reduced to a few families only, inhaliitiug Sonora, especially 

 the island of Tiburou, for -wliicU reason they arc also known sometimes by the 

 name Tiburones. The Indians called Salineros, who live on the borders of Pimeria 

 Alta, and the Tepocas, who live toward the south, belong' to the Seri nation. The 

 Seris have always been notable for their ferocity and barbarism, preferring death 

 in war against the whites to the adoption of civilization. They are dreaded and 

 notorious for their arrows, poisoned with a most virulent venom [emponzouadas 

 con activisimo veneno]. They are tall and well formed, and their women are good- 

 looking. By reason of their distrust of the whites, it has not been possible to ascer- 

 tain their traditions, farther than that their ancestors came from distant lands of 

 unknown direction. Of their religion it is known that they adore daily the rising sun. ' 



After brief discussion of the grammar, and extended comparison of 

 some sixty out of the seventy vocables selected by Senor Tenochio, he 

 concluded : 



Although in the list of Seri ■words consulted the foregoing reveal analogies with 

 those of the Mexican group, there are, without doubt, other terms belonging exclu- 

 sively to the Seri or some other branch extraneous to the Mexican group; for this 

 I'eason it would appear that thr idiom represents a distinct famil}'.-' 



The list of these distinct words was appended. Referring to the 

 dialects, Seiior Pimentel expressed the opinion, based on literary refer- 

 ences, that the "Guaynia"or "Gayama", "Upanguaima"', and "Coco- 

 uiaques" may be considered as belonging to the Seri family.-' 



While Senor Pimentel gave credit to his informant, Senor Tenochio, 

 he did not indicate the original source of the vocabulary; but the 

 source may be detined approximately by a process of eliminatioti: 

 there is hardly a possibility that the terms were obtained from any 

 tribesmen in Seriland, since they were all inimical to the whites, and 

 since very few of them have ever known enough of the Spanish tongue 

 to permit communication with the Mexicans; accordingly, it is prac- 

 tically certain that the Seri interpreter must have been either (1) a 

 resident of Pueblo Seri or (2) an attache of raucho San Francisco de 

 Costa Rica (of which more anon); and in either case i( would seem 

 certain that the native informant could have been none other than the 

 standard Seri-Spanish interpreter of the last half century — Kolusio. 

 Indeed, Kolusio was, at the time, the only Seri habitue of Pueblo Seri 

 possessing sufdcieut knowledge of the Spanish and enough intelligence 

 and independence to "give his language", and was one of the two 

 frequenters of the rancho similarly equipped. 



Pimentel's contemporary, Licenciate Manuel Orozco y Berra, contri- 

 buted in important measure to systematic knowledge of the Seri, which 



'Cuadro Descriptivo y Couipftralivo de las Luu<;uas Indigeuas de Mexico, u Traladu de Filolosia 

 MoxiLana. por Fraucisco Pinieiitcl. segunua ediciuu unica oompleta, tonio 11; Mexico, 1875, p. 229. 

 The first edition ol'Ilie work was publislied in two volumes, dated, respectively, 1862 and 1865. 



•'!Ibid.,i).2'll. 



nbid..p.234. 



