104 THE SEKI INDIANS [eth.anx. 17 



The classiticatioiis by riiiientel and Orozco were widely accepted, 

 and were yiveu still wider curreucy by republication in standard 

 works, such as the classic dictionary of the Xahuatl tongue by llOmi 

 Simeon, in which is defined "La faniille Scri, dans la Sonora, avec ■) 

 idiomcs: le .SVr/, le (hutima et VUpangiiaima.'^' In his ethnographic 

 tableau of the nations and languages of Mexico, M V. A, MalteBruu 

 followed Orozco almost literally, save that he emphasized the sug- 

 gested Caribbean athliation of the Seri, saying : 



They make use of poisouetl arrows, aud when one studies their manners, their 

 habits, their modes of life, one is tempted to find in them a strong affinity [s'raiide 

 affinitej with the Caribs of the continent and the islands.^ 



During the seventies Hubert Howe Bancroft was engaged in collect- 

 ing material for his monumental series of works, and in arranging the 

 ethnologic data tor x>ublication. Of the Seri he wrote: 



East of the Opata and Pima bajo, on tlie shores of the Gulf of California, and 

 thence for some distance inland, and also on the island of Tiburon, the Ceri language 

 with its dialects, the Guaymi and Tepoca, is spoken. Few of the words are known, 

 aud the excuse given by travelers for not taking vocabularies is, that it was too 

 difBcult to catch the sound. It is represented as extremely harsh and gutteral in 

 its prouuuciatiou and well suited to the people who speak it, who are described as 

 wild and tiei'ce. It is, so far as known, not related to auy of the Mexican linguistic 

 families. ' 



The only vocabulary of this language which Bancroft was able to 

 tind was added (without reference to the aboriginal source); it com- 

 prised the eleven words collected by Lavandera aud di.scussed by 

 Eaniirez in 1850.^ 



The Seri, with their afflnes, the Tepoka, Salinero, Guayma, and 

 TJpanguayma, were included by Bancroft in his aibitrarily defined 

 "Northern Mexican family".' The accompanying map (which is highly 

 inaccurate) located the "Salineros" on the gulf coast, considerably 

 north of the common embouchure of "R. de Horcasitas'' and " Rio de 

 Sonora", while the "Seris" were more conspicuously represented about 

 the broad estuary into which the rivers embouch, and the "Tepocas" 

 were located still farther southward on both Tiburon and the mainland, 

 the island being placed too far southward and the river much too far 

 northwai-d.'' Numerous data relating to the Seri were incorporated in 

 his text; all were second-hand, though many were taken from unique 

 or rare manuscripts. The coastwise natives of Sonora were said to 

 "live on pulverized rush and straw, with fish caught at sea or in arti- 

 llcial enclosures"; mention was made of the allegation that " the Sali- 



'DictionnaJre ilo h\ Langiie Nahnatl on Mexicaine, r^disre (Vaprc.s lea Documents imprinius et 

 ilamiscrits les plus autheiitiques et prt-CLMlu il'une IntrtHlnclion : Paris. 1885. p. xviii. 



2 Tableau de la I>i.stributioiiethuograpbiquesde.s Nat ions etdes Langnes au Mexique; Coagres Inter- 

 natioQal des Auiericanistes, Conipte-rendu de la Secoiule Session, tome u, 1878, p. 37. 



^The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vul. ni (The Xative Kaces, vol. ni, 1882, p. 704). The 

 "east" in this quotation is obviously a misprint for west. 



"Ibid., p. 705. 



=0p. eit., vol. 1, iq.. 004-605. 



f'Uiid.. |i. 471. 



