JICGEE] 



THE PINART VOCABULAEY 1879 107 



to Pueblo Seri, and early in April obtained there a Seri-Spanish 

 vocabulary of several hundred words, with a number of short phrases 

 throwing some light on the grummatie construction. This record was 

 transmitted to JJr Albert S. Gatschet. It comprises a title page 

 inscribed •' Yocabulario de la lengua Seri | Interprete el Gl. de los 

 Seris | y otro ludio. | Pueblo de Seris | 4 Abril 1879"; four foolscap 

 sheets (written on both sides, thus making 16 pages) of vocabulary; 

 and a final page bearing two short phrases and inscribed "Los Seris, 

 lue dice el general de ellos, son como doscientos hombres de llevar 

 armas — viven todavia parte en la isla de Tiburon, parte en la coata.' 

 Pueblo de Seris, 4 Abril, 1870, Alph. Pinart." A transcript of this 

 invaluable vocabulary is preserved in the Bureau of American J'ith- 

 nology. There is nothing either in the original vocabulary or in 

 the known correspondence relating to it to identify the aboriginal 

 informant, but the identification is made easy through the coincident 

 testimony of living witnesses and the unmistakable implication of 

 the historical records to the effect that there was at that time but 

 a single Seri Indian- resident at Pueblo Seri — i. e., the official inter- 

 preter, "El General'' Kolusio. This identification is strengthened by 

 the remarkable similarity between this vocabulary and that of Bart- 

 lett, a similarity made the more striking by the fact that one was 

 recorded in English, the otlier in Spanish ; the identification is sup- 

 ported, too, by Kolusio's meniory of "giving his language" ti> a 

 stranger "not a Mexicano" yet familiar with the Spanish; and the 

 identification is practically established by the considerable number of 

 terms expressing concepts alien to the Seri (e. g., ax, adobe, house, 

 horse, hog, field, irrigate, pigeon, thresh, tobacco, shirt, the names of 

 the months, etc), evidently ac(iuired through long and intimate 

 acquaintance with Mexican customs and domiciles and modes of 

 thought — for all these concepts were familiar enough to Kolusio, yet to 

 no other known Seri Indian of recent decades. Accordingly it may be 

 deemed practically certain that M Pinart's vocabulary, like that of 

 Commissioner Bartlett, was obtained from Kolusio: and it is at least 

 strongly probable that both the Lavandera- Ramirez and the Tenocliio- 

 Pimeutel vocabularies were derived from the same aboriginal source — 

 an indubitably excellent source, save for the occasional interjection of 

 alien notions, and the infrequent substitution of foreign ecjuivalents 

 for forgotten terms. 



Barred from Seriland by the current war craze, M Pinart was pre- 

 vented from obtaining much collateral information concerning the Seri; 

 but he concluded (on grounds not stated) that "the Tepoca spoken on 



' " The Seris, the chief tells me, comprise about 200 men tit to bear arms— they still live ji^irt mi ihe 

 island of Tiburon, part on the coast." 



^M Pinart's reference to his interpreter is not only impersonal but ambiguous,. '■Interpreteu by 

 the chief of the Seri and another Indian " miyht be considered to imply two Seri Indians, though it 

 may. with equal linguistic probability, be interpreted to mean the specified Seri and another Indian ; 

 and wliile the temporary presence of a second Seri at the pueblo seems possible, tlie sum of probabili- 

 ties points so clearlj- the otlier way as to' demand tlie latter interpretation. 



