108 THE SERI INDIANS [f.th. axx.17 



tbe south of liio del Altar is identical with the Seri"',' aud also that 

 ''the Giiaymas were of the stock of the southern Pinias, or Nebonies ''.- 



While M I'inart failed to piibHsh, his linguistic collections were com- 

 pared, systemized, and made public by Dr Albert S. Gatschel in a 

 notable memoir on "Der YumaSprachstamm", 1883. Comparing the 

 Seri, as represented by the Pinart aud Bartlett and Pimentel vocabu- 

 laries, with the Yavapai, M'Mat, and incidentally with the Kouiuo, 

 Tonto, Oochinii, and other tongues, Dr Gatschet was led to adopt the 

 suggestion of Professor VVilhelni Herzog-' that the Seri is a dialect of 

 the Ynman stock. In the comparative vocabulary, which comprises 

 about a hundred and forty Seri words (selected from the 611 terms in 

 the Pinart csollection), there are perhaps a dozen terms presenting some 

 similarity to those of one or more Y'uman dialects; among these are 

 terms for ax, tree, split, tobacco, heaven, pigeon, dog, aud others of 

 presum;>tively or certainly alien character.' 



Herzog's suggested classitication, with Gatschet's indorsement, was 

 accepted even more promptly and widely than the earlier classifica- 

 tions of Pimentel and Orozco. It was tacitly adopted by Director 

 J. W. Powell in his classic arrangement of Indian linguistic tamilies ot 

 America north of Mexico;' it was explicitly ajjproved by Adoljili V. 

 Baudelier in his " Pinal Report of Investigations"; '^ and it was implic- 

 itly accei)ted and fortified by Dr Daniel G. Brinton in his work on 

 "The American Race'".' Brinton's Seri words were '' chiefiy from the 

 satisfactory vocabulary obtained by the late John Russell Bartlett"; 

 of the 21 terms, about 8 (including that for the alien concept "house") 

 suggest affinity with the Yuman, chietlj' in the Mohave dialect: the 

 others are either wholly distinct or only superficially similar, e. g., in 

 the concurrence of a consonant or two, or merely in the correspondence 

 in number of syllables." 



Stated briefly, tlu; scientific researches relating to Seriland and the 

 Seri during the fifty years from tlie fourth decade of the century t" tlie 

 middle of the last decade resulted in (1) a satisfactory survey of the 

 coast, (2) the collection of two excellent Seri vocabularies, with a few 

 others of less extent, and (3) two discrejjant linguistic classifications of 

 the tribe, both widely (quoted and accepted. 



'Gatschet, op. cit., p. 131. 



'■* Baudelier, Final Keport of Juvestigations amou^ tlie Indians of tlie Soutliwestern United States, 

 part 1. in Papers of the Arcliiwological Institute of America, American series, in, Cambridge, 1890, 

 p. 76. As already noted, it is probable that the Guaymalost their "autigiia idionia " {Kamirez, op. cit. 

 p. 119^ long before SI Piuart's visit; aud peudiug definite statement of tbe facts oii which his conclusion 

 rests it is necessary to retain tbe classitication based on specific and repeated, allnit iiiiskillf<l, uliser- 

 vations of tbe identit.v of tbe Giiayma speech with that of the Seri. 



3In ei rresjioiulence witli Dr Gatschet, op. cit., p. 133. 



*Dr. Gatschet has recently revised the data and recognized tbe dislinctue.-^s ol" tbe Seri tongue 

 (Science, uew series, vol. .\ll. 1900, p. 556-558). 



^Seventh Annual Rejtort of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885- '86; Washington. 1891, p. 137. 



••Op. cit., p. 74. 



'The Americau Kace: A Linguistic Classification aud Ethnographic Description of the Native 

 Tribes of North aud South America; New Tork, 1891, p. 335. 



"'Mr. Hewitt's discussion \po8tea, pp. 299.344) gives fuller details of this short vocabulary. 



