MCQEE) MEANING OP" TRIBE NAMES 125 



P. E. Giossmaini defines the term ",se, very, ad. (prefix)'', and over a 

 hundred and fifty of his terms illustrate the use of this adjectival or 

 adverbial prefix as an undifferentiated yet vigorous intensive (e. g., 

 "/, female or woman, ne-iif, a lady — great or grand woman; d'li, high 

 or height, se-o'k, highmost); and in the Pimentel vocabulary this sig- 

 nification is attested by several other terms (e. g., " Sererai, paso meiiudo 

 y bueno"). Finally, the interciilated consonant r is a common par- 

 ticipial element in the Piman, while the suffix ai is a habitual assertive 

 termination, as shown by various terms in the Pimentel and other vocab- 

 ularies. Droi)ping this termination, the expression becomes se-erer, or — 

 without the nonessential i)arti(ipial element — .se-ere, signifying (so far as 

 can be ascertained from the construction of the language) "moving", 

 or "mover", qualified by a vigorous intensive.' To one familiar with the 

 strikingly light movement ciiaracteristic of tlie Seri — a movement far 

 lighter than that of the professional sprinter or of the thoroughbred 

 "collected" by a skilful equestrian, and recalling that of the antelope 

 skimming the plain in recurrent impulses of unseen hoof-touches, or 

 that of the alert coyote seemingly floating eerily about the slumbering 

 camp — this appellation appears peculiarly tit; for it is the habit of the 

 errant Seri to roam spryly and swiftly on soundless tiptoes, to come 

 and go like fleeting shadows of passing cloudlets, and on detection to 

 slip behind shrub or rock and into the distance so lightly as to make 

 no audible sign or visible trail, yet so fleetly withal as to evade the 

 hard-riding horseman. The Seri range over a region of runners: the 

 Opata themselves are no mean racers, since, according to Velasco and 

 Bartlett, "In twenty- four hours they have been known to run from 40 

 to 50 leagues";- and, according to Lumholtz, their collinguals, the 

 Tarahuniari, or "Counting-Eunners", are named from their custom of 

 racing,' and display almost inci edible endurance: 



An Iijiliau lias been l<nowu to carry a letter from Guazapares to Cliihiiahna and 

 back ai^ain in five days, the distance being nearly 800 miles. In some parts where 

 the Taralmmaris serve the Mexicans they are used to run in the wild horses, driving 

 them into the corral. It may take them two or three days to do it, sleeping at night 

 and living on a little pinole. They bring in the horses thoroughly exhausted, while 

 they themselves are still fresh. They will outrun any horses if you give them time 

 enough. They will pursue deer in the snow or with dogs in the rain for days and 

 days, until at last the animal is cornered and shot with arrows or falls an easy prey 

 from sheer exhaustion, its hoofs dropping off. ' 



'The latter form (fte-ere) correapaiids precisely with the cnrreut Pajiago prouimciation of the term, 

 tliough none of tlie various Papago informanls con.siilted were al>le to interpret llie expression; 

 indeed, they simply relegated it to the category of "old u-anies" which tbey deemed it needless to 

 discuss. An arcliaic form of orthograpliy, noted in the synonymy (pp. l'J8-130), is SSeri, which 

 suggests the same sounding of the initial sildlant. 



^From 10."» to 130 miles: Bartlett, Personal Narrative, vol. I, p. 445. 



^Memoirs of the Internationa! Congress of Anthropology, Chicago, 1894, p. 104. In a letter to Mr 

 F. W. Hodge, under date of September 11, 1900. Dr Lumholtz says: "After renewed investigation 

 I liave come to another opinion regarding the meaning ttt' tlie tribal name Tarahumare. This word is 

 a Spanish corruption of the native name ' Ralanieri '. Thougli the meaning of this word is not clear, 

 that much is certain that rala or tara means ' foot ', and I tlierefore take it that we must be at least 

 appioxiiualely correct when we say tliat tlie won! signifies 'foot-runner'." 



* American Anthropohigist, vol, vill, 1895, p. 92. 



