MCriEE] 



DISTINCTNESS OF THE TRIBE 127 



trial factors was the settiug apart of the Saliueros, or Seri Saliueros; 

 yet this distinction, fortuitous and variable at the best, expressed no 

 essential character and has not been maintained. A nincli later dis- 

 tinction was that between the Seri and Tiburones, emphasized by 

 Miihlenpfordt and exaggerated by Buschmann; but there seem to have 

 been no better grounds for it than misapprelieusions naturally attend- 

 ing a slowly crystallizing nomenclature. lu any event it has not been 

 maintained. 



At several stages the chroniclers coupled the Seri with other tribes, 

 on various grounds: in the eighteenth century they were thus com- 

 bined with the Pima, the Piato, and especially the Apache tribes. In 

 the earlier half of the nineteenth century they were frequently coupled 

 in similar fashion with the Pima and Apache tribes, and in the later 

 half of the nineteenth century, and even in its last lustrum, they have 

 been similarly combined with the Yaqui. The later combinations seem 

 to explain the earlier: the Yaqui outbreaks withdraw portions of the 

 arm bearing population from the Seri frontier, and the marauders take 

 advantage of the withdrawal so regularly that a Yaqui scare is inva- 

 riably followed bj' a Seri scare, aud hence the two warlike tribes are 

 constantly associated in the minds of the Sonorenses as synchronous 

 insurrectionists; and scrutiny of the earlier chronicles indicates that 

 most of the so-called combinations of former times were of similar sort. 



On putting the chronicles together, it seems clear that the term " Seri " 

 was oiiginally of lax application, but was gradually restricted to the 

 tribe inhabiting Tiburon aud ranging adjacent territory, including the 

 collingual but Inimical Guayma and LTpauguayma, and also the col- 

 lingual and cotolerant Tepoka; and that the various Piman tribes, as 

 well as the Apache, were always distinct, and commonly if not invari- 

 ably inimical. 



The ethnic relations of the Seri people attracted early and repeated 

 attention. Humboldt gave currency, albeit not unquestiouingly, to a 

 supposed Chinese or related Oriental atifiliation; Hardy noted the sim- 

 ilarity of the Seri tongue to that of the Patagonians ; Lavandera classed 

 the language as Arabic; Stone aud Bancroft circulated a supposed 

 identification of the speech with the Welsh; Ramirez, and more espe- 

 cially Pimentel, narrowed the field of affiliation to Mexico aud defined 

 the tongue as distinct ; Orozco y Berra, iind more especially Malte-Brun, 

 slightly reextended the field and suggested affiliation with the Caribs; 

 while Herzog, Gatschet, and Brinton reextended the field in another 

 direction and saw, in a vocabulary obtained from a Seri scion but alien 

 thinker, similarities between the Serian and Yumau tongues. The 

 recent researches tend strongly to corroborate the evidence collected 

 and the conclusions reached by Ramirez and Pimentel; for the some- 

 what extended comparisons between the Serian and neighboring lan- 

 guages (introduced aud discussed in other paragraphs) indicate that the 



