MCQEE] THE PEDESTRIAN HABIT 149* 



blocks or metates, tboiigh it is manifest tbat most of tbe camps were 

 fireless and many foodless. It is particularly notewortby tbat even 

 the more temporary resting-places are seldom if ever less than a mile 

 or two from tbe nearest fresb water. In sbort, tbe Seri are not a domi- 

 ciliary folk, but ratber bomeless wanderers, customarily roving from 

 place to place, frec^uently if not commonly sleeping where overtaken 

 by exhaustion or storm, ordinarily slumbering through a part of the 

 day and watching by night, habitually avoiding fresh waters save in 

 hurried and stealthy visits, and apparently gathering in their flimsy 

 huts only on special occasions. 



In conformity with their rovingness the Seri are notable burden- 

 bearers. They habitually carry their entire stock of personal belong- 

 ings (arms, implements, utensils, and bedding), as well as their stock 

 of food and — weightiest burden of all — the water requisite for pro- 

 longed sustenance amid scorching deserts, in all their wanderings, the 

 water being borne chietiy by women, in ollas, either balanced on the 

 head singly or slung in pairs on rude yokes like those of Chinese coolies. 

 And they have never grasped the idea of imposing their burdens on 

 their bestial associates; their coyote-curs are not harnessed or even 

 led; when they surround and capture horses, burros, and kine they 

 make no use of ropes, never think of mounting even when pursued by 

 vaqueros, but immediately break the necks or club out the brains of 

 the beasts, perchance to tear the writhing body into quarters and flee 

 for their lives with tlie reeking flesh still quivering on their sturdy 

 heads and brawny shoulders — and scores of vaqueros agree in the 

 artirniation (wholly incredible as it would be if supported by fewer wit- 

 nesses) that evi'u when so burdened the Heri skim the sand wastes of 

 Desierto Encinas more rapidly than avenging horsemen can follow. 



The hardly conceivable fleetness of the Seri is conformable with their 

 habitual rovingness and their ability as burden-bearers; and this 

 faculty is established by cumulative evidence so voluminous and con- 

 sistent as to outweigh the presumption arising from the standards 

 attained among other peoples. A few minutes after they were photo- 

 gra]ihed, the group of boys shown in plate xvi, with several others of 

 about the same size, provided themselves with a stock of their favorite 

 human-hair cords, "rounded up" a dozen mongrel coyote-dogs haunting 

 the rancberia at Costa Rica, and herded the unwilling animals toward 

 a shrubbery-free space a quarter of a mile away, in order to vope them 

 in imitation of the work of the Mexican cowboys earlier in the morn- 

 ing. From time to time as they went a frightened cur sneaked or 

 broke through the cordon of boys, and made for distant shrub-tufts at 

 top speed; yet in every case a l)oy darted from the ring, headed off 

 the animal within one or two hundred yards, and lashed it back to its 

 place. On arriving at their miniature rodeo the boys widened their 

 ring, and at a signal scattered and frightened the dogs; then, when 

 the fleeing animals had a fair start, each selected his victim and fol- 



