MCGKE] ABSENCE OF KNIFE-SENSE IAS* 



ripeuiiig); most of the larger muscles were already gnawed away, 

 leaving loose ends of fiber and strings of tendon clinging to the bone, 

 the condition being such that the remaining flesh might easily have 

 been cut and scraped away by means of a knife; yet whenever a war- 

 rior or woman or youth hungered he or she took down the heavy Joint, 

 squatted or sat on the ground with back to one side of the doorway, 

 held the mass at the height of the mouth, and gnawed, sucked, and 

 swallowed, frequently tearing the tissue by twisting and backward 

 jerks of the head, and not only masticating, but swallowing the free 

 ends of tendons still attached to the bone. This process was varied 

 oidy by seizing with the hands and tearing off a strip of flesh or skin 

 already loosened by the teeth; and it was continued until the bones 

 were practically clean, when they were wrenched apart by the stronger 

 men in order that the cartilaginous cushions and epiphyses might be 

 gnawed away. The only approach to cooking or carving was a parboil- 

 ing of the foot, after the leg was wrenched oft' at the hock, until the 

 hoof was sufficiently softened to be knocked ol£ with the protolithic 

 hu-pf shown in plate XLiii, when half a dozen matrons and well- 

 grown maidens gathered about to gnaw the gelatinous tissue (already 

 softened by incipient decay as well as by the parboiling) investing the 

 coffin bone. The entire procedure ia this as in many other cases i)ro- 

 elaimed the absence of knife-sense. Tlie Caucasian huntsman docs not 

 have to think of his knife when game is to be bled or skinned or dis- 

 sected ; his habit trained hand knows where to find the implement, how 

 to seize it. and in most cases how to wield it advantageously; but the 

 Seri hand possesses no such cunning, and uses the knife only clumsily 

 and at second thought, if at all. The Seri huntsman, on the other 

 hand, does not have to think of nails and teeth, for they are trained 

 and coordinated by hereditary habit to spontaneously act in unison and 

 with the utmost jjossiblc or needful vigor; while the Caucasian at least 

 has completely lost the claw -and -teeth instinct of offense and defense. 

 Conformably with their striking iudeiiendence of knives, the Seri are 

 consi)icuously unskilful in all mechanical operations involving the use 

 of tools. Their most elaborate manufacture is the balsa, made from 

 reeds broken at the butts and with the leaves and tops removed by the 

 hands or by fire, bound together with handmade cords; next in elabo- 

 rateness come the bow and arrow, normally made without cutting tools; 

 then follows their fictile ware, which is made- wholly by hand, without 

 aid of the simple molds and paddles and other devices used by neigh- 

 boring tribes; while their lu-imitive fabrics were apparently of hand- 

 extracted fibers, twisted and woven wholly by hand, with the aid of 

 wood or bone perforators in sewing and possibly in weaving. Practi 

 cally the Seri possess but a single tool, and this is applied to a jiecul- 

 iarly wide varietj' of purposes — it is the originally natural cobble used 

 for crushing bones and severing tendons, for grinding seeds and 



' Deaned postea, p. 188. 



