156* THIO SEKI INDIANS [ethannM? 



so impressed padres and ranclieros; concordantly also, the manifesta- 

 tions of race hate, doubtless fulminating- among warriors on the war- 

 path, are strongly contrasted with the abject docility of the Seri groups 

 when at peace and in cami( near Costa liica and other ranchos — a docil- 

 ity far exceeding that of the Papago, whose personal dignity is an ever- 

 ])resent ]iossessioii, or that of Yaqui, whose strong spirit so often breaks 

 the curb of Caucasian control. So the observer of the Seri is impressed 

 by the intensity of functioning along lines defined by their character- 

 istic traits, and equally by the capriciousness of the functioning and the 

 remarkably wide range between activity and inactivity which render 

 iheni aggregations of extremes — the Seri are at once the swiftest and 

 the laziest, the strongest and the most inert, the most warlike and the 

 most docile of tribesmen ; and their transitions from role to role are singu- 

 larly capricious and sudden. At the sametime theobserveris impressed 

 by the relatively long intervals between the periods of activity: true, 

 the intense activity may cover hours, as in the cha>e of a deer, or days, 

 as in a distant predatory raid, or jierhaps even weeks, when the tribe 

 is on the warpath; yet all the known facts indicate that far the greater 

 portion of the time of warriors, women, and children is spent in idle 

 lounging about ranchecias and canijis, in lolling and slumbering in the 

 sun by day and in huddling under the scanty shelter of jacales or 

 shrubbery by night — i. e., when their activity is measured by hours, 

 their intervals of repose must be measured by days. 



Summarizing those somatic traits connected with habitual function- 

 ing, the Seri may be considered as characterized by (1) distinctive 

 pedestrian habit, (2) conspicuous handand-tooth habit correlated with 

 defective tool-sense, and (3) pronounced segregative habit correlated 

 with a highly specialized race-sense; yet tliey are characterized no less 

 by extreme alternations from the most intense functioning to complete 

 quiescence — the periods of intensity being relatively short, and the 

 intervals of quiescence notablj' long. 



On reviewing the more conspicuous somatic structures and functions 

 jointly, they are found to throw some light on their own development, 

 and hence on the natural history of the Seri tribe. 



Certain characteristics of the tribe strongly suggest lowly condition, 

 i. e., a condition approaching that of lower animals, especially of car- 

 nivorous type; among these are the specific color, the centripetally 

 developed body, the tardy adolescence, the defective tool-sense, the 

 distinctive food habits (especially the consumption of raw offal and 

 carrion), the independence of fixed habitations, and the extreme alterna- 

 tions between the rage of chase and war and the quiescence of sluggish 

 repose. But these jirimitive charai^teristics are opposed or qualified 

 by such features as the noble stature, the capacious and shapely 

 brain-case, the well-developed hands, and the considerable intelligence 

 revealed in native shrewdness as well as in organization and belief. 

 Collectively the characteristics are in some measure incongruous; yet 



II 



