180* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.a.nn.17 



Industkies and Industrial Products 



The pacific vocatious of the Seri are few. They are totally without 

 agriculture, and even devoid of agricultural sense, though they con- 

 sume certain fruits and seeds in season; they are without domestic 

 animals, though they live in cotoleratiou with half-wild dogs, and per- 

 haps with pelicans; and they are without commerce, save that primi- 

 .tive and inimical interchange commonly classed as pillage and robbery. 

 Accordingly, their pacific industries are limited to those connected 

 with (1) sustentation, chiefly by means of fishing and the chase; (2) 

 navigation and carrying, (3) house-building, (4) appareling, and (5) 

 manufacturing their simple implements and utensils; and these con- 

 structive industries are balanced and conditioned by the destructive 

 avocation of (6) nearly continuous warfare. 



food and fogd-uetting 



The primary resource of Seriland is raised to the first place in 

 localized importance only by its rarity, viz, potable water — a com- 

 modity so abundant in most regions as to divert conscious attention 

 from its paramount role in physiologic function as well as in industrial 

 economy. The overwhelming importance of this food-source is worthy 

 of closer attention than it usually receives. Glassed by function, 

 human foods are (1) nutrients, including animal and vegetal substances 

 which are largely assimilated and absorbed into the system ; (li) assimi- 

 lants, including condiments, etc, which promote alimentation and 

 apparently aid metabolism; (3) paratriptics, or waste preventers, 

 including alcohol and other stimulants, which in some little-understood 

 way retard the waste of tissue and consequent dissipation of vital 

 energy; and (4) diluents, which modify the consistency of solid foods 

 and thereby facilitate assimilation, besides maintaining the water of 

 the system. Classed by chemic constitution, the foods may be divided 

 into (1) proteids, or nitrogenous substances, including the more com 

 plex animal and vegetal compounds; (2) fats, or iiouuitrogenous sub- 

 stances in which the ratio of hydrogen and oxygen is unlilce that of 

 water, and which are second in complexity among animal and vegetal 

 compounds; (3) carbohydrates, or nonnitrogeuous compounds of car- 

 bon with hydrogen and oxygen in the proportions required to form 

 water, which are among the simpler vegetal and animal compounds; 

 and (4) minerals, chiefly water, with relatively minute quantities of 

 various salts. Both classifications are somewhat indefinite, largely 

 because most articles of food combine two or more of the classes; yet 

 they are useful in that they indicate the high place of the simple 

 mineral water among food substances. Quantitatively this constit- 

 uent stands far in the lead among foods; the human adult consumes 

 a daily mean of about 4| pounds of simple liquids and 2^ pounds of 

 nominally solid, but actually more than half watery, food; so that the 



