182* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann.17 



extensive rancherias near Punta Narragansett measure 10 miles by 

 trail from the same aguaje; the half dozen jacales about Gampo Xavidad 

 are separated by some 15 miles of stony and hilly pathway from the 

 alternative watering places of Tinaja Anita and Arroyo Carrizal;' and 

 the huts crowning the great shell-heap of Puuta Antigualla — one of 

 the most striking records of innnemorial occupancy iu America — are 

 nearly or quite 10 miles by trail from Pozo Escalaute, and still further 

 from Aguaje Parilla, the nearest sources of potable water. These are 

 but typical instances; aud while there are ruined huts (evidently 

 regarded as temporales) near the dead waters of Barranca Saliua and 

 Pozo Escalante, they tell the tribal policy of locating habitations in 

 places surprisingly remote from running water. Like other desert 

 folk, the Seri have learned to economize in water-carrying by swigging 

 incredible quantities on their occasional visits to the aguajes; it is prob- 

 able, too, that their systems are inured, somewhat as are those of 

 the desert animals that survive deprivation of water for days or mouths, 

 to prolonged abstinence from li(juid food; yet it seems safe to assume 

 that at least half of the water required in their vital economy (say 2 or 

 3 pounds apiece daily, on an average) is consumed after transportation 

 over distances ordinarily i-anging from 4 to 12 miles. Under these 

 conditions the Seri have naturally produced a highly developed water 

 industry; they are essentially and primarily water carriers, and all 

 their other industries are subordiuated to this function. 



Concordantly with their customs, the Seri have a highly differentiated 

 aquarian device in the form of a distinctive type of olla, which is 

 remarkable for the thinness and fragility of the ware, i. e., for largeness 

 of capacity in proportion to weight. Representative specimens are 

 illustrated in plates xxxii and xxxiii (the former painted, as already 

 described). The dimensions of the two vessels are as follows: painted 

 olla, height 34 cm. (13| inches), mean diameter 32,5 cm. (12| inches); 

 plain olla, height 32 cm. (12§ inches), mean diameter 32 cm. In both 

 specimens the walls are slightly thickened at the brim, those of the 

 painted vessel measuring about 4 mm. and those of the plain vessel 

 about 4.5 to 5 mm. iu thickness. Below the brim the walls are thinned to 

 about 3 mm., as is shown iu the fratjtured neck of the painted specimen. 

 The capacity of these Seri vessels in proportion to their weight, coni- 

 l)ared with that of typical examples of ware produced by other desert 

 peoples, is shown in the accomi)anying table. 



Comparison of the mean ratios indicates that the Seri ware is almost 

 exactly twice as economical as thatof the Pueblos — i. e., that its capacity 

 is twice as great in proportion to the weight of the vessel; and that 



^ The precionsiiess of water in this hard province was impressed in the 1895 expedition, during 

 which the cost of tlie commodity, reckoned ou tlie basis of ttie time aud labor involved iu obtaining 

 it, was estimated al $10 or $12 per gallon, or about the wholesale price of the finest champagnes. 



