ERRATIC FICTILE WARE 



185* 



Fio. 17 



-Symbolic mortuary 

 olla. 



dislies, or even as kettles, in the rare culinary operations of tlie tribe (as 

 shown in plate x) ; but the entire vessel s appear to be religiously devoted 

 to their primary purpose. 



While some three-fourths of the observed fictile ware of the Seri and 

 a still larger proportion of the scattered sherds represent conventional 

 ollas, there are a few erratic forms. The most conspicuous of these is a 

 smaller, thicker-walled, and larger-necked type, of which three or four 

 examples were observed; two of these were in 

 use (one is represented lying at the left of the 

 jacal in plate x), and another was found cracked 

 and abandoned on the desert east of Playa 

 Noriega. The vessels of this type are used pri- 

 marily as kettles and only incidentally as can- 

 teens. In both form and function they suggest 

 accultural origin; but the ware is much like 

 that of the conventional type. Another erratic 

 type takes the form of a deep dish or shallow 

 bowl, of rather thick walls and clumsy form, 

 which may be accultural; a single example was 

 observed in use (it is shown in i)late xiv). There are also mortuary 

 forms, including a miniature olla (figure 39) and bowl (figure 41), and 

 such still smaller examples as those illustrated in figures 17 and 18. 

 In addition to the utensils a few fictile figurines were found. Most of 

 these were crude or distorted animal effigies, and one (broken) was a 

 rudely shaped and strongly caricatured female figure some 2 inches 

 high, with exaggerated breasts and pudenda. Analogy with neighbor- 

 ing tribes suggests that the very small 

 vessels and the figurines are fetishistic 

 appurtenances to the manufacture of 

 the pottery; e. g., that the fetish is 

 molded at the same time and from the 

 same material as the olla, and is then 

 burned with it, theoretically as an in- 

 vocation against cracking or other in- 

 jury, but practically as a "draw-piece" 

 for testing the progress of the firing. 



By far the most numerous of the 

 utensils connected with potable water 

 are drinkingcups and small bowls or 

 dishes; but these are merely molluscan shells of convenient size, picked 

 up alongshore, used once or oftener, and either discarded or carried 

 habitually witliout other treatment than the natural wear of use (an 

 example is illustrated in figure 1!»). Larger bowls or trays are improvised 

 from entire carapaces of tlie tortoise (probably Gopherun af/assizii), 

 which are carried considerable distances; and still larger emergency 

 water- vessels consist of carapaces of the green turtle (Chdonia agas- 



FlG. 18 — Symbolic mortuary dish. 



