188* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann.i7 



the turtle is either drowned or driven ashore, or else lifted ou the craft.' 

 Iiiimediately on landing the (juarry, the plastron is broken loose by 

 blows of the hupf- and torn off by vigorous wrenches of the warriors 

 and tlieir strong-taloued spouses in the impetuous fury of a fierce 

 blood-craze like that of carnivorous beasts; the blood and entrails and 

 all soft parts are at once devoured, and the lirnier tiesh follows at a 

 rate depending on the antecedent hunger, both men and women 

 crushing integument and tendon and bone with the hupf, tearing other 

 tissues with teeth and nails, mouthing shreds from the shells, and 

 gorging the* whole ravenously if well ahungered, but stopping to 

 singe and smoke or even half roast the larger pieces if nearer satiety. 

 If the quarry is too large for immediate consumption and not too far 

 from a rancheria the remnants (including head and llippers and shells) 

 are hoisted to the toj) of the jacal immediately over the open end — the 

 conventional Seri larder — to soften in the sun for hours or days; and 

 on these tough and gamey tidbits the home-stayers, especially the 

 youths, chew luxuriously whenever otlier occupations tail. In times of 

 plenty, such sun-ripened fragments of reeking feasts are rather gener- 

 ally appropriated first to the children and afterward to the coyote- 

 dogs; and it is a favorite pastime of the toddlers to gather about an 

 inverted carapace on hands and knees, crowding their heads into its 

 noisome depths, displacing the rare scavenger beetles and blowHies of 

 this arid province, mumbling at the cartilaginous processes, and 

 sucking and swallowing again and again the tendonous strings from 

 the muscular attachments, until, overcome l\y fulness and rank efHu- 

 • vias, they fall asleep with their heads in the trough — to be stealthily 

 nudged aside by the cringiug curs attached to the rancheria. Com- 



' A livt'ly auil explicit account of Seri tiirtle-fishiug appears in Hardy's Travels in the Interior of 

 Mexico, 1829, pp; 296-297: "Bru.ja's bay is of consitlcrable extent, and there are from live to three 

 fathoms water close to Arnold's island, in the neighborhood of which the Indians catch abundance of 

 turtle in a singular manner. I have already described their canoes, which in Si»anish are called 

 'balsas'. An Indian paddles himself from the .shore on one of these by means of a long, clastic pole of 

 about 12 or 1-1 feet in leniith, the wood of which is the root uf a thorn called mes(initc, growing near 

 the coast; and although the branches of this tree are extremely brittle, the underground roots are 

 as pliable as whalebone and nearly as dark in color. At one end of this pole there is a hole an inch 

 deep, into which is inserted another itit of wood, in shape like an acorn, having a square bit of iron 

 4 inclies long fastened to it, the other cud of the iron being pointed. Both the hull and cirp are 

 first moistened and then tightly inserted one within the other. Fastened to the iron is a cord of very 

 considerable length, which is brought u}> along the pole, and both are held in the left hand of the 

 Indian. So securel,v is the nail thus tlxed in the pole that although the latter is used as a paddle it 

 does not fall out. 



"A turtle is a very lethargic animal, and may frequently be surprised in its watery slumbers. The 

 balsa is placed nearly perjiendicularly over one of these unsusiiecting sleepers, when the fisherman, 

 softly sliding the pole through the water in the direction of the animal till within a foot or two of it, 

 he suddenly plunges the iron into its hack. No sooner does the creature feel itself transfixed than it 

 swims hastily forward and endeavor.s to liberate itself. Tlie slightest motion of the turtle displaces 

 the iron point from the long pole, wliicli would otherwise be inevitably broken and the turtle wiuild 

 as certainl.v be lost; but in the manner here described it is held by the cord fastened on to the iron 

 which has penetrated its hack till, after it has Butlicieully exhausted its strength, it is hoisted on 

 board the canoe by the fisherman, who proceeds to the shore in order to dispose of his prize." 



2 The universal stone implement of the Seri, improvised from a cobblestone and used in nearly 

 every industrial occupation (see postea, p. 235) ; tlie designation is mimetic, cronomatopoetic, from the 

 sound of the stroke, particularly on animal tissue. 



