192* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.an.n.17 



Probably second in importance among Seri prey, as a food-source 

 merely, stand the multifarious tislies with which the waters of Serilaud 

 teem, particularly if the class be held to comprise the cetaceans and 

 seals and selacjhiaiis ranlied as leaders of the fish fauna in Seri lore. 



Naturally, whales He outside the ordinary range of Seri game, yet 

 they are not without place in the tribal economy. During the visit to 

 the Seri raiicheria near Costa Rica in 1894:, it was noted that various 

 events — births, deaths, journeys, etc — were referred to " The Time of 

 the Big Fish"; and it was estimated from apparent ages of children and 

 the like that this chronologic datum might be correlated roughly with 

 the year 1887. Tlie era-marking event was memorable to Mashi-m, to the 

 elderwomeu of theTurtle clan, and to other mature membcrsof the group, 

 because they had been enabled thereby to dispense with hunting and 

 fishing for an agreeably long time, and because they had moved their 

 houses; but the providential occurrence was not interpreted at the time. 

 On visiting IslaTiburon in 1895, the interpretation became clear; along 

 the westeru shore of Kada Balleua, near the first sand spit north of the 

 bight, lay the larger bones of a whale, estimated from the length of the 

 mandibles and the dimeusious of the vertebrie to have been 75 or 80 

 feet long. It was evident that the animal had gone into the shoal 

 water at exceptionally high tide and had stranded during the ebb; 

 while the condition of the bones suggested an exposure to the weather 

 of perhaps half a dozen years. On the shrubby bank above the beach, 

 hard by the bleaching skeleton, stood the new rancheria, the most 

 extensive seen in Serihxiid, comprising some fifteen or twenty habit- 

 able jacales; and fragments of ribs and other huge bones about and 

 within the huts ' attested trausportation thither after the building, 

 while the shallowness of the trails and the limited trampling of the fog- 

 shrubbery gave an air of freshness to the site and surroundings. The 

 traditions and the relics together made it manifest that "The Time of 

 the Big Fislr' liad indeed marked an epoch in Seri life; that when tlie 

 leviathan landed (whether through accident or partly through efforts 

 of balsa men) it was quickly recognized as a vast contribution to the 

 Seri larder ; and that some of the clans, if not the entire tribe, gathered 

 to gorge first flesh and blubber, next sun-softened cartilage and chitin, 

 and then epiphyses and the fatter bones. Some of the ribs were splin- 

 tered and crushed, evidently by blows of the hupf, in order to give 

 access to the cancel.late interiors; several of the vertebra' were bat- 

 tered and split, and nearly all of the bones bore marks of hupf blows, 

 aimed to loosen cartilaginous attachments, start epiphyses, or remove 

 spongy and greasy processes. Little trace of fire was found; iu one 

 case a mandible was partly scorched, tliough the burning appeared to 

 be fortuitous and long subsequent to the removal of the flesh; and a 

 bit of charred aud gnawed epiphysis, much resembling the fragments 

 of half cooked turtle plastron scattered over Seriland, was picked up in 



1 One of the Bmaller vertebrai auil part uf ji rib are showu in the upper figure of plate VI. 



