196* THE SERI INDIANS [etii.ann.17 



While by far the larger share of Seri susteuaiice is drawn from the 

 sea, a not inconsiderable portion is derived from the land; for the war- 

 riors and striplings and even the women are more skilful hunters than 

 fishers. 



The larger objects of the feral chase are deer of two or three species 

 (the bura, or mule deer, being most conspicuous and easiest taken), 

 antelope, and mountain sheep; to which tlie puma, the jaguar, and 

 perhaps two or three other carnivores might be added. The conven- 

 tional method of taking the bura and other deer is a combination of 

 stalking and coursing, usually conducted by live of the younger war- 

 riors, though three or four may serve in emergency ; any excess over 

 five being regarded as supertiuous, or as a confession of inferiority. The 

 chase is conducted in a distinctly ceremonial and probably ritualistic 

 fashion, even when the finding of the game is casual, or incidental to 

 a journey: at sight of the quarry, the five huntsmen scatter stealthily 

 in such manner as partially to surround it; when it takes fright one 

 after the other strives to show himself above the shrubbery or dunes 

 in order to break its line of flight into a series of zigzags; and whether 

 successful in this effort or not they keep approximate pace with it un- 

 til it tires, then gradually surround it, and finally rush in to either 

 seize it in their hands or crii^jjle it with clubs — though the latter pro- 

 cedure is deemed undignified, if not wrong, and hardly less disrep- 

 utable than complete failure. When practicable the course is laid 

 toward the rancheria or camp; and in any event the ideal finish is to 

 bring the animal alive into the family group, where it may be dissected 

 by the women, and where the weaklings may receive due share of the 

 much-prized blood and entrails. The dissection is merely a ravenous 

 rending of skin and flesh, primarily with the teeth (perhaps after 

 oblique bruising or tearing by blows with the hupf over strongly flexed 

 joints), largely with hands and fingers aided anon by a foot planted on 

 the carcass, and partly with some improvised device, such as a horn or 

 tooth of the victim itself, the serrated edge of a shell-cup, or perhaps 

 a sharp-edged cane-splint from a broken arrow carried for emergency's 

 sake. Commonly the entire animal, save skin and harder bones, is 

 gulped at a sitting in which the zeal of the devotee and the frenzy of 

 the carnivore blend; but in case the group is small and the quarry 

 large, the sitting is extended by naps or prolonged slumberings, and 

 the more energetic squaws may even trouble to kindle a fire and par- 

 tially cook the larger joints, thereby inciting palled appetite to new 

 efforts. Finally the leg bones are split for the marrow and their ends 

 preserved for awls; the horns are retained by the successful huntsmen 

 as talisman-trophies; while the skin is stretched in the desert sun, 

 scratched and gnawed free of superfluous tissue, rubbed into partial 

 pliability, and kept for bedding or robe or kilt. 



The chase of the hare is closelj' parallel to that of the deer save that 

 it is conducted by striplings, who thereby serve apprenticeship in hunt- 



