MCGEE] CUSTOMARY HUNTING CUSTOMS 197* 



ing and at the same time enrich the tribal larder with a game beueath 

 the dignity of the warriors ; while still smaller boys similarly chase the 

 rabbit, which is commonly scorned by the striplings. The conventional 

 hare-lmuting party is three, and it is deemed disreputable to increase 

 this number greatly. The youths spread at sight of the game and seek 

 to surround it, taking ingenious aud constant advantage of the habit 

 of the hare to run obliquely or in zigzags to survey more readily the 

 source of its fright; for some time they startle it but slightly by suc- 

 cessive appearances at a distance, but gradually increase its harass- 

 ment until it bounds hither and thither in terror, when they rapidly 

 close in and seize it, the entire chase commonly lasting but a few min- 

 utes. The quarry is customarily taken alive to camp, where it is (juickly 

 rent to fragments and the entrails and flesh and most of the bones con- 

 sumed; the skin usually passes into possession of a matron for use as 

 infantile clothing or cradle bedding, while the ears are kept by the 

 youth who first seized the game until his feat is eclipsed by some other 

 event — unless chance hunger sooner tempts him to transmute his trophy 

 into pottage. 



While the collective, semiceremonial style of chase alone is thor- 

 oughly good form in Seri custom, it is often rendered impracticable by 

 the scattering of the tribe in separate families or small bands, in which 

 case the bura and its associates, like the larger carnivores customarily, 

 are taken by strategy rather than by strength. This form of chase is 

 largely individual; in it archery plays a leading role; and in it, too, 

 ambuscade, stealthy lying in wait, and covert assault attain high devel- 

 opment. It is closely analogous with the warfare typical of the tribe; 

 and it is especially noteworthy as one of the most effective stimuli to 

 intellectual activity, and hence to the development of invention — if the 

 term may be applied to industrial products so lowly as those of the 

 Seri. 



The chief artifact produced by the strategic chase on land would 

 seem to be the analogue of the harpoon used at sea, i. e., the arrow. 

 This weapon is one of the three or four most highly differentiated and 

 thoroughly perfected of the Seri artifacts, ranking with cauteen-olla 

 and balsa, and perhaps outranking the turtle-harpoon. It is fabricated 

 with great care and high skill, and with striking uniformity in details 

 of material and construction. A typical example is 2~> inches in length 

 and consists of three pieces — point, foreshaft, and main shaft (feathered 

 toward the nock). The foreshaft is 8J inches long, of hard wood care- 

 fully ground by rubbing with quartzite or pumice into cylindrical form, 

 about three-eighths of an inch in diameter at the larger end aud taper- 

 ing slightly toward the point; the larger end is extended by cai\'ful 

 grinding into a tang which is titted into the main shaft, the joint being 

 neatly wrapped with sinew. This main shaft is a cane-stalk {Phrag- 

 mites comiiiunisf) 15 or 1(! inches long, carefully selected for size and 

 well straightened and smoothed ; it isfeathered with three equidistantly- 



