204* THE SERE INDIANS [eth.ann.17 



bides its travail aud suckling in the wilderness, and perhaps the deified 

 pelican.' 



Parallel to the chase of the larger land game is the hunting of horses 

 and other imported stock; for the animals are regarded in no other 

 light than that of easy quarry. The horses of the Seri frontier, like 

 those of wild ranges generally, are strongly gregarious, and the herds 

 are well regimented under recognized leaders, so that the chase of 

 their kind is necessarily collective on the part of both hunters and 

 game; and the favorite method is for a considerable group of either 

 warriors or women to surround the entire herd, or a band cut out from 

 it, "mill" them (i. e., set them runniug in a gradually contracting 

 circle) and occasionally dash on an animal, promising by reason of 

 exceptional fatness or gravidness. The warrior's customary clutch is by 

 the mane or foretoj) with one hand and the muzzle with the other, with 

 his weight thrown largely on the neck, when a quick wrench throws 

 the animal, and, if all goes well, breaks its neck;^ while the huntress 

 commonly aims to stun the animal with a blow from her hupf. In 

 either case the disposition of the carcass is similar to that of other 

 large quarry, save that thought is given to the danger of ensuing attack 

 by vaqueros ; so that it is customary to consume at once ouly the blood and 

 pluck, and if time permits the paunch and intestines with their contents, 

 and then to rend the remainder into quarters, which warriors or even 

 women shoulder and rush toward their stronghold. Burros (which, 

 next to the green turtle, afford the favorite Seri food) and horned cattle 

 are commonly stalked and slain, or, at least, wounded with arrows, so 

 that it is commonly the stragglers that are picked off; though some- 

 times several animals are either milled or rushed, and thrown by a 



1 A single incident expressing the Seri sentiment toward travailing animals must be noted: a few 

 miuntes after the group shown in plate xi was photographed, a starveling cur— a female apparently 

 of nearly pure coyote blood and within a week of term — slunk toward the broken olla-kettle in the 

 left center of the picture, in which a rank horse-foot was simmering; the woman bending over the ket- 

 tle suddenly straightened and shot out her foot with such force and directness that the cur was lifted 

 entirely over the corner of the nearest jacal, and the poor beast fell stunned and moaning, a prematurely 

 bom pup protruding from her two-thirds of its length. The sound of the stroke aud tall attracted 

 atleuti<m throughout the group; the women smiled and grunted approval of the well-aimed kick, and a 

 dozen children gathered to continue the assault. Partially recovering, the cur struggled to its feet and 

 .started for the ehapparal, followed by the jeering throng : at first the chase seemed sportive ouly but 

 suddenly one of the smaller boys (the third from the left in the group shown in plate xvi) took ou a 

 new aspect — his figure stiti'ened, his jaws set, his eyes shot purple and green, and he plunged into the 

 lead, and just before the harried beast reached cover he seized the protruding embryo, jerked it away, 

 and ran off in triumph. Three minutes afterward he was seen in the shelter of a jacal greedily 

 gorging his spoil in successive bites, just as the Caucasian boy devours a peeled banana. Meanwhile, 

 two or three mates who had struck his trail stood around begging bites and sucking at chance blood 

 spatters on earth, skin, or tattered rags; and as the victor came forth later, licking his chops, he was 

 met by half jocular but admiring iilaudits for his prowess from the dozen matrons lounging abouttlie 

 neighboring jjicales. Parallel instances, both observed and gathered at second hand, might be added 

 in numbers; bat this may sutliee as the sole specific basis for the generalization which places the 

 Seri below the plane ot possible zooculture — a generalization ao broad as to demand some record of 

 data which it would be more agreeable to ignore. 



^This warrior's clutch, and the notion that it is discreditable if not criminal for the masculine 

 adult to take recourse to wea]ions in hand-to-hand slaughter, are strongly suggestive of zoomimic 

 motives and of studied mimicry of the larger carnivores, such as the jaguar — the " neck-twister "' of 

 the ilaya. 



