214* 



THE SERI INDIANS 



[KTH. ANN. 17 



pounds (about 455 kilograms) yearly. The aggregate diet of the tribe 

 may be estimated also by assuming the population to comprise 300 full 

 eaters, besides, say, 50 nurslings negligible in the computation; so that 

 the annual consumption of the tribe may be reclioned at 300,000 pounds 

 (130,000 kilograms), or 150 tons, of solid food. Accordingly the several 

 constituents may be estimated, as shown in the accompanying table, in 

 percentages of the total, iu pounds aggregate and apiece for the eaters, 

 and (so far as practicable) in units both aggregate and ajiiece; the 

 weights of units being roughly averaged at 100 i)ounds (15 kilograms) 

 for turtles, 12i pounds (5.6 kilograms) for large land game, 450 pounds 

 (about 200 kilograms) for stock, and 2 ounces (56.7 grams) for tunas. 



J'Jslimated annual dirtary of the Seri tribe 



Coustitueuts 



Turdis 



Pelicans 



Ot.lier water-fovrl anil ej^g 



Fish , 



Shellfish (except turtles) 



Large land game 



Other land game 



Stock 



Tunas 



Other vegetals 



Miscellaneous 



Per 

 cent 



Quantity 



Aggregate 



Total 



25 



15 

 10 

 7 

 8 

 6 

 9 



Poundg 

 75, 000 

 15, 000 

 24, 000 

 45, COO 

 30, 000 

 21, 000 

 24, 000 

 18, 000 

 27, 000 

 15, 000 

 6,000 



Apiece 



Poitnds 



250 



50 



80 



1.50 



100 



70 



80 



60 



90 



50 



20 



Units 



Aggregate Apiece 



750 

 1,200 



2* 

 4 



200 



40 

 216. 000 



720 



100 



300, 000 



1, 000 



Of course the constituents vary with temporary conditions; during 

 "The Time of the Big Fish", practically all other sources of food were 

 neglected until the providential snjiply was exhausteil; during the 

 decades of main subsistence on stolen stock it is probable that the con- 

 sumption of other constituents, perhaps excepting the tunas, was pro- 

 portionately reduced; and it is not improbable that during the warfare 

 between Seri and Tepoka, described by Hardy, the consumption of tur- 

 tles was materially diminished. Judging from the tlirect and indirect 

 data and from general analogies, the least variable constituent is the 

 cactus fruit, which probably fails but rarely and is so easily harvested as 

 practically to supplant all other supplies during its season of a month or 

 more. At the best, too, the quantitative estimates are nothing more 

 than necessarily arbitrary approximations, based on incomplete inquir- 

 ies and observations ; ' yet they are better than no estimates at all, and 



'Aliinit 200 turtle-shells were noticed about tla^ rancherias at Punta Tormeuta and Ka<la llalleua 

 alone in 1895. all being leas thau two years old, as .j udged from t he degree of weathering. 



4 



