McoEE] THE builders' CHANT 223* 



moil couveuieuce. Usually the several jacales are entirely separate; 

 but at Punta Tormenta, Punta Narragausett, aud still more notably at 

 Eada Ballena, individual liuts were found either extended to double 

 length or joined obliquely in such wise as to show two fronts (as illus- 

 trated in plate vi). The conventional frameworks appear to be common 

 tribal property, at least to the extent that an abandoned skeleton may 

 be jireempted by any comer ; while the addition of walls and roof appears 

 to afford a prescriptive proprietary right to the elderwoman and family 

 by whom the work is done — though the right seems to hold only during 

 occupancy, or until the temporary covering is dislodged. 



Tlie jacales are without semblance of furnishing, beyond an occa- 

 sional ahst and a few loose pebbles used as bupfs; though the nooks 

 behind the bows and tie-sticks sometimes serve as places of conceal- 

 ment for paint-cups, awls, hair bobbins, and other domestic trifles. 

 There is no floor but earth, and this remains in natural condition, 

 except for trampling and wearing into wallows, recalling those of fowls 

 aud swine, which afford a rough measure of the ])eriods of occupancy; 

 there is no firejilace — indeed, (ires are rarely made in the jacales, nor 

 for that matter frequently anywhere; and there are no fixed places for 

 bedding, water ollas, or other, portable possessions, none of which are 

 left behind when the householders are abroad. 



Little is known of the actual iirocess of jacal building, especially in 

 Seriland proper; but the observations of Sehor Encinas and his 

 vaqueros on the frontier corroborate Mashem's statements that the 

 houses are built by (and belong to) the matrons; that several women 

 customarily cooperate in the collection of the okatilla aud erection of 

 the framework; that the only tools used in the processes are hupfs 

 and miscellaneous sticks; and that the placing and fitting of the beams 

 and tie sticks are accompanied by a chant, usually led by the eldest 

 matron of the group. The same informants support the ready infer- 

 ence from the structure that the shrubbery and other material forming 

 walls and roofs are gathered and placed from time to time by the 

 women occupying the jacales. 



The Seri building chant is suggestive. Neither Sefior Encinas nor 

 Mashem regarded it as religious or even ritualistic, but merely as a 

 work-song designed (in the naive notion of the latter) to make the task 

 lighter; and it seems probable that the local interpretation is correct. 

 If so, the simple chant at once ofters rational explanation for its own 

 existence, and opens the way to explanation of the elaborate building 

 rituals of more advanced tribes. The work-song is a common device in 

 many lowly activities, ranging from those of children at play to those 

 of sailors at the windlass, and undoubtedly serves a useful purpose in 

 guiding, coordinating, and concentrating effort; to some extent the 

 vocal accompaniment to the manual or bodily action apparently 

 expresses that normal interrelation of functions manifested by second- 



