22G* 



THE SEKI INDIANS 



[ETH. ANN. 17 



Of all the party at Costa Rica in 1894 subchief Mashem was the only 

 one who wore Caucasian apparel with any air of comfort and fitness; yet 

 even he, with hat and shirt, boots and breeches, and loose bandana 

 about his neck in cowboy style (plate xvii), did not feel fully dressed 

 without the slender hair-cord necklace of his kin in its wonted place. 

 On the frontier improvised tig-leaves were sometimes put on the chil- 

 dren of less than a dozen years (as illustrated by the standing inlant 

 shown in plate xiv, who was thus dressed hastily for her jiicture); and 

 a common garb of the smaller children at Costa Kica, as they played 

 about the rancheria or wandered in directions away from the white 



FlQ. 29— Serl hairbrush. 



Fio. 30— Seri cradle. 



man's rancho, was limited to a cincture of hair cord or snake skin, or 

 perhaps of agave fiber, under which an improvised kilt might be tucked 

 on the Caucasian's approach. 



In addition to the individual apparel, each clan, or at least the elder- 

 woman or her fraternal executive, accumulates some surjjlus material 

 as opportunity offers, and this serves as family bedding until occasion 

 arises for converting it to other uses. Of late the prevailing materials 

 are pelican skins, lightly dressed and joined into robes by sinew stitch- 

 ing; deerskins, dried or partially dressed; cormorant skins, treated like 

 those of the pelican; seal skins, usually fragmentary; peccary skins, 



