238* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann.17 



free end is directed iuward, while the thumb laps over the grasped end, 

 when the strokes are directed downward and inward, the striking-point 

 being the extreme tip of the free end. A similar specimen is illustrated 

 iu phite xLii. It is of tough and homogeneous hornblende- graiute, 

 somewhat shorter and broader than its homologue, but of exactly the 

 same weight; it, too, is battered at the ends, but is otherwise quite nat- 

 ui-al ill form. It was collected at Kada Ballena in conjunction with the 

 ahst illustrated in ])late xxxv; and like that specimen it is soaked with 

 blood and fat, and bore shreds of flesh when found. Both these elon- 

 gate cobbles are of interest as representatives of a somewhat aberrant 

 type; for the favorite form of hupf is shorter and thicker, as shown by 

 the prevailing shapes, both in use and lying about the jacales — indeed, 

 the elongate form is seldom used on the coast and never carried into 

 the interior. 



A typical hupf is illustrated in plate xliii. The specimen is of fine- 

 grained, dense,andmassivequartzite, its homogeneity being interrupted 

 only by a thin seam of infiltrated silica and by an obscure structure-plane 

 brought out by weathering toward the thinner end. Its weight is 1 

 pound It ounces (0..S5 kilogram). In general form and surface the 

 specimen is an absolutely natural pebble, such as may be found in tliou- 

 sands along the shores of Seriland. Its artificial features are limited 

 to slight battering about the edges, especially at the thinner end; 

 partial polishing of the lateral edges by repeated handling (as imper- 

 fectly shown in the edge view) ; very perceptible polishing of both faces 

 by use as a grinder; some tire-blackening on both sides; semi saturation 

 with grease and blood; and the flecks of red face-p^int shown in the 

 reproduction. The specimen was obtained at Costa Rica after some 

 days' observation of its use. The chief observed functions of this 

 implement were as follows: (1) Skinning the leg of a partially con- 

 sumed horse; this was done by means of centripetal (i. e., downward 

 and inward) blows, so directed that the thinner end fell oblicjuely on 

 the tissue, bruising and tearing it with considerable rapidity. (2) Sev- 

 ering tough tendons already sawed nearly through by rubbing over the 

 edge of an ahst, the hupf in this case being in the hands of a coadjutor 

 and used in rather random strokes whenever the tissue seemed par- 

 ticularly refractory. (3) Knocking ofi' the parboiled hoof of a horse to 

 give access to the coflfinbone. (-I) Crushing and splintering bones to 

 facilitate sucking of the marrow. (5) Grinding mesquite beans; the 

 process being begun bj' vertical blows with the end of the implement on 

 a heap of the pods resting on an ahst, continued by blows with the 

 side, and finished by kneading and rubbing motions similar to those of 

 grinding on a metate. ((>) Pounding shelled corn mixed with slack lime, 

 in a ludicrously futile attempt to imitate Mexican cookery. (7) Chop- 

 ping trees; in this case the implement was grasped in the centripetal 

 manner and used in pounding and bruising the wood at the point of 

 greatest bending under the pull of a coadjutor. (8) Cleaving and 



