242* THE SEKI INDIANS [eth.ann. 17 



iug of the margin about the hirger end, slight but suggestive chip- 

 ping of the thinner edge, inconspicuous band-wear and polish on the 

 principal face, and a few obscure scratches or stria^ on the same face, 

 as illustrated in the plate. The i)osition and character of the tiake- 

 fractures, which are fairly shown in the edge view, indicate that they 

 were made while the pebble was in use as a bruising or cutting tool, 

 a use at once suggested to the Caucasian mind by the form of the 

 ])ebble; yet it is noteworthy that its thin edge displays less batter- 

 ing than either end of the object and no more than the opposite and 

 thicker edge, while it is still more significant that the specimen was 

 apparently discarded immediately on the modification of form by the 

 spalling — a modification greatly increasing its efficiency, as all habit- 

 ual users of chipped stone tools would realize. The specimen is one 

 of a large number of examples showing that whenever a hupf is broken 

 in use it is regarded as ruined, and is immediately thrown away. This 

 particular specimen is archaic; it was found in the clifif-face of the 

 great shell-heap at Puuta Antigualla, embedded in a tiny stratum of 

 ashes and charcoal (some of which still adheres, as shown in the black 

 tleckiug at the outer end of the strife), associated with scorched clam- 

 shells, typical Seri potsherds, etc, some 40 feet beneath the surface. 



While the great majority of the hupfs are mere pebbles bearing 

 slight trace of artificial wear, as illustrated by the foregoing examjjles, 

 others bear traces of use so extended as to more or less completely 

 artificialize the surface. A ty])ical long-used hupf is depicted in jjlates 

 LI and LIT. It is a tough and hard (luartzite, dark gray or brown in 

 color, massive and homogeneous in texture; it weighs 2 pounds 4 

 ounces (1.02 kilograms). In general form it is a typical wave-worn 

 pebble of its material, and might be duplicated in thousands along the 

 shores of Baliia Kunkaak and El Infiernillo; but fully a third of its sur- 

 face has been more or less modified by use. The flatter face (plate li) 

 is smeared with blood, grease, and charcoal, which have been ground 

 into the stone by friction of the hand of the user in such manner as to 

 form a kind of skin or veneer; portions of the face bear a subpolish, 

 due probably to the hand-rubbing in use; near the center there is a 

 rough pit about an eighth of an inch (3 mm.) deep, evidently produced 

 by pecking or battering with metal, while three or four neighboring 

 scratches penetrating the veneer appear to record ill-directed strokes 

 of a rather sharp metal point. In the light of observed customs it may 

 be inferred that this pitting was produced by use of the implement as 

 an anvil or ahst in sharpening a harpoon point and fitting it into its 

 foreshaft. The thinner edge (shown in jdate Li; that toward the right 

 in the face view on the same plate) displays considerable battering of 

 the kind characteristic of Seri hupfs in general; it is smoked and fire- 

 stained, as shown, while the lower rounded corner is worn away by 

 battering to a depth of probably one-fourth inch (5 mm.). The obverse 

 face reveals more clearly the battering about both corners and edges, 



