McoEE) A DEARTH OF ARROWPOINTS 247* 



and discarded hupfs, a broken fictile figurine, etc), was the still ruder 

 arrowpoint represented in figure 37/^ (both figures are natural size). 

 The specimens are nearly identical in material — a jet-black slaty rock 

 with a few lighter Hecks interspersed, weathering gray on long expos- 

 ure (as is shown by the partly natural surface of the larger point): similar 

 rock abounds in several easterly spurs of Sierra Seri. The smaller 

 specimen was evidently finished and use<l; its features indicate fairly 

 skilful cliipping, though its general form is crude — in addition to the 

 asymmetric shouldering, the entire point is curved laterally in such man- 

 ner as to interfere with accurate archery. The larger specimen is still 

 more strongly curved laterally, and the chipping is childishly crude; 

 while the rough surface, clumsy tang, and unfinished air indicate that 

 it was never used even to the extent of shafting. It is possible that the 

 specimens may have been imported by aliens, but the probabilities are 

 strong that they were manufactured by the 8eri. No other arrowpoints 

 and no chips or spalls suggesting stone arrow-making were found in all 

 Seriland, though the entire party of twelve were on constant lookout for 

 them for a month. The natural inference from these facts is that the 

 ancestral Seri, like their descendants, were not habitual stone arrow- 

 makers. 



There is a final category of Seri artifacts which would be classed as 

 distinctive by Caucasians on the basis of material, though they are 

 combined with the stone artifacts by the tribesmen; it comprises arrow- 

 points of hoop-iron or other metal, harpoon points of nails, spikes, or 

 wire, awls of like materials, and other metallic adjuncts to ordinary 

 implements. The use of iron is of course post-Columbian, and its 

 ordinary sources are wreckage and stealage. The date of introduction is 

 unknown, and i)robably goes back to the days of Cortes and Mendoza; 

 certainly the value of metal was so well understood in 1709 that when 

 Padre Salvatierra's bilander was beached in Seriland the tribesmen at 

 once began to break her ui) for the nails (ante, page ()7); yet the 

 metal is wrought cold and only with hupf and ahst like the local mate- 

 rials, and is habitually regarded and designated as a stone. By reason 

 of the primitive methods of working, the metals are of course available 

 only wiien in small pieces or slender shapes. There is a tradition 

 among the vaqueros of the frontier that a quantity of hoop-iron designed 

 for use in making casks was carried away from a rancheria in the vicin- 

 ity of Bacuachito during a raid in the seventies, and that this stock has 

 ever since served to supply the Seri with material for their arrowpoints; 

 but it is probable tliat the chief supply is derived from the flotsam 

 swept into the natural drilt trap of Bahia Ivunkaak by i)revailing 

 winds and tidal currents, and cast up on the long saiidspit of Punta 

 Tormeuta after every storm. A surprising quantity and variety of 

 wreckage was found on this point, and thence ilown the coast to Punta 

 Narragansett, by the 18'.I5 expedition : staves and heads of casks broken 

 up after beaching, a telegraph pole crossbar which had evidently 



