248* THE SERI INDIANS [eth..vmn.17 



brought in a cargo of large wire, aud a piece of door-frame with heavy 

 strap iron hinges attached with screws, were ainoug the troves of the 

 tribesmen within a few weeks; aud it was noted that while eveu the 

 hiuge screws aud the tacks attaching tags to the cask-heads had been 

 extracted by breaking up the wood, the roughly forged hinges of 

 2 by §-iuch wrought iron had beeu abandoned after a tentative battering 

 with cobbles, and lay among the refuse stones about the jacales. 



A rough census of the stone implements of Seriland is not with- 

 out interest, even though it be no more than an approximation. 

 Some 20 or 25 habitable aud recently inhabited jacales were visited, 

 with about twice as many more in various stages of ruin, fully two- 

 thirds of these being on the island; and at least an equal number of 

 camps or other houseless sites were noted. About these 150 jacales 

 and sites there were, say, 50 ahsts, ranging from nearly natural bowl- 

 ders to the comparatively well-wrought specimen illustrated in plate 

 XXXIX, and an equal number of cobbles used interchangeably as ahsts 

 and hupfs; there were also 200 or 300 pebbles bearing traces of use as 

 hupfs, of which about a third were worn so decidedly as to attest 

 repeated if not regular use; while no flaked or spalled implements were 

 observed save the two doubtful examples illustrated in plates xlvii 

 and L, and only two chipped arrowpoints. It may be assumed that 

 the sites visited aud the artifacts observed comprise from a tenth to a 

 fifth of those of all Seriland, in addition to, say, 75 finished hupfs 

 habitually carried by Seri matrons in their wanderings; aud it may be 

 assumed also that 50 or 100 metallic harpoon-points and several hundred 

 hoop-iron arrowpoints are habitually carried by the warriors aiul their 

 spouses. 



The most impressive fact brought out by this census is the practical 

 absence of stone artifacts wrouglit by flaking or chipping in accord- 

 ance with preconceived design ; excepting the exceedingly rare arrow- 

 points there are none of these. And the assemblage of wrought stones 

 demonstrates not merely that the Seri are practically without flaked 

 or chipped implements, but that they eschew and discard stones edged 

 by fracture whether naturally or turough accident of use. 



Summarily, the Seri artifacts of inorganic material fall into three 

 groups, viz: (i) The large and characteristic one comprising regularly- 

 used hupfs aud ahsts, with their little-used and discarded representa- 

 tives; (ii) the small and aberrant group represented bj' chipped arrow- 

 points, and (III) the considerable group comprising the cold-wrought 

 metal points for arrows and harpoons and awls — though it is to be 

 remembered that the Seri themselves combine the second aud third of 

 these groups. 



I. On reviewing the artifacts of the larger group it becomes clear (1) 

 that they immediately reflect enviroument, in that they are character- 

 istic natural objects of the territory; (2) that they come into use as 

 implements through chance demands met by hasty selection from the 



