254* THK SERI INDIAN^; 1etm.ann.17 



between these stages ami that next higher in tlie series with unparal- 

 leled iloarness; their frat't also displays an aberrant (and hence pre- 

 sumptively aecultural) feature pertaining to the technolithic stage; and 

 in so tar as their craftsmen use the material typical of the age of metal 

 they degrade it to the transitional substage between dominant zoomim- 

 icry ami desigidess stoneusiug. 



Viewed in the general light of their paciflc industries, the Seri are, 

 accordingly, among tlie most i)rimitive of known tribes; their technic is 

 in harmony with their estlietic, and also with tlieir somatic and tribal 

 characteristics, in attesting a lowly plane of development; while their 

 industries, like their other demotic features, are essentially autoch- 

 thonous. 



WAKFAEE 



Something is known of Seri warfare through the history of the cen- 

 turies since 1510, and especially through the bloody episodes of the 

 Enrinas regime and the occasional outbreaks of the last decade or two. 

 The available data dearly indicate that the warfare of the tribe comple- 

 ments their ])acitic industries in every essential resjiect. 



As betits their primitive character, warfare has played an important 

 role in the history of the folk, forming, indeed, one of the chief factors 

 in determining the course of tribal develoiiment. There is no means of 

 estimating tlie losses sutiered and occasioned in warfare with the neigh- 

 boring tribes during either prehistoric or historic times; but the indi- 

 cations are that they were nnich greater than the losses connected with 

 Caucasian contact. Neither is it practicable to estimate reliably the 

 fatalities attending the interminable conflicts with the Spanish invaders 

 and their descendants, though it is safe to say that the Seri losses in 

 strife against Spaniards and Mexicans aggregate many hundred, and 

 that the correlative loss on the part of their enemies reaches several 

 score, if not some hundred, lives. Few if any other aboriginal tribes of 

 America have had so saugninary a history as the Seri, and none other 

 has at once so long and so bloody a record. 



According to the consistent accounts of several survivors of con- 

 flict with the Seri, their chief weapons are arrows, stones, and clubs — 

 though several survivors manifest greater fear of the throttling hands 

 and rending teeth of the savage warriors than of all tlieir artificial 

 weapons combined. A striking feature of the recitals, indeed, is the 

 rarity of reference to weapons; the ambushes or surroumls or chance 

 meetings, with their disastrous or happy consequences, are commonly 

 described with considerable detail; the carbines or rifles, the machetes 

 and knives, or the deftly thrown riatas employed by the rancheros or 

 vatpieros are mentioned with full appreciation of their serviceability; 

 but the ordinary expressions concerning the despised yet dreaded Seri 

 are precisely those employed in recounting conflicts with carnivorous 

 beasts. When Andres i^oriega's kinswoman proudly related how he 



