256* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.an.v.it 



and seldom stirred until tbe strauger approached within 50 or 60 yards; 

 whence it may be assumed that these distances fairly indicate the ordi- 

 nary range of Seri arrows. The few accounts of conflicts in which 

 arrows are mentioned prove, however, that those missiles are discharged 

 with great rapidity and in considerable numbers during the brief inter- 

 val to whi<!h the fighting is customarily limited. 



The most notorious feature of the Seri warfare, and that of deepest 

 interest to students, is the reputed use of poisoned arrows. The scat- 

 tered literature of the tribe, from the days of Coronado onward, abounds 

 in references to this custom; the Jesuit authorities give somewhat 

 varied yet fairly consistent descriptions of the preparation and the 

 ett'ects of these arrows; Hardy added his testimony as to the character 

 of tbe poison; General Stone gave directly corroborative evidence; 

 haciendero Encinas gives witness to the effects of the envenomed mis- 

 siles on his own stock ; while Mash6m recounted to the 1894 expedition 

 the various uses of the "poisoned" arrows and highly extolled their 

 potency, though he was noncommittal — save in casual allusions — as to 

 the details of the poisoning. A part of the arrows acquired by this 

 expedition and now preserved in the National Museum were professedly 

 poisoned; they are easily distinguished by a thin varnish of gummy 

 and greasy substance over the iron tips and wooden foreshafts, and 

 especially about the attachments of mesquite gum and sinew. Accord- 

 ing to Mashcm's asseverations, such arrows are habitually used in war 

 save when the supply is exhausted by continued demand; they are 

 also used occasionally in hunting, especially for deer and lions (i. e., 

 the swiftest and fiercest game of the region); and the use of the 

 poisoned missile does not destroy the meat of the animal, though the 

 portion immediately about the wound is "thrown away". Two of 

 the treated arrows brought back from Costa Rica were submitted to 

 Dr S. Weir Mitchell some months afterward for exanduation, and for 

 identification of any poisonous matter found on them; but no poison 

 was detected. On the whole, the data conceruing the reputed arrow 

 poisoning are less definite than might be desired ; yet they are sufficient 

 to suggest the nature of the custom with considerable clearness. 



In any consideration of Sei'i customs it is to be realized that the 

 folk are notably primitive iu thought, and hence deeply steeped in that 

 overweening mysticism which dominates all lowly folk — that they still 

 cling to zoomimic motives in their simple handicraft, and are still wholly 

 within zootheism in their lowly faith. In the light of this realization 

 the numerous consistent records of the preparation of the poison are 

 easily interpreted, and are found to be fully in accord with the pre- 

 vailing motives of the tribe; and the interpretation serves to explain 

 the somewhat discrepant accounts of the effects of the poison, effects 

 ranging from nil to horrible sepsis. According to the more circum- 

 stantial recipes, the first constituent of the poison is a portion of lung, 

 preferably human — a selection readily explained by pristine philosophy, 



