258* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann.17 



attest independence in origin; it is also noteworthy tliat several of the 

 accounts are given hesitatingly and half qiialifledly, with alternative 

 references (obviously hypothetical) to vegetal sources of poison. Thus 

 the author of "Rudo I'>usayo" (jualifled a characteristic (though brief) 

 account of the preparation of the poison by adding: '• But this is mere 

 guesswork, and no doubt the main ingredient is some root."' So, too, 

 Hardy described the compounding of the brew in much detail, adding 

 the significant statement that "when the whole mass is in a high state 

 of corruption the old women take the arrows and pass their points 

 through it"; yet he could not resist the alternative hypothesis, and 

 added: "Others again say that the poison is obtained from the Juice of 

 the yerba de la flecha (arrow-wort)."^ Bartlett " was told that the Ceris 

 tip their arrows with poison; but bow it was etteeted I [he] could not 

 learn," and so he contented himself with quoting Hardy's account.^ 

 Stone gave the recipe in fairly similar terms, adding that the morbific 

 mass is hung up "to putrefy in a bag, and in the drippings of this bag 

 they soak their arrowheads"; and he gave a characteristic account 

 of the effect of a wound from a poisoned arrow on a human subject 

 (ante, p. 100). Pajeken independently attested the virulence of the 

 poison, and described the consequences of a slight wound suffered by 

 his horse (ante, p. 101 ), while Pimentel gave independent corroboration, 

 and Orozco y Berra added the further information that the proverbially 

 deadly poison is fortified "by superstitious practices" (ante, p. 103). 

 Bancroft gave currency to the customary recipe, and also to the comple- 

 mentary hypothesis that the "magot" may be the source of the poison; 

 while Dewey merely mentioned the rejjuted use of poisoned arrows. 

 Like their predecessors, the vaqueros of today are familiar with the 

 tradition of a necromantic brew; but many of them — like Don Jesus 

 Omada, of Bacuachito, and Don Kamon Noriega, of Pozo Xoriega — 

 display a much more lively interest in the local yerba mala, or yerba 

 de tli'cha, of which they stand in such mortal dread that they can 

 hardly be induced to approach a clump of it, and which they conceive 

 must add the final crux to the brew. This plant was described in 

 "Rudo Eusayo" : "Mago, in the Opata language, is a small tree, very 

 green, luxuriant, and beautiful to the eye; but it contains a deadly 

 juice which flows upon making a slight incision in the bark. The 

 natives rub their arrows with it, and for this reason they call it arrow- 

 grass; but at present they use very little."^ Elsewhere the anonymous 

 author mentions the use of (presumably) this poison by the Jova, and 

 describes it as "so deadly that it kills not only the wounded person, 

 but also him who undertakes the cure by sucking the wound, as is 

 customary with all the Indians"; the description implying that the 

 infection is irremediable.'^ Yet he apparently discriminated this poison 

 from that of the Seri, for which another plant known as caramatraca 



'Op. cit.,p. 198i cf. ante, p. 78. ^ Xravels, p. 299 ; cf. ante, p. 87. 



3 Per.sonal Narrative, p. 465. * Op. cit., p. 161. 



S0p.cit.,pp.l87, 188. 



