MCGEE] MODES OF ATTACK 261* 



the crudeness of the work, strongly supports the inference that the 

 stone arrow-making of the Seri was originally a fetishistic mimicry of 

 alien devices — a plane, indeed, above vhich the craft has hardly risen 

 even in recent decades. 



While the Seri are devoid of military tactics in the strict sense of 

 the term, they have certain customs of warfare which seem to be 

 scrupulously observed. These customs are closely akin to those fol- 

 lowed in hunting the larger land animals — indeed, the warfare of the 

 tribe is merely an inteusilied counterpart of their chase. 



The favorite tactical device of the warriors, as indicated by the great 

 majority of their battles, is the ambuscade, laid and sprung either with 

 or without the aid of decoys (usually aged women). Sometimes a con- 

 siderable body act in concert under a prearranged plan ; more commonly 

 a few warriors only are involved at the outset, tliough these maybe 

 joined as the crisis approaches by companions lurking behind rocks 

 and shrubs to be either on hand at the finish or in the way of ready 

 flight, according to the turn of the battle-tide; and it is probable that 

 the greater part of the ambuscades prove stillborn by reason of the 

 oozing courage of leaders and the shirking of their supporters if 

 the prospective victims present a bold front, or if the final omens are 

 otherwise adverse. The ambuscade, with its flying contingent, grades 

 into the device of stalking a stationary or slowly moving enemy, the 

 stealthy approach terminating either in covert attack at close range or 

 in sudden rush by a superior force. The theory, or rather the instinctive 

 l)lan, of the campaign is to seek advantage in both position and num- 

 bers, to keep nnder cover until the instant of attack, to have sure and 

 ample lines of retreat, and in every way to minimize individual risk. 



There is a widespread notion toward the Seri frontier that the savages 

 are given to sorties and surprises by night; but both specific testimony 

 and the records indicate, when carefully analyzed, that this tactical 

 device is much less common in practice than in repute, and is not, 

 indeed, characteristic of the tribe. A few known battles began in 

 attacks by night; but the war parties, like the hunting and fishing par- 

 ties (save in the semiceremonial pelican pilgrimages), display decided 

 preference for daylight in their forays — indeed, there are various indi- 

 cations that the folk are much more timid and oppressed with super- 

 stitious fears by night than by day. 



In rare cases small parties of aliens have been half ojienly surrounded 

 and done to death by considerably larger parties of the savage folk ; but 

 this method, too, is incongruous with the fixed habits of the tiube and 

 with the deep-planted instinct of avoiding personal exposure, 



A considerable number of the long list of homicides charged against 

 the Seri, and marking the beginning of many of their battles, were 

 individual rather than collective, the consummation of inimical impulse 

 sometimes treacherously concealed for favorable opportunity, as in the 



