"coEE] THE REPUTED ANTHROPOPHAGY 263* 



Sonoran belief that the similarity extends oue step farther, and that 

 the human victims are rent and consumed, like the beasts. There is a 

 lamentable lack of data concerning the alleged anthropophagy of the 

 Seri; ou the one hand there is the deep-seated local opinion, generally 

 growing stronger as the tribal territory is approached, and agreeing so 

 well with the hunting customs, the thauniaturgic arrow-poisoning, the 

 zoomimic handicraft, and zootheistic faith, and especially with the 

 pervading fetish-piracy of the folk, that its validity would seem inher- 

 ently probable; on the other hand, there is not only a dearth of specific 

 positive testimony, but hacieudero Encinas (best informed among 

 Caucasians concerning Seri customs) and several of his yeomen reject 

 the prevailing belief, while Mashcm . consistently repudiated the cus- 

 tom, both in general and in particular, and in ceremonial as well as in 

 economic aspects, whenever and in whatever way the subject was 

 approached during his intercourse with the 1894 expedition. Ou the 

 whole, the much-mooted question of Seri cannibalism must be left open 

 pending further incpiiry, with some preponderance of evidence against 

 the existence of the custom. 



The war-frenzy of the Seri fighters is significant in its parallelism 

 with the blood-craze of the chase, and even more so in its analogy with, 

 the warpath customs and ceremonies of most Amerind tribes and many 

 other primitive peoples. In typical tribes the warpath custom is a 

 mo.st distinctive one, standing for an abnormal state of mind and an 

 unaccustomed habit of body, perhaps to the extent of an extreme 

 exaltation or obsession akin to intoxication, in which the ordinary ideas 

 of justice and humanity are inhibited; among most tribes the condi- 

 tion is sought voluntarily and deliberately when occasion is thought to 

 demand, and is superinduced by fasts and vigils, exciting songs and 

 ceremonies, and related means; while among certain tribes the aid of 

 symbolic "medicines'", which may be actual intoxicants, is invoked. 

 Thus the savage on the warpath is a diti'erent being from the same 

 man iu times of peace; viewed from his own standpoint, he is possessed 

 of an alien and violent demon, usually that of a fantastic and furious 

 beast-god whose rage he must symbolize and enact; viewed from the 

 standpoint of higher culture, he is a raving and ruthless maniac whose 

 craze is none the less complete by reason of its voluntary origin. The 

 warpath frenzy is one of the fundamental, even if little understood, 

 facts of primitive life, and the character of the savage tribe can not 

 l)roperly be weighed without appreciation of it. Xow, the Seri blood- 

 craze seems measurably distinct in two ways: in the first place, it 

 expresses a more profound and bitter enmity toward aliens than is 

 found among most savage tribes — i. e., it is instinctive and persistent 

 in exceptional degree; in the second place, it is more spontaneous and 

 explosive iu its culmination when conditions favor than among tribes- 

 men who induce tlie condition by elaborate preparation — i. e., it is 

 dependent on the swift-changing hazard of warfare in exceptional 



