MCGEEl PROMINENT PLACE OF MATRONS 271* 



what uuusual circumstances, it may be noted that when the "Seri 

 belle" (Oandelaria) refused to pose for a photograph she was supported 

 by the clanmother (Juana Maria) until the latter was i)lacated by pres- 

 ents; and that when the belle refused to obey the mother's command — 

 to the vociferous scandal of the entire group — Juana Maria appealed 

 to Senor Encinas, as the conqueror of the tribe and hence as the virtual 

 head of both raucho and raiichcria. And when a younger Seri maiden 

 (plate XXV) similarly refused to pose, and in. like manner disobeyed her 

 mother (again to the general disgust), the latter appealed to Mashem; 

 when he, after first exacting additional presents for both girl and 

 mother and a double amount for himself, put hands on the recalcitrant 

 demoiselle and forced her into the pose required, despite the shrinking 

 and tremulous terror perce|)tible even in the picture 



Commonly the regimentation of family, clan, and larger group api)ears 

 to be indicated approximately by the placement assumed spontaneously 

 in the idle lounging of peace and plenty. A typical placement of a 

 small group is illustrated in plate xiv. Here the family are assembled 

 outside thejacal, but in the relative positions which would be assumed 

 within. The matrcni (a Red Pelican woman) squats in easy reach of 

 her few and squalid possessions; on her left, i. e., in the group back- 

 ground aud place of honor, sits the elderwomaTi of the raucheria (a 

 Turtle) ; then comes the daughter of the family, followed by two girl- 

 child guests of the group, the three occupying positions pertaining to 

 chiefs or elder brothers or, in their absence, to daughters; opposite the 

 matron sits a younger brother,' whose wife is a Turtle woman (daughter 

 of the dame in the place of honor) and matron of another jacal. A 

 few feet behind this brother (just outside the limits of the photograph 

 reproduced, though shown on the duplicate negative) squats the hus- 

 band, with his side to the group and face toward the direction of natural 

 approach ; while the place belonging to the sons of the family on the 

 matron's right is temporarily occupied by a White Pelican girl, together 

 with a dog, notable in the local pack for largely imported blood and 

 correspondingly docile disposition. The place for the babe, were there 

 one in the family, would be on the heap of odds and ends behind 

 the matron. As in this group so in most others, the place of the sous 

 is vacant; for the boys are at once the most restless and the most law- 

 less members of the tribe— indeed, the striplings seem often to ignore 

 the maternal injunctions and even to evade the rarely uttered avuncular 

 orders, so that their movements are practically free, except in so far as 

 they are themselves regimented or gi-aded by strength and fleetness 

 aud success in hunting. 



The raison d'etre of the proprietorship and regimentation reflected in 

 the everyday customs is satisfactorily indicated bj' that totemic feature 

 of the social organization revealed in the face-painting described in 



^ This man was one of those involved in the Robinson butchery on Tiburon island a few months 

 before the picture was taken; and lu^ was one of tliose executed or transported for the affair during 

 the interval between the lS9i and 1895 expeditious. 



