McoEE] DISTRIBUTION OF RIGHTS 273* 



approaching- nubility — receive some advantage through the con- 

 nivance of the matrons. To a considerable extent in the matter 

 of sustentation, and to a dominant degree in the matter of appar- 

 eling, the distribution of values is affected by a highly siguiK- 

 cant (though by no means peculiar) humanitarian notion of inher- 

 ent individual rights— i. e., every member of the fomily or clan is 

 entitled to necessary food and raiment, and it is the duty of 

 every other person to see that the need is supplied. The stress of 

 this duty is graded partly by proximity (so that, other things equal, it 

 begins with the nearest person), but chiefly by standing and responsi- 

 bility in the group (which again are reckoned as equivalents of age), 

 whereby it becomes the business of the first at the feast to see that 

 enough is left to supjdy all below him; and this duty passes down the 

 line in such wise as to protect the interests of the iielpless infant, and 

 even of the tribal good-for-naught or hanger-on, who may gather crumbs 

 and lick bones within limits fixed by the tribal consensus. Beyond these 

 limits lies outlawry; and this status arises and passes into ttie tribal 

 recognition in various ways: Kolusio was outlawed for consociating 

 with aliens, and Maslicni narrowly missed the same fate at several stages 

 of his career; the would-be grooms who fail in their moral tests are 

 ostracized and at least semioutlawed, and range about like rogue ele- 

 phants, approved targets for any arrow, until they perisli through the 

 multiplied risksof solitude, or until some brilliant opportunity for display 

 of prowess or generosity brings reinstatement; deformed offspring are 

 classed as outside the human pale, even when the deformity is defined 

 rather by occult associations than by physical features; abnormal and 

 persistent indolence, too serious for scorn and ostracism to cure, may 

 also outpass the tribal toleration ; and, as indicated by Mashem's guarded 

 exi>ressions and slight additional data, disease, mental aberration, and 

 decrepitude are allied with indolence and deemed sutticieut reason for 

 excluding the persistently helpless from the tribal solidarity, and hence 

 from recognized humanity — and the fate of the outlaw, even if nothing 

 more severe than abandonment in the desert, is usually sure aiul swift. 

 The entire customs of outlawry among the Seri are singularly like those 

 of gregarious animals, including especially kine and swine in domesti- 

 cation. Now, studied equity in the distribution of necessaries might 

 seem to be allied to thrift; but it is noteworthy that this is not so among 

 the Seri, who take thought for one another but not for the morrow, 

 who seem to have no conception of storage (save an incipient one in 

 connection with water and the repulsive notion underlying the '• second 

 harvest"), and who habitually gorge everything in sight until their 

 stomachs and gullets are packed — and then waste the fragments. 



The division of labor which afl'ects proprietary interests is undoubt- 

 edly affected in turn by the militant habit of the tribe and by the fre- 

 quent decimation of the warriors. In general, the adult males limit their 

 work to fighting and fishing, with occasional excursions into the hunt- 

 17 ETH 18 



