330* 



THE SERI INDIANS 



list of dialects has, with a single exception, an entirely different word ; this exception 

 being the Cochiiui, which independently has another. The Yiinian group, then, has 

 three radically different words purporting to signify "tooth ". 



The Seriau vocable for "tooth" is a compound term, being composed of elements 

 denoting "mouth"' and ''stone". In the .Seri word-collection of Professor McG(^e 

 0(<(''«M signifies "mouth"; atia-mox, "lower liji", possibly "down about the mouth": 

 attahk, "saliva" ("water of the mouth '') ; attahkt, "the chin"; iakops, "upper lip"; 

 attems, "beard"; ata'st, "tooth "; and n's/, "rock, stone". MrBartlett, inhisvocab- 

 ulary, recorded Hen, "mouth"; ita-mocken, "beard"; and ast, "stone". JI Pinart, 

 in his Seri word list, wrote A i(en, "mouth"; hita-mokken, "beard"; and hast, "stone". 

 Lastly, Sr Tenochio wrote Hen, "mouth", and ahste, "stoue", iu ahsleka "large, 

 high stone, rock". Sr Tenochio also recorded oheke, "hair, down (pelo)". One of 

 the peculiarities of the sounds represented by the letters m and b is that in many 

 instances they grade one into the other. There is here, seemingly, a case in point. 

 The max of Professor McGee, the moeken of Mr Bartlett, the mokken of M. Pinart, 

 and the obeke of 8r Tenochio appear to be cognates. Snlistituting m for the b in 

 oheke, omeke results, which is approximately the moj, moeken, mokken cited above. 

 Hence, hita-mokken aud its congeners, it seems, signify "down of the mouth". In 

 atiahk, "saliva", the element combining with atti; (for it is plain that the final -n 

 is dropped in compounding) is 'ahk or 'akh, "water", so that this compound signi- 

 fies, literally, "water of the month". These analyses sliow that ai/iT'on, ileii, and 

 hiten, dropping the final »-sound, unite with other elements in the form atte, He, and 

 kite, respectively. Now, these, in combination with a'st or ast, "stoue", become, 

 resiJectively, aita'st, Hast, and hitast, the forms of the word for "tooth" recorded by 

 Professor MoGee, Jlr Bartlett, and M Pinart, in the order given. The Seri name for 

 "tooth" signifies, then, literally "stone of the mouth" or "stoues of the mouth". 

 This analysis deuumstrates the lack of relationship between the Serian and Yuman 

 names for tooth. 



The comparative schedules of names for "foot" in the .Seriau aud the Yuman lan- 

 guages show no accordances of a phonetic character tending to show any genetic 

 relationship between the two groups compared. 



