[264] Cf. American Anthropologist, new series, vol. 1, 1899, p. 374.
[265] The spontaneous arrangement of organisms in accordance with mental grade is well illustrated by that solidarity of desert life which matures in the cultivation of plants and the investigation of animals (The Beginning of Agriculture, in The American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, October, 1895, pp. 350-375; The Beginning of Zooculture, ibid., vol. X, July 1897, pp. 215-230.)
[266] The laws of growth recognized herein have been somewhat more fully outlined elsewhere, notably in The Earth the Home of Man (Anthropological Society of Washington, Special Papers 2, 1894, pp. 3-8), and in Piratical Acculturation (American Anthropologist, vol. XI, 1898, pp. 243-249).
[267] The place of water among food substances is more fully discussed in The Potable Waters of Eastern United States, 14th Ann. Rep. of the U. S. Geol. Survey, 1894, pp. 5-8; the physiologic consequences of deprivation of water are outlined in The Thirst of the Desert, Atlantic Monthly, April 1898, pp. 483-488.
[268] The preciousness of water in this hard province was impressed in the 1895 expedition, during which the cost of the commodity, reckoned on the basis of the time and labor involved in obtaining it, was estimated at, $10 or $12 per gallon, or about the wholesale price of the finest champagnes.
[269] In this table the ratio is expressed by the weight in kilograms for each liter in capacity. The Papago and Pueblo specimens were selected from typical material in the National Museum and at random, save that in the Pueblo ollas choice was made of specimens corresponding approximately in size with those of the Seri.
[270] A lively and explicit account of Seri turtle-fishing appears in Hardy’s Travels in the Interior of Mexico, 1829, pp. 286-297: “Bruja’s bay is of considerable extent, and there are from five to three fathoms water close to Arnold’s island, in the neighborhood of which the Indians catch abundance of turtle in a singular manner. I have already described their canoes, which in Spanish are called ‘balsas’. An Indian paddles himself from the shore on one of these by means of a long, elastic pole of about 12 or 14 feet in length, the wood of which is the root of a thorn called mesquite, growing near the coast; and although the branches of this tree are extremely brittle, the underground roots are as pliable as whalebone and nearly as dark in color. At one end of this pole there is a hole an inch deep, into which is inserted another bit of wood, in shape like an acorn, having a square bit of iron 4 inches long fastened to it, the other end of the iron being pointed. Both the ball and cup are first moistened and then tightly inserted one within the other. Fastened to the iron is a cord of very considerable length, which is brought up along the pole, and both are held in the left hand of the Indian. So securely is the nail thus fixed in the pole that although the latter is used as a paddle it does not fall out.
“A turtle is a very lethargic animal, and may frequently be surprised in its watery slumbers. The balsa is placed nearly perpendicularly over one of these unsuspecting sleepers, when the fisherman, softly sliding the pole through the water in the direction of the animal till within a foot or two of it, he suddenly plunges the iron into its back. No sooner does the creature feel itself transfixed than it swims hastily forward and endeavors to liberate itself. The slightest motion of the turtle displaces the iron point from the long pole, which would otherwise be inevitably broken and the turtle would as certainly be lost; but in the manner here described it is held by the cord fastened on to the iron which has penetrated its back till, after it has sufficiently exhausted its strength, it is hoisted on board the canoe by the fisherman, who proceeds to the shore in order to dispose of his prize.”
[271] The universal stone implement of the Seri, improvised from a cobblestone and used in nearly every industrial occupation (see postea, p. 235); the designation is mimetic, or onomatopoetic, from the sound of the stroke, particularly on animal tissue.
[272] These details were furnished largely by Mashém and Señor Encinas, but were verified in essentials by personal observation of dietetic customs at Costa Rica in 1894; and they were corroborated by observations on both shores of El Infiernillo and Bahia Kunkaak in 1895. Especially significant were the remnants of a turtle feast on the southern beach of Punta Miguel interrupted by the approach of the exploring party. The indications were clear that the turtle had been landed and largely consumed before the fire was kindled, and that the cooking of the firmer portions had hardly been commenced before the camp was abandoned so hurriedly that not only the nearly eaten turtle and the glowing embers, but the harpoon (the specimen illustrated in figure 20), the still bloody and greasy hupf (that represented in plate LIV), and the fire-sticks were left behind. Gnawed fragments of charred plastrons are common relics about hastily abandoned camps generally.