[273] One of the smaller vertebræ and part of a rib are shown in the upper figure of plate vi.
[274] Travels, p. 290*.
[275] History of California, 1789, vol. I, p. 41.
[276] Fire-making apparatus in the U. S. National Museum; Smithsonian Report for 1888, pt II, 1890, pp. 531-587, and elsewhere.
[277] Ordinarily the nether fire-stick is of soft and porous wood, flotsam palm-wood and water-logged pine being preferred.
[278] The Arrow; Proceedings Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. XLIV, 1895, pp. 232-240.
[279] Glave’s Journey to the Livingston Tree, The Century Magazine, vol. LII, 1896, p. 768.
[280] A single incident expressing the Seri sentiment toward travailing animals must be noted: a few minutes after the group shown in plate XI was photographed, a starveling cur—a female apparently of nearly pure coyote blood and within a week of term—slunk toward the broken olla-kettle in the left center of the picture, in which a rank horse-foot was simmering; the woman bending over the kettle suddenly straightened and shot out her foot with such force and directness that the cur was lifted entirely over the corner of the nearest jacal, and the poor beast fell stunned and moaning, a prematurely born pup protruding from her two-thirds of its length. The sound of the stroke and fall attracted attention throughout the group; the women smiled and grunted approval of the well-aimed kick, and a dozen children gathered to continue the assault. Partially recovering, the cur struggled to its feet and started for the chapparal, followed by the jeering throng; at first the chase seemed sportive only, but suddenly one of the smaller boys (the third from the left in the group shown in plate XVI) took on a new aspect—his figure stiffened, his jaws set, his eyes shot purple and green, and he plunged into the lead, and just before the harried beast reached cover he seized the protruding embryo, jerked it away, and ran off in triumph. Three minutes afterward he was seen in the shelter of a jacal greedily gorging his spoil in successive bites, just as the Caucasian boy devours a peeled banana. Meanwhile, two or three mates who had struck his trail stood around begging bites and sucking at chance blood spatters on earth, skin, or tattered rags; and as the victor came forth later, licking his chops, he was met by half jocular but admiring plaudits for his prowess from the dozen matrons lounging about the neighboring jacales. Parallel instances, both observed and gathered at second hand, might be added in numbers; but this may suffice as the sole specific basis for the generalization which places the Seri below the plane of possible zooculture—a generalization so broad as to demand some record of data which it would be more agreeable to ignore.
[281] This warrior’s clutch, and the notion that it is discreditable if not criminal for the masculine adult to take recourse to weapons in hand-to-hand slaughter, are strongly suggestive of zoomimic motives and of studied mimicry of the larger carnivores, such as the jaguar—the “neck-twister” of the Maya.
[282] Cf. The Beginning of Agriculture; The American Anthropologist, vol. VIII Oct., 1895, pp. 350-375.