[306] Op. cit., p. 161.
[307] Op. cit., pp. 187, 188.
[308] It should be noted that the actuality of the poisonous property ascribed to the yerba mala is in some degree questionable; the plant is the only one of southern Papagueria yielding suitable material for arrow-shafts, and it is possible (if not probable) that it was consecrated to this purpose by the aboriginal Opata and protected by tabu in such wise as to become a sacred and fearsome thing. It is accordingly by no means improbable that the reputed poisonous property is but the product of generations of association, and that the plant is really harmless—an inference supported by experiments on the part of the leader of the 1895 expedition, who swallowed the juice of stem and leaves in two or three minute but increasing doses without perceptible effect. On the other hand, it should be observed that the region is one abounding in toxic juices, and that this shrub is so luxuriant and so free from thorny armament and other protective devices of a mechanical sort as to raise the presumption that it must be protected against herbivorous animals, at least, by chemical constituents of some kind (cf. ante, p. 35).
[309] These motives on the part of the Seri were reciprocated by their tribal enemies; a Papago fetish in the form of an Apache arrowpoint, long worn by an aged warrior as a protection from Apache arrows, was among the spoil of the 1894 expedition; and a “poisoned” Seri arrowhead and foreshaft, worn by a superannuated Papago “doctor” as a badge of invulnerability to similar missiles, was cautiously shown to the 1895 expedition, but was held above price by its wearer—and this despite the fact that he had been christianized for decades, and retained no other pagan symbols.
[310] The imitative still of the Seri was illustrated at Costa Rica some years ago, when the petty accounts for labor, etc., were kept by means of tokens stamped from sheet brass. While a Seri rancheria was maintained near the rancho, the storekeeper detected a number of counterfeits of his tokens, so well executed as to pass readily over the counter in ordinary exchange—and after extended detective work the counterfeiting was traced to the rancheria.
[311] American Anthropologist, vol. XI. August, 1898, pp. 243-249.
[312] The responsivity of mind has been defined elsewhere as the basis of knowledge, and as one of five fundamental principles of science (The Cardinal Principles of Science, Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. II, 1900, pp. 1-12).
[313] A convenient term proposed by Patton.
[314] This man was one of those involved in the Robinson butchery on Tiburon island a few months before the picture was taken; and he was one of those executed or transported for the affair during the interval between the 1894 and 1895 expeditions.
[315] The chief object of the 1895 expedition was to pursue the inquiries concerning social organization, totems, etc.; but, as mentioned elsewhere, this object was defeated by the troublous history of the tribe during the earlier part of 1895, and the consequent revival and intensification of their animosity toward aliens.