The Seris are now reduced to a few families only, inhabiting Sonora, especially the island of Tiburon, for which reason they are also known sometimes by the name Tiburones. The Indians called Salineros, who live on the borders of Pimeria Alta, and the Tepocas, who live toward the south, belong to the Seri nation. The Seris have always been notable for their ferocity and barbarism, preferring death in war against the whites to the adoption of civilization. They are dreaded and notorious for their arrows, poisoned with a most virulent venom [emponzoñadas con activísimo veneno]. They are tall and well formed, and their women are good-looking. By reason of their distrust of the whites, it has not been possible to ascertain their traditions, farther than that their ancestors came from distant lands of unknown direction. Of their religion it is known that they adore daily the rising sun.[185]
After brief discussion of the grammar, and extended comparison of some sixty out of the seventy vocables selected by Señor Tenochio, he concluded:
Although in the list of Seri words consulted the foregoing reveal analogies with those of the Mexican group, there are, without doubt, other terms belonging exclusively to the Seri or some other branch extraneous to the Mexican group; for this reason it would appear that the idiom represents a distinct family.[186]
The list of these distinct words was appended. Referring to the dialects, Señor Pimentel expressed the opinion, based on literary references, that the “Guayma” or “Gayama”, “Upanguaima”, and “Cocomaques” may be considered as belonging to the Seri family.[187]
While Señor Pimentel gave credit to his informant, Señor Tenochio, he did not indicate the original source of the vocabulary; but the source may be defined approximately by a process of elimination: there is hardly a possibility that the terms were obtained from any tribesmen in Seriland, since they were all inimical to the whites, and since very few of them have ever known enough of the Spanish tongue to permit communication with the Mexicans; accordingly, it is practically certain that the Seri interpreter must have been either (1) a resident of Pueblo Seri or (2) an attaché of rancho San Francisco de Costa Rica (of which more anon); and in either case it would seem certain that the native informant could have been none other than the standard Seri-Spanish interpreter of the last half century—Kolusio. Indeed, Kolusio was, at the time, the only Seri habitué of Pueblo Seri possessing sufficient knowledge of the Spanish and enough intelligence and independence to “give his language”, and was one of the two frequenters of the rancho similarly equipped.
Pimentel’s contemporary, Licenciate Manuel Orozco y Berra, contributed in important measure to systematic knowledge of the Seri, which he defined (apparently on the basis of the Tenochio vocabulary systemized and published by Pimentel) as a distinct linguistic family with two dialectic branches,[188] viz.:
IX FAMILIA.—SÉRI.
XXXIII. Séri, por los séris, céris, tiburones, tepocas, salineros, en Sonora.
61. I. Upanguaima, por los upanguaimas, en Sonora.
62. II. Guaima, por los guaimas, guaymas, gayamas, cocomaques, en Sonora.
Orozco’s map assigns to the Seri family an immense area (recalling Villa-Señor’s “despoblado”) extending from just above the mouth of the Yaqui, northward to the thirtieth parallel on the coast, stretching inland nearly to Cucurpe, Opodepe, and Ures, and including Tiburon; the “Salineros” lying adjacent to the coast in the north, the “Tepocas” medially, and the “Guaymas” in the south, within this area. In elucidating the map he wrote, under the title “El séri.—El upanguaima.—El guaima”:
The Séris, a tribe inhabiting Sonora, forms, with its subtribes, a separate family. By their language, by their customs, and by their physiognomy, they are completely set apart from affiliation with the surrounding nations; and apparently they have lived in the district which they now occupy from times anterior to the establishment of the Pima race and its affines; their use of poisoned arrows recalls the Caribs of the islands, as well as of the continent, and it seems not unlikely, although very curious, that they are related to them. The Séris, known also as Tiburones, a name derived from the island of Tiburon in the Mar de Cortés, which serves them as a shelter, considered as parts of their tribe the Tepocas and the Salineros.