At first sight Seriland seems an abnormal habitat for a primitive
people, since its land area is cleft in twain by a stormy strait—a
strait whose terrors to the few Caucasian navigators who have reached
its swirling currents are indicated by their appellations, “El Canal
Peligroso de San Miguel”[286] and “El Infiernillo”; for such a stretch
of troubled water is commonly a more serious bar to travel than any
moderate land expanse. This intuitive notion of the effectiveness of a
water barrier, and the correlative feeling of the incongruity of a land
barrier insuperable for centuries, is well illustrated by prevailing
opinion throughout northwestern Mexico; for it is commonly supposed in
Sonora and neighboring states that Seriland is conterminous with Isla
Tiburon, i. e., that the mainland portion of the province (including
Sierra Seri with its flanking footslopes) lies beyond the diabolic
channel. Yet longer scrutiny shows that the superficial impression
merely mirrors Caucasian thought and fails to touch the essential
conditions, especially as they are reflected in the primitive minds
of the local tribe; and careful study of the habits and history of
the Seri shows that the dangerous strait has been a potent factor
in preserving tribal existence and perpetuating tribal integrity.
Naturally the factor operates through navigation; for it is by means
of this art that the tribesmen are able to avoid or to repel the rare
invaders of either mainland or insular portions of their province,
the overland pioneers from the east being stopped by the strait and
the maritime explorers from south and west being unable to maintain
themselves long about the stormy shores and never outfitted for
pushing far toward the mainland retreats and strongholds; while by
means of their light and simple craft the Seri were able to retreat
or to advance across the strait as readily as over the adjacent lands
to which they were wonted by the experience of generations. In their
minds, indeed, El Infiernillo is the nucleus of their province. So
the Seri were among the lowliest learners of that lesson of highest
statecraft, that lands are not divided but united by intervening
sea; and their ill-formulated and provincial notions are of much
significance in their bearing on autochthonous habits and habitats.
[286] Hardy, Travels, p. 291.
The water-craft of which the Seri make so good use is a balsa, made of
three bundles of carrizal or cane lashed together alongside, measuring
barely 4 feet abeam, 1½ feet in depth, and some 30 feet in length over
all. A fine specimen (except for a slight injury at one end) is shown
in plan and profile in plate XXXI. It was obtained near Boca Infierno
in 1895, partly towed and partly paddled thence to Embarcadero Andrade,
wagoned laboriously across Desierto Encinas and on to Hermosillo,
conveyed in an iron-sheathed box on two gondolas of the narrow-gage
Ferrocarril de Sonora to the international frontier, and finally
freighted to the United States National Museum, where (in the Mall just
outside the building) the photographs reproduced in the plate were
taken.
The manufacture of the balsa has never been seen by Caucasian eyes, but
the processes are safely inferred from the structure, whose testimony
is corroborated in part by Mashém’s imperfect descriptions. The first
step is the gathering of the carrizal from one of the patches growing
about the three or four permanent fresh waters of Seriland, the canes
being carefully selected for straightness, symmetry, and uniformity in
size; these are then denuded of leaves and tassels, tied in bundles of
convenient size (one seen on Tiburon contained 40 or 50 canes), and
carried to the shore. In actual construction the canes are laid butt
to butt, but overlapping 2 or 3 feet, the overlap being shifted this
way and that with successive additions, so that the aggregate length of
overlapping in the bundle reaches 10 or 12 feet—i. e., the full length
of the body of the finished craft. The growing bundle is wrapped from
time to time with lashings of mesquite root or maguey fiber, and kept
in cylindrical form by constant rolling and by means of the lashing;
though the cord used for the purpose is so slender as to do little
more than serve the purposes of manufacture (only stray shreds of
the interior cording could be found in an old and abandoned balsa on
Punta Antigualla). As the bundle approaches the requisite size, the
building process changes; the butts of the successively added stalks
are thrust obliquely into the interstices extending beyond the butts
of earlier-used canes, and the stems are slightly bent to bring them
into parallelism with their fellows; and this interweaving process is
continued with increasing care until, when the bundle is completed,
there are no visible butts (all being pushed into the interior of the
bundle), while the only visible tips are those projecting to form the
tapering extremities. The finished bundle is then secured by a spiral
winding of slender cord. Two other bundles are next made, the three
being entirely similar, so far as is known; then the three are joined
by a lashing of slender cord like that used for the separate bundles,
which is twined alternately above and below the central bundle in such
manner as to hold the three in an approximate plane save toward the
extremities, where the lashing is much firmer and the tapering tips of
the bundles are brought into a triangular position, i. e., the position
of smallest compass. The cordage is of either mesquite root or maguey
fiber, the former being the more common, so far as observed (doubtless
by reason of the dearth of the latter plant); it is notably uniform in
twist and size, though surprisingly slender for the purpose, barely
three-sixteenths of an inch, or 5 mm., in diameter, and limited in
quantity.[287] The only tools or implements used in the manufacture
(and repair), so far as is known, are light wooden marlinspikes, two
of which are illustrated in figure 26; these are used in working the
cane-butts into the bundles. In collecting the canes the tassels are
broken off and the leaves stripped by the unaided hands, while the
stalks are broken off usually below the secondary roots in the downward
taper, and the rootlets and loose ends are removed either with the
hands or by fire.
[287] Only the finer cording shown in plate XXXI is original, the
coarser ropes having been added to facilitate handling.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY