Slightly as they have been affected by three centuries of sporadic
contact with higher culture, the Seri reveal many marks of
acculturation; and the most conspicuous of these are connected with
clothing, especially on the frontier, where women and even warriors
habitually wear a livery of subserviency in the form of cast-off
Caucasian rags (as illustrated in most of the photographs taken at
Costa Rica). Even in the depths of Seriland the native fabrics are
largely replaced by white men’s stuffs, obtained by barter, beggary,
and robbery; yet it is easy to distinguish the harlequin veneer of
borrowed trappings from the few fixed types of covering that seem
characteristic.
The most distinctive piece of apparel is a kilt, extending from
waist to knees, worn alike by men and women and the larger children.
Aboriginally it was either a birdskin robe or a rectangle of coarse
textile fabric, secured at the waist by a hair-cord belt; acculturally
it is usually a rectangle of manta (coarse sheeting) or other stuff,
preferably cotton or linen but sometimes woolen, fastened either by
tucking in the corners or by a belt of cord. Good specimens of the
accultural cloth kilt worn by men and larger boys are illustrated in
plates XVI and XIX; the birdskin kilt (put on for the purpose) is
illustrated in plate XVIII, while the aboriginal fabric is fairly
represented in plate XXIX. Although ordinarily worn as a kilt, the same
article (temporarily replaced by an improvised substitute) serves other
purposes at the convenience of the wearer; in the chase for tunas and
for moving game it becomes a bag or pack-sheet; in case of cold rain it
is shifted to the shoulders or the exposed side; during the siesta, it
is elevated on a shrub and a stick to serve as a canopy; at sleeping
time generally it forms (especially when of birdskin) a bed, i. e., a
combined mattress and coverlet; and in attack or defense the pelican
skin is at once standard, buckler, and waving capa to confuse quarry or
enemy after the manner of the toreador’s cloak.
An almost equally distinctive garment is a short shirt or wammus, with
long sleeves, worn by men and women but not by children; ordinarily it
covers the thorax, missing connection with the kilt by a few inches,
and so affording ventilation and space for suckling the teeming
offspring. Unlike the kilt, it is an actual garment, fitted with
sleeves and fastened in front with hair-cord strings. Although the Seri
wammus corresponds fairly with a Yaqui garment, it seems practically
certain that it is of local aboriginal design, and that it was made
primitively of haircloth or native textiles (as illustrated in plate
XXIX) and worn rather ceremoniously; but latterly it is made of manta
and is worn habitually (at least by the women and on the frontier),
though cast aside in preparation for any special task or effort—i. e.,
it is not connected with pudency-sense, save to a slight degree in the
younger women. The form, function, and prevalence of the wammus are
illustrated by the group shown in plate XIII, in which nearly all of
the thirty-odd adults wear the garment.
These two articles constitute the ordinary wearing apparel of the Seri,
though they are commonly supplemented (especially when both are of
manta) by a pelican-skin robe, which is habitually carried to serve
as bed or mackintosh, according to the chance of journey and weather,
or as a shield in sudden warfare. No head-covering is used, save in
the ceremonial masquerade, when the heads of animals are worn as
masks,[290] or in aping Caucasian customs, especially on expeditions
for barter (as illustrated in plate XII). Loose trousers of Mexican
pattern are sometimes put on at frontier points, but are discarded in
Seriland proper, save by Mashém, who maintains prestige partly by this
borrowed badge of Caucasian superiority. Leggings and moccasins are
eschewed, naturally enough, since they would afford little protection
from the sharp spalls and savage thorns of the district, and would give
lodgment for the barbed spines inevitably gathered in rapid chase or
flight over cactus-dotted stretches; and the only foot-covering seen
(save Mashém’s boots) was a single sandal made from the rough skin
of a turtle-flipper, apparently for ceremonial rather than practical
use. Of all the party at Costa Rica in 1894 subchief Mashém was
the only one who wore Caucasian apparel with any air of comfort and
fitness; yet even he, with hat and shirt, boots and breeches, and loose
bandana about his neck in cowboy style (plate XVII), did not feel
fully dressed without the slender hair-cord necklace of his kin in its
wonted place. On the frontier improvised fig-leaves were sometimes
put on the children of less than a dozen years (as illustrated by the
standing infant shown in plate XIV, who was thus dressed hastily for
her picture); and a common garb of the smaller children at Costa Rica,
as they played about the rancheria or wandered in directions away from
the white man’s rancho, was limited to a cincture of hair cord or snake
skin, or perhaps of agave fiber, under which an improvised kilt might
be tucked on the Caucasian’s approach.
[290] Hardy (Travels, p. 298) describes the ceremonial wearing of the
heads of deer with horns attached.
[Illustration: FIG. 29—Seri hairbrush.]
[Illustration: FIG. 30—Seri cradle.]
In addition to the individual apparel, each clan, or at least the
elderwoman or her fraternal executive, accumulates some surplus
material as opportunity offers, and this serves as family bedding
until occasion arises for converting it to other uses. Of late the
prevailing materials are pelican skins, lightly dressed and joined
into robes by sinew stitching; deerskins, dried or partially dressed;
cormorant skins, treated like those of the pelican; seal skins, usually
fragmentary; peccary skins, apparently dried without dressing,
together with skins of rabbits, mountain sheep, antelope, etc., usually
tattered or torn into fragments. Commonly the hides and pelts are
nearly or quite in natural condition, retaining the hair, fur, or
feathers. The dressing is apparently limited to scratching and gnawing
away superfluous flesh, followed by some rubbing and greasing; tanning
is apparently unknown. By far the most abundant of the collective
possessions are the pelican-skin robes, which form the sole article of
recognized barter with aliens. The aggregate stock accumulated at any
time is but meager, never too much to be borne on the heads and backs
of the clan in case of unexpected decamping.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY