[Illustration: FIG. 31—Hair spindle.]
Aside from the painting paraphernalia, there is but a single
conspicuous toilet article; this is a hairbrush made of yucca fiber
bound into cylindrical form, as illustrated in figure 29. This article
is in frequent use; both women and men give much attention to brushing
their own long and luxurious locks and cultivating the hair and scalps
of their children, the process being regarded as not only directly
useful but in some measure sacramental. Ordinarily the hair is parted
in the middle and brushed straight, the tresses being permitted to
wander at will and never braided or bound or restrained by fillets save
in imitation of Caucasian customs on the frontier; though in certain
ceremonies the pelage is gathered in a lofty knot on the top-head.[291]
[291] Cf. Hardy, Travels, p. 290.
The Seri cradle is merely a bow of paloblanco or other switch with
rude cross-sticks lashed on, as shown in figure 30. On this is laid a
small pelican-skin robe, with a quantity of pelican down for a diaper,
and perhaps a few pelican feathers attached as plumes to wave over the
occupant’s face; though on the frontier these primitive devices are
largely replaced by rags.
Among the important appurtenances of Seri life are the cords used
for belts and necklaces, as well as for the attachment of ceremonial
headdresses, for converting the kilts into bags, and for numberless
minor purposes. The finest of these are made from human hair; and for
this purpose the combings are carefully kept, twisted into strands, and
wound on thorns or sticks in slender bobbins, such as that illustrated
in figure 31. When the accumulation suffices the strands are doubled
or quadrupled, as shown in figures 32 and 33, and the cords are either
applied to immediate use or added to the matron’s meager store against
emergency demands. The cordage used for other purposes than appareling
is commonly made from fiber extracted either from the roots of the
mesquite or the stipes of the agave; usually it is well twisted and
notably uniform in size and texture; an inferior example appears in
figure 34. The manes and tails of horses and other stock are also
converted into cordage, of which the chief known application is in toy
riatas. It is of no small significance that the most highly prized
cordage material is human hair, and that its chief uses are connected
with the person; that the next in order of diminishing preciousness is
that derived from the fibrous plants, which is used in balsa-making,
bowstrings, harpoon cords, etc., as well as in the native fabrics; and
that the least prized material is that derived from imported animals,
which is largely limited in its utilization to youthful imitation of
Caucasian industries; for the association of material with function
reflects a distinctive feature of primitive thought, akin to that
displayed in somewhat higher culture as synecdochic magic, the doctrine
of signatures, etc.
[Illustration: FIG. 32—Human-hair cord.]
[Illustration: FIG. 33—Horsehair cord.]
[Illustration: FIG. 34—Mesquite-fiber rope.]
Partly because of that decadence of aboriginal devices correlated
with acculturation, partly by reason of imperfect observation,
practically nothing is known of Seri spinning and weaving, and little
of Seri sewing. The religiously-guarded hair-combings are twisted
in the fingers and wound on stick-bobbins without aid of mechanical
appliances; and, so far as has been observed, the final making of hair
cords is merely a continuation of the strictly manual process. The
agave stipes and mesquite roots are alleged by vaqueros to be retted
in convenient lagoons and barrancas (a statement corroborated by the
finding of half a dozen sections of mesquite root soaking in a lagoon
near Punta Antigualla by the 1895 expedition), and then hatcheled
with the hupf or the edge of a shell; when the fibers are gathered
in slender wisps or loosely wound coils, both of which were among
the possessions of the Seri matrons at Costa Rica in 1894. So far as
could be ascertained, the final processes parallel those of hair-cord
making, i. e., the fibers are patiently sorted into strands, sized in
the fingers and twisted by rolling on the thigh, the strands being
subsequently combined in similar fashion.[292] Neither the weaving
nor the woven fabrics of the Seri have ever been seen by technologic
students so far as known, though the fabrics are shown in Von Bayer’s
photographs and have been described by various observers. According
to Señor Encinas, they resemble coarse bagging, and are woven or
netted quite plainly. The ordinary sewing material is sinew, used in
connection with a bone awl (a good example of which is illustrated
in figure 35), a fish spine or bone, a cactus thorn, or either the
mandible of a water-bird or a hard-wood skewer shaped after this
natural needle (figure 36 _a_ and _b_). Sometimes hair or vegetal fiber
is substituted for the sinew; and for certain purposes an agave thorn,
with the fibers naturally attached, serves for needle and thread.
[292] A rope-twisting device of the sort commonly employed by
southwestern Indians was found in use by Seri boys at Costa Rica in
1894, and was included in the Seri collection; but the indications were
that the device was a mere toy used, like the horse-hair riatas made by
its aid, only in youthful sports.
[Illustration: FIG. 35—Bone awl.]
[Illustration: FIG. 36—Wooden awls.]
Summarily, the customary apparel of Seri men and women may be regarded
as limited to three articles—(1) a kilt, normally of coarse textile
fabric, which is made a prime necessity by a well-developed pudency;
(2) a short wammus, also normally of coarse textile fabric, which
is apparently regarded as a convenience and luxury rather than a
necessity; and (3) a robe, normally of pelican skin, sometimes
substituted for either or both of the other articles, but ordinarily
used as bedding or as a buckler. The most valued of these articles
is the robe, which in the absence of the others replaces the kilt;
yet pudency demands the habitual use of some form of kilt, while both
wammus and robe are held so far superfluous that they may be laid aside
or bartered or otherwise dispensed with whenever occasion arises.
* * * * *
On considering the special functions and probable genesis of the
Seri appareling, the student is impressed by the absence of the
breech-clout, except perhaps in temporary improvisations—though the
absence of this widespread article of primitive costumery need awaken
little surprise in view of the environment, and especially of the
abounding barbs of Seriland, which render all appareling of doubtful
value save for the protection of tissues softened by habitual covering.
The prevailing thorniness of the habitat renders the free-flowing
and easily removable apron the most serviceable protection for the
exposed vitals of the pubic region; and this device, a common one in
thorny habitats generally, grades naturally into the short skirt or
kilt; while it would well accord with the maritime habit and habitual
thought of the Seri to apply the tough and densely feathered skin of
the pelican to the purpose. This suggestion as to the nascent covering
of the tribe consists with the tribal faith, in which the Ancient of
Pelicans ranks as the creative deity, while its modern representative
is esteemed a protective tutelary possessing talismanic powers against
cold, wet, bestial claw and fang, alien arrows, and all other evils;
so that the use of this feathered pelt as a shield against spiny
shrubbery, sharp-leaved sedges, and barb-thorned cacti is quite in
harmony with Seri philosophy. Accordingly it seems clear that the
pelican-skin kilt was autochthonous among the Seri, and that it was the
original form of tribal appareling; and it is of no small significance
that the type persists in actual use as well as in suggestive vestigial
forms, such as pelican-down swaddling for infants, pelican-feather
plumes on cradle nets, etc.
The passage from the pelican-skin kilt to the garment of textile
fabric under the slow processes of primitive thought may not be traced
confidently, though a strong suggestion arises in the Seri hair-cult
(a Samsonian faith not without parallel in far higher culture) under
which mystical powers and talismanic virtues are imputed to the human
pelage. It is in connection with this cult that the Seri locks are so
attentively cultivated and so assiduously preserved and consecrated
to more intimate personal uses in belts, necklaces, and the like; and
although the connecting links have not been found, it is thoroughly
in accord with Seri thought to assume that in earlier times the hair
necklaces were expanded into rudimentary apparel in connection with
pelican-skin shields, and after the conquest of vegetal fibers into
more finished garments probably woven partly of hair and worn in such
wise as to supplement the natural pelage in the protection of back,
shoulders, chest, and arms. If the indication of the tribal cult be
valid, it would appear that the wammus was the second piece of apparel
in order of genesis, though the first to be made of artificial fabric;
and it is noteworthy that the suggestion is supported by the form of
the short and free-flowing garment underlying the flowing tresses
of warriors and matrons, as well as the vestigial use of human-hair
cords for neckbands and fastening strings; while its antiquity in
comparison with the textile kilt is indicated by the fact that it is a
finished artifact, evidently fitted to its functions by generations of
adjustment.
The step from the making of the wammus to the substitution of
artificial fabrics for the pelican-skin kilt was an easy and natural
one; and it need only be noted that the transition is still incomplete,
since the feathered pelt is unquestioningly substituted for the fabric
whenever occasion demands, yet that the kilt in some form must be much
more archaic than the wammus, since it is correlated with the pudency
sense,[293] while the complete garment is not so correlated save in
slight and incipient degree.
[293] In this writing the conclusion reached in an unpublished
discussion of the beginning of clothing is assumed—i. e., that the
primal apparel was purely protective, and that the habitual concealment
of portions of the body incidental to its wearing gradually planted
the pudency sense. The germ of clothing, without attendant pudency, is
well illustrated in Karl von den Steinen’s observations and discussions
of the Brazilian natives (Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens,
Berlin, 1894, pp. 190-199). It is noteworthy that the Seri, more
primitive as they are in so many respects than any other American
aborigines known, are much farther advanced than the Brazilian natives
in appareling and its effects on character. The similarities and the
differences are alike interesting; yet in both cases the costumes
reflect environmental conditions and needs with remarkable fidelity.
Accordingly the three articles of apparel may be seriated genetically
as (1) the pelican-skin robe, used long as a kilt, and only lately
relegated to emergency use and bedding; (2) the well-differentiated
wammus of textile fabric with hair-cord fastenings; and (3) the textile
kilt, with or without a hair-cord belt. And the three artifacts are
local and presumptively—indeed manifestly—autochthonous, and exemplify
the interdependence of artifacts and environment no less strikingly
than the Seri balsa or basket or jacal.