The largest ahst seen in Seriland is illustrated in plates XXXIX and
XL, on a scale of one-third linear (its maximum length being 15⅜
inches=39.5 cm.); it is a dark, fine-grained silicious schist or
quartzite, quite obscurely laminated; it weighs 33 pounds 8 ounces
(15.20 kilograms). It is a natural slab, probably washed from a talus
and slightly wave-worn; it might have come originally from either
the southwestern flanks of Sierra Seri or the more southerly half of
Sierra Kunkaak—certainly hundreds of similar slabs strew the eastern
shore of Bahia Kunkaak, while the western shore, especially about Punta
Narragansett, would yield thousands. Its artificial features (aside
from miscellaneous battering) are limited to grinding of the two faces
defined by structure planes. The principal face is abraded into an
oblong or spoon-shape basin, about 8 inches (20 cm.) long, 5 inches
(16 cm.) broad, and fully three-fourths of an inch (2 cm.) deep, the
basin penetrating two or three laminæ of the slab in such wise as to
produce the annular markings faintly shown in plate XXXIX; the obverse
is slightly rubbed and ground and somewhat battered, like the face of
the preceding specimen; and both sides are flecked with a fine but dark
flour-like substance (doubtless derived from grinding mesquite beans,
etc.) forced into the texture of the stone by the grinding process. The
entire slab is greasy and blood-stained, while battered spots about the
edges and angles of the principal face record considerable use as an
anvil for breaking up quarry—indeed, shreds of turtle flesh and bits of
intestinal debris still lodge in some of the interstices. The specimen
was taken from the old rancheria at the base of Punta Tormenta, where
it had apparently been in desultory use for generations.
A sort of connecting link between ahst and hupf is afforded by elongate
beach pebbles, such as that illustrated in plate XLI, which lay beside
the large ahst last described, and which bears a few inconspicuous
marks of use in slight battering at both ends, with a few shreds of
turtle flesh about the blunter extremity (at the right on the plate).
The specimen is shown natural size; it is of pinkish-gray trachyte
(?), and weighs 1 pound 12 ounces (0.79 kilograms). It is noteworthy
chiefly as an illustration of the Seri mode of seizing and using
hand-implements (a mode repeatedly observed at Costa Rica in 1894);
the pebble comfortably fits the Caucasian hand, held hammerwise; it
is intuitively grasped in this way, and when so seized and used with
an outward swing forms an effective implement for bone-crushing,
etc., the natural striking-point being near the free end; but the
centripetally moving Seri invariably seizes the specimen in such manner
that the free end is directed inward, while the thumb laps over
the grasped end, when the strokes are directed downward and inward,
the striking-point being the extreme tip of the free end. A similar
specimen is illustrated in plate XLII. It is of tough and homogeneous
hornblende-granite, somewhat shorter and broader than its homologue,
but of exactly the same weight; it, too, is battered at the ends, but
is otherwise quite natural in form. It was collected at Rada Ballena
in conjunction with the ahst illustrated in plate XXXV; and like that
specimen it is soaked with blood and fat, and bore shreds of flesh when
found. Both these elongate cobbles are of interest as representatives
of a somewhat aberrant type; for the favorite form of hupf is shorter
and thicker, as shown by the prevailing shapes, both in use and lying
about the jacales—indeed, the elongate form is seldom used on the coast
and never carried into the interior.
A typical hupf is illustrated in plate XLIII. The specimen is of
fine-grained, dense, and massive quartzite, its homogeneity being
interrupted only by a thin seam of infiltrated silica and by an obscure
structure-plane brought out by weathering toward the thinner end.
Its weight is 1 pound 14 ounces (0.85 kilogram). In general form and
surface the specimen is an absolutely natural pebble, such as may
be found in thousands along the shores of Seriland. Its artificial
features are limited to slight battering about the edges, especially
at the thinner end; partial polishing of the lateral edges by repeated
handling (as imperfectly shown in the edge view); very perceptible
polishing of both faces by use as a grinder; some fire-blackening on
both sides; semisaturation with grease and blood; and the flecks of
red face-paint shown in the reproduction. The specimen was obtained
at Costa Rica after some days’ observation of its use. The chief
observed functions of this implement were as follows: (1) Skinning
the leg of a partially consumed horse; this was done by means of
centripetal (i. e., downward and inward) blows, so directed that the
thinner end fell obliquely on the tissue, bruising and tearing it with
considerable rapidity. (2) Severing tough tendons already sawed nearly
through by rubbing over the edge of an ahst, the hupf in this case
being in the hands of a coadjutor and used in rather random strokes
whenever the tissue seemed particularly refractory. (3) Knocking off
the parboiled hoof of a horse to give access to the coffinbone. (4)
Crushing and splintering bones to facilitate sucking of the marrow.
(5) Grinding mesquite beans; the process being begun by vertical
blows with the end of the implement on a heap of the pods resting on
an ahst, continued by blows with the side, and finished by kneading
and rubbing motions similar to those of grinding on a metate. (6)
Pounding shelled corn mixed with slack lime, in a ludicrously futile
attempt to imitate Mexican cookery. (7) Chopping trees; in this
case the implement was grasped in the centripetal manner and used
in pounding and bruising the wood at the point of greatest bending
under the pull of a coadjutor. (8) Cleaving and breaking wood
for fuel. (9) Dethorning okatilla stems, by sweeping centripetal
strokes delivered adzwise from top toward butt of a bunch of stems
lying on the ground. (10) Severing a stout hair cord; in this use it
was grasped between the knees of a matron squatting on the ground,
while the cord was held in both hands and sawed to and fro over the
use-roughened thinner end. (11) Supporting a kettle (shown in plate
X) as one of the fire-stones used in frontier mimicry of the Papago
custom. (12) Triturating face-paint by pounding and kneading; in one
case the specimen served as a hand implement, while in another case
it took the place of the ahst, the ocher lump itself being struck and
rubbed against it. (13) Beating a troop of dogs from a pile of bedding
in a jacal; in this use the implement was held in the customary manner
and used in swift centripetal blows, the matron relying on her own
swiftness and reach and not at all on projection to come within reach
of her moving targets; the blows usually landed well astern, and were
so vicious and vigorous as to have killed the agile brutes had they
chanced to fall squarely—indeed, one blow temporarily paralyzed a
large cur, which escaped only by running on its fore feet and dragging
its hind quarters. In most of these uses the specimen was employed in
conjunction with an improvised ahst in the form of a stone carried from
the rancho. Several of the processes, notably those of tissue-tearing
and dog-beating, were executed with a vigor and swiftness quite
distinct from the sluggish lounging of the ordinary daytide and,
indeed, partaking of the fierce exaltation normal to the Seri chase.
When not in use the implement usually lay just within the open end of
the owner’s jacal, though it was often displaced and sometimes kicked
about the patio for hours. It was one of perhaps a dozen similar
implements brought across the desert from the coast by as many matrons.
All were regarded as personal belongings pertaining to the custodians
about as definitely as articles of apparel, though rather freely
loaned, especially in the owner’s clan. The specimen was purchased
from the possessor, who parted from it rather reluctantly, though with
the tacit approval of her clanswomen, at a rate implying considerable
appreciation of real or supposed value. Three or four other matrons
declined to barter their hupfs, either arbitrarily or on the plea that
they were a long way from the source of supply.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY