A tuff implement of suggestively ax-like form is shown in plate
XLVIII; it is firmer and less pulverulent but more vesicular
than most implements of its class; it weighs but 7 ounces (0.20
kilogram). The specimen was picked up in a ruinous jacal, which had
evidently been occupied temporarily within a fortnight, on the summit
of the great shell-mound forming Punta Antigualla. The somewhat
indefinite texture and color render it difficult to distinguish between
natural and artificial features; but careful examination indicates
that it is wholly natural in form and in nine-tenths of the surface,
and that the ax-like shape expresses nothing more than accidents of
structure and wave-work. This interpretation is practically established
by the slight battering along the edges and about the smaller end, as
illustrated in the edge view; for this wear of use, which has produced
a distinctive surface, is practically absent from the notches which
give the ax-like effect. Besides the battering, the only artificial
marks are ancient fire-stains on one of the faces. On the whole it is
clear that the artificial appearance catching the eye at first glance
is purely fortuitous, and that the specimen is but a natural pebble
very slightly modified by ordinary use.
A suggestive specimen is illustrated in plate XLIX; it is of
purplish-gray granitoid rock, of decided toughness and considerable
hardness, and weighs 12½ ounces (0.35 kilogram). The surface and
general form indicate that it is a natural pebble entirely without
marks of artificial use; but the regular curvature of the principal
face (the shape is that of a segment of a cylinder rounded toward
the ends) suggests artificial shaping, while it was found far in the
interior, near Barranca Salina, whither it must have been carried from
the coast. It may possibly be a fragment of a pestle subsequently
wave-worn; but all the probabilities are that it is wholly natural, and
that its suggestive features are fortuitous.
The constant search for chipped or flaked tools which was extended
over nearly all Seriland seldom met the slightest reward; but the
specimen shown in plate L was deemed of some interest in connection
with the search. It is of hard and tough greenstone, showing obscure
and irregular structure lines, though nearly homogeneous in texture;
it weighs 10 ounces (0.28 kilogram). It is primarily a natural pebble
with form and surface reflecting structure and texture in connection
with wave-action. Its artificial features are limited to the usual
slight battering of the smaller end, still less conspicuous battering
or grinding of the margin about the larger end, slight but suggestive
chipping of the thinner edge, inconspicuous hand-wear and polish on
the principal face, and a few obscure scratches or striæ on the same
face, as illustrated in the plate. The position and character of the
flake-fractures, which are fairly shown in the edge view, indicate that
they were made while the pebble was in use as a bruising or cutting
tool, a use at once suggested to the Caucasian mind by the form of
the pebble; yet it is noteworthy that its thin edge displays less
battering than either end of the object and no more than the opposite
and thicker edge, while it is still more significant that the specimen
was apparently discarded immediately on the modification of form by
the spalling—a modification greatly increasing its efficiency, as all
habitual users of chipped stone tools would realize. The specimen is
one of a large number of examples showing that whenever a hupf is
broken in use it is regarded as ruined, and is immediately thrown away.
This particular specimen is archaic; it was found in the cliff-face of
the great shell-heap at Punta Antigualla, embedded in a tiny stratum
of ashes and charcoal (some of which still adheres, as shown in the
black flecking at the outer end of the striæ), associated with scorched
clamshells, typical Seri potsherds, etc., some 40 feet beneath the
surface.
While the great majority of the hupfs are mere pebbles bearing slight
trace of artificial wear, as illustrated by the foregoing examples,
others bear traces of use so extended as to more or less completely
artificialize the surface. A typical long-used hupf is depicted in
plates LI and LII. It is a tough and hard quartzite, dark gray or
brown in color, massive and homogeneous in texture; it weighs 2 pounds
4 ounces (1.02 kilograms). In general form it is a typical wave-worn
pebble of its material, and might be duplicated in thousands along the
shores of Bahia Kunkaak and El Infiernillo; but fully a third of its
surface has been more or less modified by use. The flatter face (plate
LI) is smeared with blood, grease, and charcoal, which have been ground
into the stone by friction of the hand of the user in such manner as to
form a kind of skin or veneer; portions of the face bear a subpolish,
due probably to the hand-rubbing in use; near the center there is a
rough pit about an eighth of an inch (3 mm.) deep, evidently produced
by pecking or battering with metal, while three or four neighboring
scratches penetrating the veneer appear to record ill-directed strokes
of a rather sharp metal point. In the light of observed customs it may
be inferred that this pitting was produced by use of the implement as
an anvil or ahst in sharpening a harpoon-point and fitting it into its
foreshaft. The thinner edge (shown in plate LI; that toward the right
in the face view on the same plate) displays considerable battering
of the kind characteristic of Seri hupfs in general; it is smoked
and fire-stained, as shown, while the lower rounded corner is worn
away by battering to a depth of probably one-fourth inch (5 mm.). The
obverse face reveals more clearly the battering about both corners and
edges, including the dislodgment of a flake toward the narrower
end; but its most conspicuous feature is a broad subpolished facet
(rounding slightly toward the thinner edge) produced by grinding on a
flat-surface ahst. This face, too, exhibits fire-staining, while the
surface beyond the facet—and to a slight extent the facet itself—is
veneered like the other face. There are a few scratches on this side
also, as well as a slight pitting due to contact with metal. The
thicker edge (plate LII) displays considerable battering, especially a
recent pitting near the middle evidently due to use as an anvil held
between the knees for sharpening a harpoon point by rude hammering.
The specimen was one of a score of implements lying about the interior
of the principal jacal in the great rancheria at the base of Punta
Tormenta (illustrated in plate VII).
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY