A related specimen, though of somewhat aberrant form, is illustrated
in plate LIII. It is of peculiarly tough and quite hard greenstone and
weighs 2 pounds 1 ounce (0.93 kilogram). Somewhat less than half of the
surface is that of a wave-worn pebble; the remainder is either battered
out of all semblance to wave-work, or thumb-worn by long-continued
use. The object well illustrates the choice of the most prominently
projecting portion of the hand-implement as the point of percussion,
and consequently the concentrated wear on such portions whereby the
object is gradually reduced to better-rounded and more symmetric form.
This specimen displays some minor flaking, apparently connected with
the battering and regarded by the user as subordinate to the general
wear. It was found at Punta Tormenta, concealed in the wall of a jacal,
as if preserved for special use.
One of the best-known examples of a use-perfected hupf is illustrated
in plate LIV. It is of coarse-grained but massive and homogeneous
granite, similar to that forming Punta Blanca, Punta Granita, and,
indeed, much of the eastern coast of Bahia Kunkaak. It weighs 1 pound
10 ounces (0.74 kilogram). In general form it is just such a pebble as
is produced from this material by wave-wear, and might be duplicated
along the shores in numbers. The artificial surfaces comprise (1)
both ends, which are battered in the usual manner; (2) both lateral
edges, of which one is slightly battered and worn, while the other
is somewhat battered and also notched, evidently by a chance blow
and the dislodgment of a flake; (3) both faces, which are flattened
by grinding, while one of them (that shown in the plate) is slightly
pitted, evidently by metal-working; so that the natural surface is
restricted to small areas about the corners. The implement was found at
the camp site on Punta Miguel, already noted (page 189), whence a group
of five Seri were frightened by the approach of the 1895 expedition;
it was covered with blood and shreds of turtle flesh, and is still
saturated with grease. Moreover, it is quite confidently identified
(not only by form and material, but especially by the fortuitous notch)
as a hupf seen repeatedly at Costa Rica in 1894; it was the property of
a matron of the Pelican clan (whose portrait appears in plate XXII),
who was observed to use it for various industrial purposes, and who
refused to part with it for any consideration.
A still more beautiful example of Seri stone art is depicted in plate
LV. It is of the same homogeneous and coarse-grained granite as the
last specimen, and closely approaches it in dimensions; it is slightly
longer and broader, but somewhat thinner, and weighs 1 pound 11 ounces
(0.77 kilogram); and, except for the absence of the accidental notch,
its artificial features are still more closely similar. The ends are
slightly battered, as illustrated in the end view at the right of
the plate; the edges are similarly worn, but to a less extent; while
both sides have been symmetrically faceted by use in grinding, the
facets being straight in the longitudinal direction but slightly
curved in the transverse direction, in the shape of the Mexican mano.
The specimen displays well-marked color distinctions between the
artificially worn and the natural surfaces, the former being gray
and the latter weathered to yellowish or pinkish-brown; these colors
show that something like two-thirds of the surface is artificial and
the intervening third natural; and the natural portion corresponds
in every respect, not only in form but in condition of surface, with
the granite cobbles of Seriland’s stormy shores. Unfortunately the
color distinctions, with the limits of faceting and other artificial
modifications, are obscure in the photomechanical reproduction; they
are indicated more clearly in the outline drawing oversheet. The
specimen is partially saturated with fat, and bears an ocher stain
attesting use in the preparation of face-paint. It was found carefully
wrapped in a parcel with the shell paint-cup illustrated in plate
XXVII, a curlew mandible, two or three hawk feathers, and a tuft of
pelican down (the whole evidently forming the fetish or medicine-bag of
a shamanistic elderwoman), in an out-of-the-way nook in the wall of an
abandoned jacal at Punta Narragansett.
A somewhat asymmetric though otherwise typical hupf is illustrated
in natural colors in plate LVI. It is of andesite, and may have come
originally either from the extensive volcanics of southern Sierra Seri
or central Sierra Kunkaak; it weighs 1 pound 15 ounces (0.88 kilogram).
The general form is that of a wave-worn cobble, and fully one-third of
the surface retains the natural character save for slight smoothing
through hand friction in use. The chief artificial modification is
the faceting of both sides in nearly plain and approximately parallel
faces, the maximum thickness of material removed from each side,
estimated from the curvature of the adjacent natural surface, being
perhaps three-sixteenths of an inch (5 millimeters); in addition, both
ends are battered in the usual fashion, while the thinner and more
projecting edge is battered still more extensively, in a way at once
subserving convenient use and tending to increase the symmetry of form.
One of the facets is quite smooth; the other (that on the right in the
plate) is slightly pitted, as if by use in metal-working. The specimen
is somewhat greasy—the normal condition of the hupf—and bears
conspicuous records of its latest uses; both faces (more especially
the pitted one) are stained with sap from green vegetal substance
(probably immature mesquite pods), while one face is brilliantly marked
with ocher in such manner as to indicate that a lump of face-paint was
partially pulverized by grinding on the slightly rough surface. It was
found, together with the ahst illustrated in plate XXXVIII,
in the rear of a recently occupied jacal midway between Punta
Antigualla and Punta Ygnacio, cached beneath a thorny cholla cactus
uprooted and dragged thither for the purpose. The trail and other signs
indicated that the jacal had been occupied for a few days and up to
within twenty-four hours by a family group of six or seven persons;
that it was vacated suddenly at or about the time of arrival of the
party of five whose trail was followed by the 1895 expedition from
Punta Antigualla to Punta Miguel (where they were interrupted in the
midst of a meal and frightened to Tiburon); and that the larger party
fled toward the rocky fastnesses of southern Sierra Seri.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY