Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1899-11-21
RED BR0NCHO
MARES DEATH.
savage Indians of Mexico who, Pop
ular Tradition Says, Are Able to
Run Down Deer-RRce Between
Horsennd a Human Greyhound
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II 4EAulGlOn says are EAOA6 70
Run Down Deer-RRce between
Horsennd a Human Greyhound q
"of course you have ell seen that
old circus fake of the man running
against Il horse on the quarter mile
hippodrome track" said man recent
ly returned from Mexico. Il want to
tell you that less than month ago 1
saw IL race OF man on foot against
a wild horse where the man won, and
the race was on the dead level. too. 1t
was down in Mexico on the edge of the
Yaqui country, where they are just
now pulling off their semiannual bar
gain counter insurrection. l was down
there looking after the interests of
some people who had money in the
Yauui placers, and wandered over
to the northwest to the edge of the
Seri Indian country, where happened
to see the man who could beat Il run
ming horse.
"The Seri country is about 80 miles
northwest of Hermosillo. the capital
of the state of Sonora The Seris are
probably the most peculiar Indians in
the western hemisphere. They do-not
seem to be related by language, Gus
toms or physical make up to any
other known tribe. They are race of
big. black giants for the most part,
some of them measuring 6. feet
and nearly all of them one or two
inches over six feet. The women will
average taller than white men, so that
the tribe as a whole is n formidable
proposition. They have the pleasant
habit of killing off all weallling chill
dren, as well as the members of the
tribe who are too old and feeble to
shift for themselves. and the country
they live in is so inhospitalilc that the
tribe is n fine type of the survival of
the tittest. In color ana features they
are more like negroes than Indians,
and some of their rites and supersti-
tions seem to have distinctly African
tinge. 1t is capital offense for one of
them to marry outside of the tribe.
and the principal tenet of their re-
liGion, according to the neishboring
MeXicans. is to kill every one they
meet who is not of their own blood.
"All this don't bear on the horse
race particularly. but it will give you
some idea of the sort of people the
Seris are and lend color of prohabil-
ity to an otherwise rather strong story.
kept hearing all sorts of pipe stories
of the Seris as soon as we got any
where near their country. The MeXi-
them with almost fabulous powers of
endurance and desert cunning. We
were told that Seri could trail man
! H., y;
they never used horses except to kill
and eat and that they could run down
deer on foot. The deer story was re-
peated by everybody, but never met
q man who pretended to have actually
seen it till we stopped ut the Costa
Rica ranch, owned by old Pasqual En-
cinas, right on the edge of the Scri
country. Encinas is the Daniel Boone
of Mexico, and the man who solved
the Seri problem for Sonora. He got a
grant of land from the government and
settled down right in Seri territory,
surrounded himself With Il small
army of vaqueros and Papago In
dians, as armed retainers. and fought
the Seris to a standstill. Now they
are thoroughly afraid of him, and nev-
er kill his stock if they can find any
other brand on the range and never
| shoot his vaQueros from ambush with
their poisoned arrows unless they hap
pen to have some personal score to set
tie. AS the old man and his followers
have planted some 300 Seris in that
| part of the country it may be inferred
that there are still some scores of that
| sort outstanding.
tsO11 TInciT1oS iS fond of TALKING
over his coffee and cigarettes after
dinner out under the brick foored
veranda of the ranchhouse. and lie as
sured me that he had several times
seen Seris run down deer on foot. His
explanation was that they trail almost
as we'll as dogs. running by eye. of
course. instead of by nose. and that
they can go at lope and keep i deer's
trail through the brush. no matter
what sort of ground he crosses. One
of them will start out and scare up q
| deer in the mesquite and keep after
it at a swift wolf trot all day if neccs-
sary, never giving it a chance to stop
for food or water In the course of 9
| day he will run it off its feet and kill
| it with knife.
The first time said the old man,
that | ever saw deer run down in
that way was soon after | got we'll
settled here The Seris were noml-
nally at peace with us for the time.
and | had n lot of them working for
me, as have of and on all the time.
One afternoon one Of them came to
me and asked to get off to 90 hunting
1t was well on in the afternoon then,
and said TO him: ''Ynlga you do not
want to hunt You want to get drunE
on Antonio Sirgu!!p's rncscale and moi
go to work tomorrow" But lie sulied
around and said | wanted TO st:rvr
his sorrowing family and that there
were deer ont in the mesquite yearnine
to be killed SO / told him to go
knowing well enough he would go any.
how and probably take the whole loi
of his fellows along with him if hC
were crossed. did not think any
thing more about him till after sunset
when he came up. just as we werc
stopping work for the day. said II
him: ''Well. you have had Il good sleeT
in the brush. hope you are satisfied
Said he: Yes. did have a good sleep
and dreamed that | killed deer. II
the senor will look over there he vii
see my son bringing him In Looked
1 and there sure enough was Il 10y