The Press., 1900-03-29

old circus rake or the man running
against a horse on the quarter mile
hippodrome track" said a man recent
ly returned from Mexico. II want to
tell you that less than a month ago !
saw a race of a, man on foot against
q 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 instruction. was down
there looking after the interests Of
some people who had money In the
Yaqui placers, and l wandered over
to the northwest to the edge Of the
Seri Indian country, where happened
to see the man who could beat a run
ming horse.
"The Seri country is about SO miles
northwest of Hermosillo, the capital
Of the state of Sonora. The Serbs 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 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 a formidable
proposition. They have the pleasant
habit Of killing off all weakling 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 inhOspitable that the
tribe is fine type of the survival Of
the fittest. In color and features they
are more like negroes than Indians,
and some of their rites and snpersti-
lions seem to have distinctly African
tsnge. 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 neighboring
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
Serbs are and lend a color of probable
ity to an otherwise rather strong story.
| kept hearing all sorts Of pipe stories
of the Serbs as soon as we got any
| where near their country. The Next
cans are afraid Of them and endow
them with almost fabulous powers OF
endurance and desert cunning. We
were told that a Seri could trail a man
across country by starlight and that
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 I never met
a man who pretended to have actually
seen it till we stopped at the Costa
| RIGA ranch, owned by old PasQual En-
| cinas, right on the edge Of the Seri
country. Encinas is the Daniel Boone
Of Mexico, and the man who solved
| the Seri problem for Sonora. He got q
| grant of land from the government and
settled down right in Seri territory,
surrounded himself with a small
army of vaqueros and Papago In
dams. as armed retainers, and fought
the Serbs to a standstill. Now they
are thoroughly afraid Of him, and new
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 Serbs in that
part of the country, it may be inferred
that there are still some scores of that
sort outstanding.
"Old Encinas is very fond Of talking
over his coffee and cigarettes after
fnr ,yrN &l @I~
veranda of the ranchhouse, and he as
sured me that he had several times
seen Serbs run down deer on foot. His
explanation was that they trail almost
as well as dogs, running by eye, Of
course, instead of by nose, and that
they can go at a lope and keep deer's
trail through the brush, no matter
what sort of ground he crosses. One
Of them will start out and scare up a
deer in the mesquite and keep after
it at swift wolf trot all day If neces-
sary, never giving it change to stop
for food or water. In the course of q
day he will run it off it's feet and kill
; it with knife
The first time said the old man,
that / ever saw a deer run down in
that way was soon after I got well
settled here. The Serbs were nomI.
nally at peace with us for the time,
and had a lot Of them working for
me, as l have off and ON all the time.
One afternoon one Of them came to
me and asked to get OF to 60 hunting.
1t was we'll on in the afternoon then,
and said to him: "Valga, you do not
want to hunt. You want to get drunk
on Antonio Meguile's mescale and not
go to work tomorrow" But he sulked
around and said I wanted to starve
his Borrowing family and that there
were deer out in the mesquite yearning
to be killed. So I told him to 20.
| knowing well enough he would go any.
how and probably take the whole lot
Of his fellows along with him IL he
were crossed. did not think any.
thing more about him till after sunset,
when he came up, just as we were
stopping work for the day. said to
him: "Well, you have had q good sleep
in the brush. hope you are satisfied"
Said he: eyes, did have a good sleep,
| and dreamed that killed deer If
| the senior will look over there he will
see my son bringing him in" looked,
and there sure enough was q boy
| staggering in with doe on his back
with her throat freshly cut. The Seri
had nothing with him but a knife, and
l examined the doe all over. and there
was not mark on her except the slit
In her throat. l noticed that all four
Of her hoofs were off, and the Papagos
noticing this said: Eyes, 1t is true that
he ran her down. A deer always casts
Its hoofs when run to death by a man."
l find that that belief holds good
among all the Indians, but have since
noticed that in summer time, when the
ground is very hot and the deer are