Evening star., 1934-09-09

COREwARNEb had brought along a sack
full of goodwill offerings; red bandannas,
bricks Of brown sugar and beans and flour. A
feast! Other fires were started, other tin pots
produced, along with several jars of fermented
mesquite-bean juice. Food and drink seemed
to put some life into my hosts, for presently, as
twilight deepened. they were singing and shout
ing just like drunken Americans
I asked, through the interpreter, if they
could dance. Could they. Instantly six of the
younger stripped off their shirts, and be-
gan never moving from one spot, to shuttle
their feet. Seated before each dancer was n
musician in the form of another young brave.
beating time with his knuckles on the sand and
sing g-songing a nasal whine in the tempo of the
dance.
Once launched, this ballet now well oiled on
mesquite mash, couldn't be stopped Hour after
hour they shufded and beat their feet on the
sand, and whined accompaniment, surrounded
in a circle by the girls and women and chill
dren and dogs all pleasantly tight, all af1ame
with red bandannaS and all dripping with
brown sugar. 1t must have been midnight be-
fore the party broke up. The Seris then cluS-
tered themselves into several family groups, to
sleep; babies and children and dogs and adults
in great, round, intertangled masses of flesh on
the ground, covered only by the canopy of stars.
So these lazy, childlike Indians were the ter
rible Seris. They didn't seem very terrible that
night. couldn't possibly imagine their muir
dering anybody.
But knew that In these slender, dirty bodies
rested unbelievable strength and the smolder-
ing ashes of their once savage fires. Sleeping
in their rags here before me were perhaps the
greatest runners and walkers in the world
These Seris are habtual rovers, their encamp-
ments being only temporary domieiles. If there
is drinking water nearby good enough. But II
the nearest water Is 20 miles away, likewise
good enough, q couple Of girls will go fetch It.
Seri women barefoot and in rags carrying
babies and water jars win walk SO, 60 TO miles
nonstop across the deep sand Of the Sonora
Desert. to move their camps. The children and
dogs trot along behind from dawn till dark. on
o cup Of cactus juice and handful OF mesquite
pods, uncomplaining and apparently inexhaus-
tible One young Seri matron with baby on
her hip and o water jar on her head recently
tramped into Hermosillo across the 100 miles
Of scorched and bitter plain in "a hours, rested
for half an hour, and walked back home again.
But it is the hunters who perform the most
amazing feats Deer are plentiful on Tiburon's
500 square miles of peaks and canyons. And
these deer, while hunted with rifles when rifles
are to be had, are often brought down by the
Seris with their bare hands. They outrun the
deer Not all at one squirt. OF course, but by
persistent pursuit. In small groups they keep
on the animals TRAIL hour after hour. The
deer stops to rest, is oyertaken, and hees, over
and over, until too exhausted to run farther.
Then the Seri band closes In, surrounds the
weary animal and clubs it to death as 1t tries
to make one last desperate lunge through the
circle. Jack rabbits and coyotes are caught the
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