FIELD WORK.
Under this heading are comprised—
First, the systematic operations of the division of mound exploration carried on east of the Rocky Mountains.
Secondly, researches in and collections from the ancient ruins of the Southwest and comparative study of the present inhabitants of that region and the objects found among them.
Thirdly, linguistic work or expeditions among the several Indian tribes at their homes, with the main purpose of acquiring knowledge of their spoken languages.
Fourthly, general studies, or those embracing various branches of inquiry, conducted among the existing Indian tribes.
The work of exploring the mounds and other ancient monuments of that portion of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, commenced in 1882, was carried on during the fiscal year, under the charge of Prof. Cyrus Thomas.
The regular assistants during the first half of the year were Messrs. P.W. Norris, James D. Middleton, and John P. Rogan. For the latter half they were Messrs. Middleton, Rogan, and John W. Emmert, the last named having been engaged to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Norris.
Mr. Norris was engaged during the fall of 1884 in exploring the extensive group of works in the vicinity of Charleston, Kanawha Valley, W. Va. He continued at work there until December, when he was compelled by cold weather and illness to desist. To the great regret of all his associates in the work, his illness terminated in death on the 14th of January, 1885. By his death the division has lost a faithful and enthusiastic worker.
During the summer and fall of 1884 and until the approach of extremely cold weather, Mr. Middleton was engaged in exploring the works of Knox County, Ohio. Throughout the winter and following spring his field of operations was eastern Arkansas. In the latter field he was assisted by Mr. L. H. Thing, who was employed for three months as temporary assistant.
During the summer and until the beginning of winter, Mr. Rogan was engaged (in conjunction with Rev. J. P. Maclean, who was employed as a temporary assistant) in exploring the ancient monuments of Butler County and the adjacent regions of southern Ohio. On the approach of the cold season he went south, his field of operations for the remainder of the year being northern Georgia and the southern counties of East Tennessee.
Mr. Emmert, who had been employed on January 1, 1885, to make some special explorations in East Tennessee, was made permanent assistant immediately after the death of Mr. Norris. His work in that section proving successful he continued it until the close of the fiscal year.
Mr. Gerard Fowke was engaged during November in examining the ancient quarries of Flint Ridge, Ohio, and in making a collection to illustrate the various stages in the aboriginal manufacture of flint implements. His collection is, perhaps, the most complete in this particular line of any so far made in this country. In the winter he was employed about two months in special investigations of some ancient works in Pontotoc and Union Counties, Miss., a locality supposed to have been visited by De Soto during his unfortunate expedition. In some of the mounds of this section, which was formerly the home of the Chikasa, he found some articles of European manufacture, among them a small silver plate bearing the royal arms of Castile and Leon in an old heraldic form.
Although the number of specimens obtained does not exceed that of the collection of the preceding year, the general result shows a decided advance in the accuracy of the work done. The measurements and plats have been made with more care and exactness, the descriptions are more complete, and the detailsmore fully set forth. As an illustration one case is presented. A large mound was opened which was found to contain over ninety skeletons, irregularly placed and at different depths. At the outset a plat of the mound was made; each skeleton was located on it as discovered, and notes were taken of the depth, position, articles found with it, etc. Thus the exact position of each skeleton in the mound is recorded, as well as that of any article accompanying it. The collections made are more varied in character than those of any previous year, including several new types of pottery, some unusually fine stone implements, and from several mounds articles showing contact with Europeans. The pottery obtained by Messrs. Middleton and Thing in Arkansas is of more than ordinary interest, containing a number of specimens of the rarer forms, also several colored specimens.
The same care has been taken as heretofore in labeling and numbering the specimens, so that each can be traced by the record to the exact place where it was found. The illustrations showing the construction, character, and form of the various works explored exceed in number, accuracy, and importance those of any previous year.
Mr. James Stevenson was placed in charge of a party, with instructions to proceed to Arizona and New Mexico to make researches and collections among the Pueblo Indians and the ancient ruins in that region.
Mr. Stevenson's party was divided into three sections. The section in charge of Mr. F. T. Bickford visited the remarkable series of ruins in Chacocañon, in northwestern New Mexico; Cañon de Chelly and its branchcañons; the cliff dwellings in Walnutcañon, in Arizona, and a group of interesting cave dwellings, different in structure from any heretofore found, near Flagstaff, in the same Territory. All these were carefully examined. Full and extensive notes, as well as sketches and photographic illustrations, were made of these ruins.
Another section, in charge of Mr. C. A. Garlick, was stationed at the pueblo of Acoma, in New Mexico. The work at this village resulted in a collection of about thirty-five hundred specimens, consisting of pottery and a variety of utensils of other material, such as stone, bone, wood, and woven fabrics, illustrating the arts of the people of Acoma. The collections from this pueblo, though not embracing a great variety of objects, will illustrate nearly all the phases of the arts and industrial pursuits of these Indians.
Another section of Mr. Stevenson's party, under his own supervision and with the important assistance of Mrs. Stevenson, was employed in making collections and studies at Zuñi. The collection from there is much larger than any heretofore obtained and includes many objects relating to the outdoor ceremonies of the Zuñi. Specimens of these were secured from their sacred springs, caves, and shrines. All details relating to their ceremonials were attentively studied, and a series of water color sketches was made of altars used and of masks worn on these important occasions. A large number of fetiches was also obtained, representing many of the animals held in religious esteem by the Zuñi. A series of photographs was made of the sacred springs, wells, monuments, picture writings, and shrines of the Zuñi located at different points over an area of about seventy-five miles from Zuñi, and a collection was secured of representative specimens of their fetiches, plume sticks, and other objects connected with their mythology and religious practices. The collection made during the year was unusually large and important. It comprises about eighty-five hundred specimens from the Indian tribes of the Southwest embraced in the research; these consist of woven fabrics and pottery, bone, and stone implements, both ancient and modern, and represent nearly all phases of the life, art, and industries of these tribes. These collections have been deposited in the U. S. National Museum for arrangement, classification, and description.
A party in charge of Mr. Victor Mindeleff left Washington on August 5 to survey the ruined pueblos of the Chaco, in NewMexico. Five of the ruins were accurately measured and platted to scale, and a full series of sketches, plans, and photographs was secured. Mr. Mindeleff returned from the field on the 1st of October. He then made a trip to the great Etowah mound, near Cartersville, Ga., under the direction of Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in order to secure an accurate survey and scale drawing, as a basis for the construction of a model.
At the close of this work Mr. Mindeleff returned to Washington, on October 7, and was engaged in office work until the middle of the following June, when he took the field in advance of his party for further studies among the ruins and pueblos of the Cibola and Tusayan groups. He was also instructed to secure similar material at other available points for comparison.
From the 1st of July to the 15th of August, 1884, Mrs. Smith, assisted by Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, of Tuscarora descent, was engaged among the Onondaga living near Syracuse, N. Y., in translating and annotating two Onondaga manuscripts; afterward, until the latter part of October, with the same assistance, she was at work on the Grand River reservation in Canada, where she filled out the vocabulary in the Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages from the dialect of the Cayuga. She also obtained from the Mohawk a translation, with annotations, of a manuscript in their dialect.
The three manuscripts mentioned are now in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology. Their origin and history are not distinctly known, as they are all probably copies of originals which seem to have been lost or destroyed. It was intended in these manuscripts to reproduce, by the alphabet and the script used by English writers, the sound of the dialects employed.
These records have their chief interest in the preservation of many archaic words, or those of ceremony, law, and custom, which in these dialects, as is the general rule, remain unchanged, although the colloquial language may be modified.The subject matter of all these records is genuinely and exclusively Iroquoian.
The Mohawk manuscript was copied about the year 1830 by Chief John "Smoke" Johnson from an earlier original or perhaps copy. The orthography of this copy is quite regular and is that of the early English missionaries, being similar in many respects to the well known Pickering alphabet.
One of the Onondaga manuscripts was found in the possession of Mr. Daniel La Fort and the other in that of Mrs. John A. Jones, both of the Onondaga reserve, New York. These two copies differ from each other in orthography and substance, the Jones manuscript being probably a full detail of a part of the other.
The orthography of the La Fort manuscript is very irregular and difficult to read, but that of the Jones manuscript is regular and legible. The Mohawk manuscript contains a detailed account of the rites and ceremonies, speeches and songs, of the condoling and inducting council of the Iroquoian League in the form in which that council was conducted by the elder brothers or members of the Onondaga, Mohawk, and Seneca divisions, which have been generally called tribes, but are more correctly confederacies, their villages being the tribal unit. The La Fort Onondaga manuscript comprises a similar ritual of the same council as carried out by the younger brothers, viz., the Cayuga, Oneida, and Tuscarora members or confederacies of the league. The Jones Onondaga manuscript is the charge of the principal shaman to the newly elected or inducted chief or chiefs.
During the remainder of the year material was collected and work continued on the Tuscarora-English part of the Tuscarora dictionary.
Mr. H. W. Henshaw visited southern California for the purpose of pursuing linguistic studies in the group of languages spoken by the Santa Barbara Indians. Although these Indians became known at a very early day, being mentioned with particularity in the relation of Cabrillo's voyage alongthe California coast in 1542, but little has been ascertained in respect to their language and its relations to the speech of neighboring tribes.
Few vocabularies were collected by the early Spanish missionaries and those gathered were very imperfect, so that no conclusions can be based upon them with confidence.
As a result of the policy pursued by the various missionaries among these docile tribes, aboriginal habits were soon exchanged for others imposed by the priests. Tribal organizations were broken up and the Indians were removed from their homes and located about the missions. In addition the Spanish language was early introduced and so far as possible made to replace the aboriginal tongue. As a consequence Spanish became familiar to a large number of the proselytes, and all the surviving Santa Barbara Indians speak Spanish fluently, or rather the Mexican dialect of Spanish. Indeed, the impression prevails generally in California that none of the Indians can speak their own tongue. As a matter of fact, however, in their own families and when away from the white men they discard Spanish entirely.
The attempt to preserve the language was begun none too soon, as of the large population attributed to this part of the California coast Mr. Henshaw was able to discover only about fifty survivors, and these were widely scattered over several counties. A number of the dialects of the linguistic family are now extinct, and only a month before Mr. Henshaw's arrival at San Buenaventura an old woman died who, it is believed, was the last person to speak the dialect belonging to the Island of Santa Cruz. In Santa Barbara and Ventura counties six dialects of the family were found, which are believed to be all that are now extant.
In the case of the dialect of Santa Rosa island, but one Indian remained to speak it. Two more dialects are spoken by two or three individuals only. The existing dialects, named according to the missions around which they were spoken, are as follows: San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa Island, Purissima, Santa Inez, and San Luis Obispo. With the exception of the last named the several dialects are very closelyrelated, and, although each possesses a greater or less number of words not contained in the others, their vocabularies show many words which are common to all.
The dialect formerly spoken at San Luis Obispo differs much from any of the others, and a critical comparison is necessary to reveal a sufficient number of words possessing identical roots to render their common parentage obvious.
Extensive vocabularies of the dialects of San Antonio and San Miguel were obtained, there being about a dozen Indians who speak these languages around the old San Antonio mission. These languages have been supposed to be of the Santa Barbara family (as it has hitherto been termed, now called Chumashan family), but the material obtained by Mr. Henshaw disproves this, and, for the present at least, they are considered to form a distinct family.
Mr. Henshaw visited Los Angeles and San Diego counties for the purpose of determining the exact northern and southern limits of the Shoshonian family, which extends quite to the coast in California.
At San Diego and San Luis Rey he obtained vocabularies representing four dialects of the Yuman family.
In August, 1884, Mr. Gatschet proceeded to visit the Tonkawē and Lipan tribes in Texas.
He reached Fort Griffin on the 29th of August. The Tonkawē tribe was encamped about a mile and a half south of Fort Griffin, Shackleford county, and consisted of 78 individuals, while the Lipan camp, one mile north-northwest, consisted of 19 persons only. All these Indians were on the point of removing to the Oakland reserve, Indian Territory.
The Tonkawē constitute an aggregate of several tribal remnants formerly living independently of one another in southern Texas and on the Rio Grande. Mr. Gatschet devoted five weeks to the study of their language and one week to that of the Lipan, which is a dialect of Apache (Athapascan).The Tonkawē is a sonorous and energetic form of speech. The radix of many of the adjectives becomes reduplicated to form a kind of plural, and the same thing is observed in some of the verbs, where iteration or frequency has to be indicated. Case suffixes are observed in the substantive, which can easily be traced to postpositions as their original forms. Very few of the natives were sufficiently conversant with English or Spanish to serve as interpreters, so that it was difficult to secure trustworthy results. A white man who had lived over six years among them was of material help, and several mythologic and other texts were obtained with tolerable correctness through his aid.
On October 9 Mr. Gatschet left Fort Griffin and reached Fort Sill, in the Indian Territory, on the 15th. Many Kaiowē and Comanche Indians encamped during the warmer months of the year around this fort, which is situated at the southeast base of the Wichita mountains. He engaged the best help he could find for studying the Kaiowē language, for which there is no Government interpreter. The Comanche is the predominating language on the whole Kaiowē, Comanche, and Apache reservation, although the Comanche exceed the Kaiowē but little in number. The Comanche is more easily acquired, at least to the extent required in conversation, and all the traders and shopkeepers on the reservation have a smattering of it.
Better interpreters for Kaiowē were obtained at Anadarko, the seat of the agency, where Mr. Gatschet remained from October 31 to December 12. A few Kaiowē were found who had passed some months or years among Americans or at the Indian schools at Carlisle, Chilocco, and elsewhere, and could express themselves intelligibly in English. A few white Mexicans were found among the Comanche, who were captured by them in infancy, acquired the Comanche language, and have ever since lived among these Indians. Of the Kaiowē, Mr. Gatschet acquired over two thousand terms, phrases, and sentences, several historic texts of value, and of the Comanche, eight hundred or a thousand words. The circumstances necessitated careful and numerous revisions of everything obtained, by which much of the time was absorbed.
The Na-ishi Apache, about four hundred in number and formerly roaming with the Kaiowē, furnished also a large amount of terms, exceeding fifteen hundred.
There are a few verbal similarities between the Kaiowē and the Shoshoni languages, but apparently not enough to indicate anything more than long association of these peoples. The Kaiowē has a dual in the intransitive verb and in some nouns. There are more than a dozen different modes of forming the plural of nouns. The subject pronoun is incorporated with the verb as a prefix, and every tense has a different subject pronoun, as in Otomi and other languages of southern Mexico.
Vocabularies were also obtained of Delaware, Ottawa, Yuchi, Caddo, Wichita, and of the hitherto unstudied Caddo dialects of Anadarko and Yatassi.
In spite of persevering search it was not possible to find any of the Bidai or the Tonica in Texas, although it is probable that some of them survived in that State as late as 1850.
Mr. Gatschet then passed a whole month among the Atakapa at Lake Charles, the county seat of Calcasieu parish, Louisiana. Of the two dialects traceable, only the western one seems to exist now, being still spoken by a few women living at the town. The language is sonorous, but strongly nasal.
Returning to the Indian Territory, after a fruitless search for the Tonica and Adai, he stopped at Eufaula, Creek Nation, to meet a Na'htchi Indian named Lasley, about sixty years old, who had represented his tribe in the councils of the Creek Nation. This man explained his Na'htchi terms and phrases by Creek equivalents, and these had to be translated into English to obtain full light concerning the Na'htchi terms. One legendary text was also obtained. The language is rather consonantal and has a multiplicity of verbal forms.
Among the Yuchi tribe on Middle Arkansas river, southwestern bank, and over 40 miles from Muscogee Station, Indian Territory, he remained but a week, too short a time to obtain full information respecting this interesting language. There are five or six hundred Yuchi still living on this tract. Two texts and a few popular songs, with one thousand terms of the language, were obtained.
The last stop was made among the Modoc at Quapaw Agency, at the agency buildings. About ninety are left of those brought there for having taken part in the Modoc war of 1872-'73. Five mythic tales were gathered from the natives within the short time of three weeks, one of them being of considerable length and of importance. It is called "The birth of Aishish." The birth of this astral deity resembles in most particulars that of Bacchus from the thigh of Jupiter after his mother, Semele, had been burned to death. The terms, phrases, and sentences gathered, besides the myth mentioned, amount to over fifteen hundred items, which will prove useful for completing the work on the Klamath Indians of Oregon now in preparation.
Of the Shawnee language several hundred words were gathered from the Indians of that tribe settled around the agency.
Mr. Gatschet returned to Washington in April, 1885.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey visited the Siletz Agency, Oregon, in August, 1884, to gain linguistic and other information respecting the tribes in that region. When he returned, in November, he brought back as the result of his work the following vocabularies:—Athapascan family: Applegate Creek, Galice Creek, Chastā Costa, Miko-no-tunne, Chetco, Smith River, Cal., and Upper Coquille.—Yakonan family: Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, and Lower Umpqua.—Kusan family: Mulluk or Lower Coquille.—Takilman family: Takilma or Upper Rogue River.—Shahaptian family: Klikitat.—Sastean family: Shasti—total, nineteen vocabularies, ranging from fifty to three thousand entries, exclusive of phrases and grammatical notes.
He also obtained materials for an account of the social organization into villages of some of these Indians, the basis for which appears to have been the clan or gens. Rough maps, showing the localities of the villages, were made. Mr. Dorsey also obtained from several tribes the corresponding Indian names of about sixty vegetal products, specimens of which were brought to Washington for identification.
WORK OF MR. JEREMIAH CURTIN.
Mr. Curtin spent the first two weeks of July at the Quapaw agency, Indian Territory, in making a collection of Modoc myths, which he had begun in the preceding winter, being part of a general collection of Indian myths begun in 1883. The number of Modoc myths obtained was nearly one hundred.
After finishing work at the Quapaw Agency, he returned to Washington, and shortly afterward was directed to proceed to northern California and obtain vocabularies of the Nosa and Kombo languages, and thence to Oregon to obtain vocabularies of the Wasco, Tyigh, and Tenina languages.
Work was begun on the Nosa language (Yanan family) at Redding, Cal., on October 11. The difficulties were very great, especially at first, owing to the fact that the Nosa are few in number, live far from one another, and have a very imperfect knowledge of English.
The Nosa were a prominent and rather numerous people until 1864, when all of them who could be found were massacred by white settlers, who organized two companies for the purpose of exterminating the tribe. Owing to a chance by which a few escaped and to the exertions of Mr. Benjamin Oliver, who secreted several in his cellar, about fifteen full blood Nosa survived.
Work on Nosa was continued in and around Redding until the end of November, when Round Mountain was visited to complete the Nosa vocabulary and obtain that of the Atsugei (Palaikan family), a very interesting language. Work at Round Mountain was finished on January 8 and Redding was revisited on January 9, preparatory to departing for Oregon.
Owing to the excessive severity of the winter and the snow blockades, which lasted six weeks, communication with Warm Spring was closed, and it was impossible to enter the reservation till January 27, when Sinnashee, a school and center of the Warm Spring Indian population, was reached.
At this place the Tyigh vocabulary (Shahaptian family) was collected. The Wasco (Chinookan family) was obtained at the agency headquarters near the Deschutes river. Tenina,being identical with the Tyigh language, was omitted. From April 18, at which date work at the Warm Spring agency was finished, until June 30, the time was devoted to collecting myths in the Klamath reservation and at Yreka.
During the whole period of work all the myths that could be found among the people whose languages were being investigated were reduced to writing. In this manner a large body of Nosa, Atsugei, Tyigh, and Wasco myths was collected. In the cases of Klamath and Shasti, myths were the objects directly in view.
The vocabularies were obtained with satisfactory completeness and the verbal systems worked out in detail.
The Nosa is remarkable for a regularity of structure which yields to analysis and has a certain monotonous harmony of sound.
The Atsugei has a sonorous roll, a strong letterr, and a certain number of words in common with the Shasti, itself one of therlanguages.
Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon U. S. Army, continued his investigations among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona. He had been stationed in the Navajo country as post surgeon of Fort Wingate, N. Mex., from 1880 to 1884, during which time he devoted himself to studying the language, customs, and ceremonies of this tribe as much as his official duties would permit. Some of the great shamanistic ceremonies of the Navajo, occupying nine days for their performance, he had often seen in part; but he had never had an opportunity of witnessing one throughout its entire duration, as he had not sufficient time at his disposal.
Before leaving New Mexico, however, he secured the friendship and confidence of some of the leading medicine men and obtained their promise to admit him to their most secret rites during their entire performance whenever he should be able to avail himself of the privilege. He was also promised completeinstruction in the mythology and symbolism of these rites.
In the autumn of 1884 he was given an opportunity, under the auspices of the Bureau of Ethnology, to return to the Navajo country and devote himself for a considerable time entirely to anthropologic studies among the people.
He first visited the Navajo who dwell in the neighborhood of the San Mateo mountains, the Tsotsildinè, or people of the Great Peak, a local division or subtribe living much farther to the east and having longer and more intimate associations with Mexicans and Americans than the main body of the people. While at this place, he ascended the peak of San Mateo, or Mount Taylor, a mountain held sacred by the Navajo, to observe the various places on the mountain mentioned in the Navajo myths.
Leaving San Mateo he proceeded to Fort Wingate, and learning that one of the most important of the Navajo rites was about to be celebrated at a place called Niqotlizi (Hard Earth), north of Fort Wingate on the Navajo reservation, he repaired thither without delay. The ceremony which he went to witness was that of dsilyídje-qaçàl, or mountain chant. It is also called Ilnasjingo-qaçàl, or chant in the dark circle of branches, from the great corral of evergreens in which the public rites of the last night are performed. It is known to the white men who live among these Indians as the hoshkawn dance, from one of the public dances of the last night, in which the Indian jugglers pretend to grow and develop the hackàn, orYucca baccata. This last night's performance is varied and interesting and all persons, including whites and Indians of other tribes, are permitted to witness it; but previously, for several days, mystic rites are celebrated in the medicine lodge, to the most of which only the initiated are admitted. Dr. Matthews remained ten days in the Indian camp at Niqotlizi, during which time the shamans admitted him into their medicine lodge and allowed him to observe their rites and practices.
His most interesting discovery on this occasion was that of their system of mythic dry paintings, by which they representvarious legends or traditions with dry pigments on the sanded floor of the medicine lodge. A full account of the ceremonies and of the myth on which they are based was prepared by Dr. Matthews and appeared in the Fifth Annual Report of this Bureau.
When the ceremony at Niqotlizi was over he proceeded to a locality in Arizona called by the whites The Haystacks, from the peculiar appearance of the rock formations there. At The Haystacks another great ceremony, probably the second in importance of the Navajo rites, was to take place. Here he again encamped with the Indians and remained until the work of the shamans was done.
The ceremonial observances witnessed on this occasion are, collectively, called by the Navajo Klèdji-qaçàl, or chant of the night. They are called by the whites the Yàybichy dance, from the name of the principal masked character, Yèbitcai or Gebitcai, the granduncle of the gods. Like the hoshkawn dance, it has several days of secret rites with elaborate symbolic sand pictures and one night of public dances, less varied and interesting than those of the hoshkawn. Dr. Matthews was permitted to witness the whole performance and to take as many notes and sketches as were necessary.
From The Haystacks Dr. Matthews went to the Indian agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona, where he secured the services of one of the oldest and most learned (in their own peculiar lore) of the Navajo priests, and from him he obtained full explanations of all these rites and of the symbolism of the pictures and masked characters, with a complete recital of the long and elaborate myths on which the ceremonies depend, and the texts and translations of the very numerous songs which form the ritual of the ceremonies.
Dr. H. C. Yarrow, acting assistant surgeon U. S. Army, with the assistance of military details and supplies, in addition to the instruction and facilities provided by this Bureau, started, August 8, 1884, on an expedition into the Territory ofUtah, with reference mainly to the exploration of burial mounds and the study of mortuary customs.
Near Choke Cherry Spring a burial cave was discovered, containing the skeletons of three persons, which were secured. Other skeletons, with contents of graves, were obtained near Willow creek; also, an interesting specimen of tree burial.
At Deep creek an explanation of the curious form of water burial was gained from a chief of the Gosiats, to the effect that the bodies of the turbulent and disorderly men of the tribe were thus disposed of to prevent the spirits of these objectionable persons from joining the rest of the tribe after death. Their bodies were sunk in springs and marshy places and kept down by sticks and stones, so that their spirits could never get out.
In the neighborhood of Fillmore a mound was excavated which afforded an admirable example of the beforementioned conversion of a dwelling into a sepulcher. The probability is that the deceased died in his house, which was made of adobe bricks, and that it was at once abandoned and the body left therein, the roof being first removed. The corpse was placed on the floor and covered with a paste of moist clay, on which were placed the mortuary gifts of weapons, utensils, and food. Cottonwood branches were then piled above and set on fire, thus baking the clay crust and charring the several objects. The whole structure had been covered, so that on first examination the hard surface of burnt clay, 18 inches below the loose earth, appeared to be the floor of a former dwelling.
In the whole of the expedition, which continued into the last days of September, much difficulty was experienced from the suspicion and consequent hostility of the Indians of the localities visited.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman proceeded early in August to Victoria, B. C., where numerous sketches of Haida totem posts and carvings were obtained, in connection with the myths which they illustrated. At this locality attention was paid to theburial customs and osteologic remains of the nearly extinct tribe of Songish Indians.
At Port Townsend sketches were obtained of Thlinkit ivory and wood carvings, clearly indicating the adoption by that tribe of Haida art designs. Here, too, many Indians of British-American tribes were met on their way south to work in the Puyallup hop fields, notable among which was a large number of Haida, whose persons were examined for the purpose of copying the numerous and varied tattoo designs with which they were profusely decorated. Interpretations of many of these characters were obtained from the persons bearing them, as well as from the chief artist of the tribe, together with concise descriptions of the methods and customs in connection with tattooing and the materials used. Drawings were made of a collection of Eskimo pictographs and ivory carvings at the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company and the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, Cal.
At Santa Barbara, Cal., Dr. Hoffman discovered some painted pictographs and examined a number which have not yet been published. In several private collections at this place were found interesting relics of the Indians formerly inhabiting Santa Cruz island, the most important of which was a steatite cup containing earthy coloring matter and pricking instruments of bone, which had evidently been used in tattooing. Painted pictographs were also visited in the Azuzacañon, twenty-five miles northeast of Los Angeles.
At Tule Indian Agency, in the deep valleys on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, sketches of pictographs were made in continuation of work accomplished there two years before. Vocabularies were also obtained from the Waitchumni Indians here located, as well as from the few remaining Santa Barbara Indians at Cathedral Oaks, Santa Barbara county, Cal. By far the greatest amount of pictographic material was collected in Owen's valley, California, where series of petroglyphs are scattered over an arid, sandy desert, the extremes of which are more than twenty miles apart.