to prepare the matter for publication, especially in view of the fact that the objective activities treated in these records no longer form a part of the life of the Muskhogean peoples, and so can not be obtained at first hand.

In addition to this material, it is designed to add as supplementary matter some Creek tales and mythic legends collected by Mr. Jeremiah Curtin.

The following brief list of topics treated may give some idea of the nature of these field notes: "Towns and clan lists," "Crime and murder," "The government of the clan," "The town government or organization of a town," "The council square," "The chief," "The system of councils," "The clan," "The ranks and the titles of persons," "The busk or puskita," "Medicine practices," "Names and naming," "Festivals," "Marriage customs," "Insanity," "Prophets," "Souls or spirits," "Mythic notes," and the short list of tales collected by Mr. Curtin. Much of the material here recorded is not available either in any other manuscript or in print.

Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, devoted nearly all of his time to putting into book form his notes for the second volume of his work on the Osage tribe. This task was twice interrupted by the reading of the galley and the page proofs of the first volume.

The second volume is nearing completion and embraces two versions of an ancient rite entitled "No"'-zhi"-zho" Wa-tho", Songs of the Rite of Vigil." Up to this date the completed part of this manuscript, exclusive of the illustrations, contains 582 typewritten pages.

Sho-ge-mo"-i", who gave the No"'-zhi"-zho" ritual of his gens, the Tsi'-zhu Wa-shta-ge, died in the autumn of 1919. He was the fourth to die of the old men who aided in the recording of the ancient tribal rites of the Osage. Two old men died before the time set by them to give the ceremonials of their gentes arrived. Sho"'-gemo"-i" remarked, as he was recording the child-naming ritual, to be published in a later volume, "The Osage people are fast dying out since they abandoned the supplicatory rites formulated by their ancesters."

The beginning of the fiscal year found Mr. J. P. Harrington, ethnologist, engaged in the preparation of his material on the language of the Kiowa Indians. The entire material was copied, collated, and analyzed, and constitutes a manuscript of more than 1,000 pages.

Kiowa is a typical Tano-Kiowan dialect, closely related in phonetics, vocabulary, and structure with the Tanoan languages of New Mexico. This proves again, as in the case of the Hopi, that culture areas cut across linguistic ones. The Tano-Kiowan is furthermore genetically related to the Keresan and Zuñian groups of New Mexico, also to the Shoshonean, and certain languages of California. Mr.

Harrington has in hand a comparative study of these languages which is very bulky.

Upon finishing the manuscript of the Kiowa paper, Mr. Harrington took up the Taos material, aided by a set of excellent texts dictated by Mr. R. Vargas, and comprising 400 typewritten pages. He finished this for publication before the close of the fiscal year.

On July 1, 1920, Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, was at Tama, Iowa, engaged in researches among the Sauk and Fox of that State and preparing for publication by the Bureau a manuscript entitled "The Autobiography of a Fox Indian Woman," as far as practical in the field. A good deal of the work on this had been done in the previous fiscal year. Near the close of July he left for Saskatchewan, Canada, where he made a reconnaissance of the Plains Cree at File Hills Agency. From his study it appears that physically the Plains Cree have a cephalic index of about 79, thus belonging to the so-called Mississippi Valley type of North American Indian, which confirms the results of Doctor Boas's work many years ago. Linguistically Cree clearly belongs to the central division of Algonquian languages, but it is not as archaic as has usually been believed. The folklore and mythology here show from an analysis of the culture cycle that both woodland and plains elements are to be found, as well as a few plateau elements. Ethnologically we have the same combination, save that plateau elements are lacking.

Doctor Michelson returned to Washington at the close of August, where he completed the autobiography mentioned above, and in January submitted the manuscript for publication by the bureau. The remainder of his time at Washington was spent working out English translations of various Fox texts written in the current syllabary on mortuary customs and observances, as well as one or two folk tales.

Doctor Michelson left Washington in the latter part of May, 1921, to renew his researches among the Sauk and Fox of Iowa. Arriving at Tama near the end of the month, Doctor Michelson spent nearly all his time on the Fox mortuary customs and observations, mentioned above, with a view to their publication by the bureau. The Indian texts were restored phonetically, the translations corrected where needed, a grammatical analysis begun, and additional data secured, so that with the close of the fiscal year only about two weeks more field-work was necessary to complete the preparation of the volume so far as practical in the field. He took advantage of a favorable opportunity just before the end of the year to obtain data on the society called "Ki-wa-ka-mo A-ki."

While in the field and also in the office Doctor Michelson corrected proofs of Bulletin 72, The Owl Sacred Pack of the Fox Indians.

SPECIAL RESEARCHES.

Four manuscripts have been submitted during the year, entitled "Papago Songs," "Legend Music of the Papago," "Songs Connected With Expeditions to Obtain Salt," and "Viikita and Wakita Ceremonies of the Papago." This material comprises 148 pages of text, 75 transcriptions of songs (with phonographic records and technical analyses), and 27 photographic illustrations.

Special researches in the field were conducted by Miss Frances Densmore, Mr. W. E. Myer, Prof. J. E. Pearce, Mr. Gerard Fowke, and Mr. J. A. Jeancon.

In September Miss Densmore resumed her work on Papago music, and in December, 1920, returned to the Papago Reservation in Arizona, where she had worked a few months previously. She revisited San Xavier, but her work centered at Sells, formerly called Indian Oasis, but now the location of the Papago agency. Trips were made from there to Santa Rosa village, in the extreme north, and to Vomari village, in the extreme south of the reservation. Photographs, specimens, and records of songs were obtained at these places.

The principal subject of study at this time was the belief of the Papago in supernatural agencies controlling their food supply. Information was obtained regarding two ceremonies connected with this belief; i. e., the making and drinking of “cactus wine," and the Viikita. Numerous songs connected with these ceremonies were recorded.

Other classes of songs not previously recorded among the Papago were those received in dreams, those sung on expeditions to obtain salt, and those connected with stories told to children; also songs for success in the kicking-ball race and in hunting. Songs of war and of medicine were recorded, as well as others concerning the deeds of Elder Brother and including songs he was said to have sung after creating the spirits, winds, and clouds. Mention may be made of a song that was said to have been sung in order to produce the death of an aged woman. It was said that "her grandsons decided to kill her by means of a song," as her advanced age made her an incumbrance to them. Many songs have been recorded whose purpose was to procure health, but this is the first instance of a song intended to cause death. An important phase of the musical work was the hearing of a certain class of very old dance songs, a portion of. which was in three parts, i. e., the voices of the men, the voices of the women singing the same melody an octave higher, and the voices of two or three women singing (for a brief period) a still higher part, different from the melody. This song was accompanied by the shaking of a gourd rattle and the striking of a basket drum, also by

stamping the feet, which is the most primitive manner of marking time. This dance is seldom held at the present time, but was witnessed on the desert late Christmas night.

As a development of the year's work Miss Densmore notes the importance of recognizing estheticism as a factor in Indian music. Her analyses have shown the presence of tones whose interval distances correspond to those of the first, second, third, and fourth upper partial tones of a fundamental. Thus, in a portion of his melody, the Indian appears to find satisfaction in intervals which are under natural laws. Apart from these tones and intervals it appears, from the evidence in hand, that his choice of tonal material is controlled by a sense of pleasure rather than by "keys" or "modes."

Miss Densmore continued work on her manuscript entitled "Chippewa Arts and Customs." Tabulations of the botanical portions of this book were made as follows: Lists of botanical names with bibliography, showing the uses of these plants by other tribes; lists of plants used as food, dyes, charms, and for general utility. Miss Densmore made more than 100 blue prints of birch-bark transparencies, showing a wide variety of interesting patterns. These transparencies are made by folding thin birch bark and indenting it with the teeth, the bark, when unfolded and held toward the light, revealing the pattern. This form of Chippewa art is almost extinct at the present time.

In September and October Mr. W. E. Myer, of Nashville, Tenn., excavated, under the auspices of the bureau, Indian village sites on the Gordon farm near Brentwood, Davidson County, Tenn., and also the Fewkes Group at Boiling Spring Academy, Williamson County, in the same State. The remains of an old Indian town at the Gordon site had walls and towers very similar to those of Pacaha, visited by De Soto in 1541. The walls covered an area of 11.2 acres.

When the former inhabitants for some unknown reason abandoned this site they appear to have left nearly all the buildings still standing. The locality was never again occupied or disturbed, but gradually the buildings of the silent and deserted town decayed, and whatever vestiges were not destroyed by the elements were slowly buried under a layer of black loam, which is now from 14 to 20 inches deep.

In the course of time the site of the buried village gradually became a beautiful grassy glade, set here and there with giant forest trees. The charm of the site appealed to one of the first white settlers, who built his home here and preserved the grassy glade for a lawn. No one suspected that an ancient Indian town was lying buried a few inches beneath the surface; but on the surface of this undisturbed lawn there were very faint saucer-shaped depressions and other evidences marking the sites of about 125 dwellings.

When the accumulated superficial black loam was removed from some of these circular depressions floors made of hard packed clay were brought to light. Some of these floors were very pleasing to the eye, being covered with a smoothed and polished coating of fine black, glossy material. The stone slab tops of the coffins of little children were exposed here and there, projecting an inch or two above the level of the floor.

A building was uncovered in the center of which was an altar filled with the pure white ashes of the ancient perpetual fire. The neighboring buildings were dwellings with fire beds used for domestic cooking. Stone metates, mullers, and other utensils used for household purposes were likewise found on the floors of these rooms. Mr. Myer also explored an unnamed group of five mounds and a surrounding village site at Boiling Spring Academy in Williamson County, Tenn. At the request of many citizens of Tennessee he gave this the name of Fewkes Group in honor of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, who had visited the site, recognized its importance, and caused it to be explored.

Archeological field work was carried on by Prof. J. E. Pearce, of the University of Texas, in cooperation with the bureau. The area examined is situated in the vicinity of the city of Athens, in Henderson County, and during this work Professor Pearce received many courtesies from Judge A. B. Watkins, who has long manifested an interest in the archeology of the region. Professor Pearce finds that the eastern Texas region contains numerous mounds, village sites, and burial places, the objects from which are quite different from those found in the central and western portions of Texas. Three interesting mounds on the Morrall farm, 4 miles east of Cherokee County, were investigated. The highest of these mounds measures 80 feet across the base and 45 feet above the level of the base. The second mound is 180 feet long by 75 feet wide, but is only 15 feet high. Most of the mounds in the neighborhood of Athens have been plowed over and have no regularity in form. Several mounds situated in Harrison County, particularly those on the farm of Mr. Lane Mitchell, of Marshall, were examined and remains of earth lodges discovered, in the floor of which are central fire pits. These are probably recent. Numerous other sites were explored, yielding collections of pottery, stone implements, and other objects illustrating the life of the prehistoric aborigines of eastern Texas. Everything found implies that the Indians of this region lived in settled villages, were agriculturists, and made pottery of a high grade of excellence. Their culture was higher than that of the Indians who occupied the central region of Texas, investigated in 1919.