By arrangement with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs the bureau was fortunate in enlisting the services of Mr. Francis La Flesche, who has been frequently mentioned in the annual reports of the bureau in connection with his studies, jointly with Miss Alice C. Fletcher, of the ethnology of the Omaha tribe of the Siouan family. Having been assigned the task of making a comparative study of the Osage tribe of the same family, Mr. La Flesche proceeded to their reservation in Oklahoma in September. The older Osage men, like the older Indians generally, are very conservative, and time and tact were necessary to obtain such standing in the tribe as would enable him to establish friendly relations with those to whom it was necessary to look for trustworthy information. Although the Osage language is similar to that of the Omaha, Mr. La Flesche’s native tongue, there are many words and phrases that sound alike but are used in different senses by the two tribes. Having practically mastered the language, Mr. La Flesche was prepared to devote several months to what is known as the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, the general term applied to a complex series of ceremonies which partake of the nature of degrees, but are not, strictly speaking, successive steps, although each one is linked to the other in a general sequence. While at the present stage of the investigation it would be premature to make a definite statement as to the full meaning and interrelation of these Osage ceremonies, there appear to be seven divisions of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, the names, functions, and sequence of which have been learned, but whether the sequence thus far noted is always maintained remains to be determined. [[23]]From Saucy Calf, one of the three surviving Osage regarded as past masters in these ceremonies, phonographic records of the first of the ceremonies, the Waxoʹbe-awathoⁿ, have been made in its entirety, consisting of 80 songs with words and music and 7 prayers. All these have been transcribed and in part translated into English, comprising a manuscript exceeding 300 pages. In order to discuss with the Osage the meaning of these rituals, Mr. La Flesche found it necessary to commit them to memory, as reading from the manuscript disconcerted the old seer. At Saucy Calf’s invitation Mr. La Flesche witnessed in the autumn, at Grayhorse, a performance of the ceremony of the Waxoʹbe-awathoⁿ, the recitation of the rituals of which requires one day, part of a night, and more than half of the following day. It is Mr. La Flesche’s purpose to record, if possible, the rituals of the remaining six divisions of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta. He has already obtained a paraphrase of the seventh ceremony (the Nikʼinoⁿkʼoⁿ), and hopes soon to procure a phonographic record of all the rituals pertaining thereto.

In connection with his ethnological work Mr. La Flesche has been so fortunate as to obtain for the National Museum four of the waxoʹbe, or sacred packs, each of which formed a part of the paraphernalia of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, as well as a waxoʹbe-toⁿʹga, the great waxoʹbe which contains the instruments for tattooing. Only those Osage are tattooed who have performed certain acts prescribed in the rites of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta. The rites of the tattooing ceremony are yet to be recorded and elucidated. While the waxoʹbe is the most sacred of the articles that form the paraphernalia of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta rites, it is not complete in itself; other things are indispensable to their performance, and it is hoped that these may be procured at some future time.

While not recorded as one of the ceremonial divisions of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, there is a ceremony so closely connected with it that it might well be regarded as a part thereof; that is the Washaʹbeathiⁿ watsi, or the dance of the standards. The introductory part of this ceremony is [[24]]called Akixage, or weeping over one another in mutual sympathy by the members of the two great divisions of the tribe. There is no regular time for the performance of the Washaʹbeathiⁿ ceremony. It is given only when a member of the tribe loses by death some specially loved and favored relative and seeks a ceremonial expression of sympathy from the entire tribe. It is the intention to procure the songs and rituals of this ceremony, and specimens of the standards employed in its performance.

Altogether Mr. La Flesche has made excellent progress in his study of the Osage people, and the results are already shedding light on the organization and the origin and function of the ceremonies of this important tribe.

[[Contents]]

SPECIAL RESEARCHES

The special researches of the bureau in the field of linguistics were conducted by Dr. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, one of the immediate and tangible results of which was the publication of Part 1 of the Handbook of American Indian Languages. It seems desirable to restate at the present time the development of the plan and the object of this work.

Through the efforts of the late Major Powell and his collaborators a great number of vocabularies and a few grammars of American Indian languages had been accumulated, but no attempt had been made to give a succinct description of the morphology of all the languages of the continent. In order to do this, a series of publications was necessary. The subject matter had to be represented by a number of grammatical sketches, such as are now being assembled in the Handbook of American Indian Languages. To substantiate the inductions contained in this grammar, collections of texts are indispensable to the student, and finally a series of extended vocabularies are required. The plan, as developed between 1890 and 1900, contemplated the assembling in the bulletin series of the bureau of a series of texts which were to form the basis of the handbook. Of this series, Doctor Boas’s Chinook, Kathlamet, and Tsimshian [[25]]Texts, and Swanton’s Haida and Tlingit Texts, subsequently published, form a part, but at the time Swanton’s Texts appeared it was believed by Secretary Langley that material of this kind was too technical in character to warrant publication in a governmental series. It was, therefore, decided to discontinue the text series in the bulletins of the bureau and to divert them to the Publications of the American Ethnological Society and the Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology. Other series were commenced by the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania. The method of publication pursued at the present time, though different from that first planned, is acceptable, since all the material is accessible to students, and the bureau is saved the expense of publication.

Doctor Boas has been enabled to base all the sketches in the first volume of his handbook on accompanying text series, as follows: