REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 29 



through the Bureau of American Ethnology. A small but interest- 

 ing collection from Mr. A. Bienkowski, of Panama, consists of masks 

 and clothing worn in the ceremonial of Diabolitos practiced by 

 the Veragua Indians. Five Indian paintings, executed by J. M. 

 Stanley in the early part of the last century and formerly belonging 

 to Prof. Joseph Henry, were presented by the Misses Henry. A 

 number of laces, embroideries, and linens made prior to 1830 and 

 handed down from the Plimpton family, were presented by Miss 

 Mary Noyes. 



Among the models of inventions transferred from the Patent Office 

 were many relating to fire making, heating, cooking, illumination, 

 culture history, etc., which were temporarily assigned to this division. 



The ethnological groups and objects exhibited at the Jamestown 

 and Bordeaux expositions were returned duringthe winter and spring. 

 The routine work of caring for the collections went forward as in 

 previous years. Many objects of metal were found to require special 

 treatment for the removal of rust and the preservation of the surface, 

 and it is now possible to say that the methods initiated a year ago to 

 prevent the deterioration of ancient Pueblo pottery have proved bene- 

 ficial. The group cases in the Catlin, Pueblo, and Eskimo exhibition 

 halls were somewhat changed and rearranged, and the collection of 

 jade implements and throAving sticks was installed in the Eskimo 

 hall. The laces from Miss Mary Noyes, the Hindu objects sent by 

 the Rajah of Tagore, and the collections of Mrs. A. C. Barney, 

 Senator Beveridge, General Wood, and Major Ahern, were placed on 

 exhibition in the west liall and gallery. The General Wood collec- 

 tion occupies four cases in the middle aisle and is one of the most 

 important received in recent years. The Abbott cases, in the gallery 

 of the west hall, were reinstalled and a complete arrangement made 

 of the Kensington cases, three of the latter being filled Avith art ob- 

 jects from the Abbott-Dyak collection. The remainder of the Philip- 

 pine collections was provided for in the gallery of the Pueblo court. 



The head curator of the department. Prof. O. T. Mason, made a 

 detailed study of the Abbott collection of basket work from southern 

 IMalaysia, in order to settle upon a definite nomenclature for the entire 

 Malay region, including the Philippine Islands. There seems to be 

 no limit to basket work in a region where so many adaptable species 

 of bamboos, rattans, palms, and useful hard woods occur. The shapes, 

 structural parts, and technic. while having some features in common 

 with the basket work of America, are mostly of the region. One type 

 called the " mad weave," anyam gila^ made of three sets of Pandanus 

 stripes, forming rhombs, was minutely worked out. The demands 

 for a carefully prepared vocabulary are the more imperative, since 

 the great popularity of arts and crafts studies is bringing into use 

 terms not hitherto known to basket makers either in England or 



