EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1909. 25 



DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Ethnology. — The most important addition to the division of eth- 

 nology was a contribution from Dr. W. L. Abbott, consisting of about 

 500 objects, gathered on the Kendawangan River in southwestern 

 Borneo adjoining the region traversed by him the previous year, in 

 continuation of the biological and ethnological survey of Malaysia 

 which this explorer has indefatigably pursued for more than a decade. 

 This collection is rich in well-constructed basketry, contains numerous 

 illustrations of the manufacture and use of bark cloth, which is there 

 finer than in any other locality in Malaysia, and includes many objects 

 relating to the domestic arts of the Dyaks. Several noteworthy col- 

 lections from Asiatic countries were received as follows : Four unique 

 specimens from the almost unknown lao tribe of Chinese aborigines, 

 northwestern Canton Province, contributed by Miss Louise Johnston, 

 of Wooster, Ohio; a rain coat, a remarkable collection of models of 

 insects and reptiles, and a mocjel of an irrigation pump constructed by 

 north Chinese, through Mr. Frank N. Meyer, explorer for the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture ; and a number 

 of Chinese velvets and embroideries of the Chien-lung period ( 1T3G- 

 1795), presented by the Baroness von Sternburg as a memorial to 

 her husband, the late Baron Speck von Sternburg, German ambassa- 

 dor to the United States. Dr. Hugh M. Smith, U. S. Deputy Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries, contributed five baskets, a knit bag, and a 

 musical instrument of bamboo from the Philippine Islands. Africa 

 was represented by three accessions. Two of these, consisting of bow^s 

 and a leather work bag from the Sudan, were donated by Dr. Cyrus 

 Adler; the other accession, appertaining to the Inhambane Zulus of 

 East Africa, comprises carved wooden drums, a marimba, baskets, 

 pottery, dolls, costumes, hoes, v.eapons, and domestic utensils, and 

 numbers over 200 specimens. 



With the exception of Doctor Abbott's gift, the larger collections 

 were from North America. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the National Mu- 

 seum, while engaged in securing data on tuberculosis among the 

 Indians, gathered many ethnological specimens from the Menominee, 

 Nez Perce, Hupa, and Mohave tribes. Mr. E. de K. Leffingwell, on 

 his return from the arctic coast of Alaska, presented a series of very 

 interesting Eskimo objects from the ancient village sites on the coast 

 east of Point Barrow. A number of baskets by the Chetimacha 

 Indians of Louisiana, obtained by purchase, accompanied by the 

 native names of the basket designs and their meaning, are especially 

 valuable for the study of symbolic patterns. Through the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology there were secured several Chetimacha bows, 

 mortars, and blowguns, obtained by Dr. John R. Swanton. A collec- 

 tion from the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico was con- 



