REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 65 



stamping the feet, which is the most primitive manner of marking 

 time. This dance is seldom held at the present time, but was wit- 

 nessed on the desert late Christmas night. 



As a development of the year's work Miss Densmore notes the im- 

 portance 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 par- 

 tial 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 eAddence 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 por- 

 tions 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 trans- 

 parencies, 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 stand- 

 ing. The locality was never again occupied or disturbed, but gradu- 

 ally the buildings of the silent and deserted town decayed, and what- 

 ever 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 set- 

 tlers, 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. 



