48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



lected. Work waa lesninod in tlio next spring and live additional trenches were 

 opened across widely separated portions of tlio ancient qnarries. Mncli additional 

 information was collected, and many specimens were added to the collection. In 

 Jnne work was commenced ou another jjronp of ancient qnarries, situated north of 

 the new Observatory, on the west side of Rock Creek. Very extensive quarrying and 

 iniplemeut-making had been carried on in this place. The conditions and phenomena 

 were almost identical with those of the Piney Branch site. Subsequently an ancient 

 Hoapstone (juarry near Tenallytown was examined. The aucient pitting corresponded 

 (piite closely with that of the bowlder qnarries and the condition of the pits indi- 

 cated equal age. 



Dr. W. .J. Hofluian proceeded early in July to White Earth Reservation, Minnesota, 

 to continue the collection and study of mnemonic and other records relating to the 

 Mide' wiwiu or "Grand Medicine Society " of the Ojibwa Indians. lie had already spent 

 two seasons with this tribe, and having been satisfactorily prepared, was initiated 

 into the mysteries of the four several degrees of the society, by which means he was 

 enabled to record the ceremonials of initiation, which was desired by the Indians, so 

 that a complete exposition of the traditions of the Ojibwa cosmogony and of the 

 Mide' Society could be preserved for the information of their descendants. Through 

 intimate acquaintance with, and recognition by, the Mide' priests. Dr. Hotfmann 

 secured all the important texts employed in the ceremony — much of which is in au 

 archaic form of speech— as well as the musical notation of songs sung to him for that 

 purpose; also the birch-bark records of the society, and the mneniouic songs on birch- 

 bark, employed by the Mide' priests, as weli as those of the Je'ssakki'd and the W^- 

 beno', which represent two other grades of Shamans. 



The so-called cosmogony charts, four versions of which were secured, had not pre- 

 viously been exhibited to a white man, nor to Indians until after the necessary fees 

 had been paid for such service, preparatory to admission into the society. 



He also secured, as having connection with the general subject, a list of plants and 

 other substances constituting the materia medica of the above-named locality, the 

 method of their preparation, administration, and reputed action, the whole being 

 connected with incantation and exorcism. 



Mr. Victor Mindelei!" made a short trip (from December 7 to January 20) to the ruin 

 of Casa Grande, in Arizona, visiting also the sites of Mr. F. II. Cnshing's work while 

 in charge of the llemenway expedition. Plans and photographs were secured ou 

 this trip, and fragments of typical pottery were collected from the princii)al ruin 

 visited. Casa Grande was found to be almost identical in character with the many 

 ruins scattered over the valleys of both the Gila and Salado. 



On July 3 Mr. James Mooney started on a th ird trip to the Cherokee reservation 

 in North Carolina, returning November 17. During this time he devoted his atten- 

 tion chiefly to the translation and study of the sacred formulas used by the Shamans, 

 obtained bj' him during a previous visit. In this work he employed the service of the 

 most prominent medicine men, among them being the writers of some of the original 

 fornnilas, and obtained detailed explanations of the accompanying ceremonies and 

 the theories upon which they were based, together with descriptions of the mode of 

 pre[>aring the nu-dicine and the various articles used in the same connection. He was 

 also permitted to witness a number of these ceremonies, notedly the solenni rite 

 known as "going to water." About three hundred specimens of i>lants used in the 

 medicine practice were also collected, with their Indian names and uses, in addition 

 to about five hundred previously obtained. These plants were sent to the botanists 

 of the Smithsonian Institution for identification under their scientific names. The 

 study of these Cherokee plant names, in connection with the medical formulaa, will 

 throw much light upon Indian botanic classification and therapeutics. The study of 

 the botany is a work of peculiar dirticnlty, owing to the absence of any uniform sys- 

 tem among tlie various practitioners. Attention was also gi\en to the ball l>lay, and 

 several photographs of different stages of the ball dance were secured. One of the 



