48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



lected. Work was resmiied in the uext spring auil live additional trenches were 

 opened across widely separated portions of the ancient quarries. Much additional 

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

 June work was commenced ou another grouj) of ancient quarries, situated north of 

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

 implement-making had been carried ou in this place. The conditions and phenomena 

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

 soapstoue quarry near Tonallytown was examined. The ancient pitting corresponded 

 quite closely with that of the bowlder quarries and the condition of the pits indi- 

 cated equal age. 



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

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

 Mide'wiwiuor "Grand Medicine Society " of the Ojibwa Indians. He 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. Hoffmann 

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

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

 purpo.se; also the birch-bark records of the society, and the mnemonic songs on birch- 

 bark, employed by the Mide' priests, as well as those of the Je'ssakki'd and the Wa- 

 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 foi; 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 midica of the above-named locality, the 

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

 connected with incantation and exorcism. 



Mr. Victor Mindeleff 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. H. Cushing's work while 

 in charge of the Hemenway expedition. Plans and photographs were secured on 

 this trip, and fragments of typical pottery were collected from the principal 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 third 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 by 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 

 formulas, and obtained detailed explanations of the accompanying ceremonies and 

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

 preparing the medicine and the various articles used iu the same connection. He was 

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

 known as "going to water." About three hundred specimens of plants used in the 

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

 to about five hundred pi'eviously 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 formulas, will 

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

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

 tem among the various practitioners. Attention was also given to the ball play, and 

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



