68 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



was obtained, and at the same time the opportunity was embraced to 

 secure vocabularies of the LTmatilla and the Nez Perc6 languages. His 

 next objective point was the neighborhood of the San Rafael Mission, 

 Marin County, Cal., the hope being entertained that here would be 

 found some of the Indians formerly gathered at the mission. He learned 

 that there were no Indians at or near San Rafael, but subsequently 

 found some half dozen on the shores of Tomales Bay, to the north. 

 From one of these a good vocabulary was collected, and, as was ex- 

 pected, was subsequently found to be related to the Moquelumnan fam- 

 ily of the interior, to the southeast of San Francisco Bay, Later the 

 missions of Santa Cruz and Monterey were visited. At these points 

 there still remain a few old Indians who retain a certain command of 

 their own language, though Spanish forms their ordinary means of in- 

 tercourse. The vocabularies obtained are sufficient to i)rove, beyond 

 any reasonable doubt, that there were two linguistic families instead of 

 one, as had been formerly supposed, in the country above referred to. 

 A still more important discovery was made by Mr. Henshaw at Monte- 

 rey, where an old woman was found who succeeded in calling to mind 

 more than one hundred words and short phrases of the Esselen lan- 

 guage, formerly si)oken near Monterey, but less than forty words of 

 which had been previously known. Near the town of Cayucas, to the 

 south, an aged, blind Indian was visited who was able to add somewhat 

 to the stock of Esselen words obtained at Monterey, and to give besides 

 valuable information concerning the original home of this tribe. As a 

 result of the study of this material, Mr. Henshaw determines the Es- 

 selen to be a distinct linguistic family, a conclusion first drawn by Mr. 

 Curtin, from a study of the vocabularies collected by Galiano and Lam- 

 anon in the 18th century. The territory occupied by the tribe and lin- 

 guistic family lies coastwise, south of Monterey Bay, as far as the Santa 

 Lucia Mountain. 



On July 5 Mr. James Mooney started on a second trip to the Oheroki 

 Nation in North Carolina, returning November 14, after an absence of 

 about four months. During this time he made considerable additions 

 to the linguistic material already obtained by him, and was able to 

 demonstrate the former existence of a fourth, and perhaps even of a 

 fifth, well-marked Cheroki dialect in addition to the upper, lower, and 

 middle dialects already known. The invention of a Cheroki syllabary, 

 which was adapted to the sounds of the upper dialect, has tended to 

 make that the universal dialect. A number of myths were collected, 

 together with a large amount of miscellaneous material relating to the 

 Cheroki tribe, and the great tribal game of ball play, with its attendant 

 ceremonies of dancing, conjuring, scratching the bodies of the players, 

 and going to water, was witnessed. A camera was utilized to secure 

 characteristic pictures of the lilayers. Special attention was given to 

 the subject of Indian medicine, theoretic, ceremonial, and therapeutic. 

 The most noted doctors of the tribe were employed as informants, and 



