REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 67 



the sites adjacent to the Burton Mound along both historical and 

 archeological lines. This is a virgin field of research and has al- 

 ready yielded important contributions to our knowledge of the cul- 

 ture sequences of the ancient California Indians of this region, which 

 had the most specialized and highly developed culture of the State. 



This work illumines the fact that the early population of the chan- 

 nel was dense and that there were numerous wars and tribal shift- 

 ings. The section of the coast from which the islands were popu- 

 lated and the comparative ages of rancheria sites are also apparent 

 from this work. 



In October, 1924, Mr. R. O. Marsh brought to Washington a 

 party of eight Tule Indians from Panama, who remained in the 

 city until January, 1925. This afforded opportunity for studying 

 the language, which is a peculiarly interesting one. Possessing only 

 18 letters and employing them both short and long, it sounds to 

 the ear more like Finnish than like the average American Indian 

 language. The language may be described as melodious, simple 

 and flexible in structure, yet very rich and extensive in vocabulary. 

 It is spoken, with slight dialectic differences only, by a very large 

 body of Indians, who formerly held a strip of Caribbean coast more 

 than 240 miles long between the Canal Zone and the south of the 

 Rio Atrato, together with the numerous fertile keys off the coast. 

 Lists were obtained of sociological terms, names of places, plants and 

 animals, and designations of material cidture objects. Songs and 

 speech were recorded on the dictaphone. 



The Indians have been called Tules, Cunas, Comogres, and San 

 Blasenos. Of these names the first is preferable because it is the 

 native name of the tribe. The word Tule means merely " Indian," 

 it being understood that it refers to Indians of that peculiar kind 

 and language. It is related to the word tula, meajiing 20, that is, all 

 fingers and toes, an entire Indian. 



The collection of Tule ethnological objects donated by INIr. Marsh 

 to the National Museum was examined with the Indian informants 

 and the native names of the objects were recorded, together with 

 information about their use. 



The best informant in the party was Chief Igwa, who is " captain " 

 over some 10 keys, and is one of the leading men in the councils of 

 the tribe. He has traveled much about the Tule country and knows 

 hundreds of places by name, being a good ethnogeographical in- 

 formant. The chief prepared a large map showing these places. 



Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnologist, left Washington in May, 1925, 

 for Brantford, Canada, to resume his researches among the Six 

 (originally Five) Nations, or Tribes, of the Iroquois, the Mohawk,, 

 the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida, the Cayuga, and the Tus- 



