REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



79 



of the trilx-s north of Mexico adopted widely, and it is naturally desired 

 that the continuation of the work southward shall be equally worthy of 

 acceptance. 



Dr. Albert S. Gatachet continued the arrangement of the comparative 

 Algonquian vocabulary, and also carried forward his analysis of the com- 

 plex structure of the Peoria language. In both directions his progress 

 was considerable and his results of much value, not only as an aid in for- 

 mulating the linguistic classification above described, but to the collabo- 

 rators of the Bureau and students generally. 



Dr. Franz Boas continued the arrangement of linguistic material for 

 publication at intervals throughout the year. In addition, he revised the 

 proofs of his memoir entitled ' ' Kathlamet Texts, ' ' submitted just before the 

 close of the last fiscal year and transmitted for publication in bulletin form 

 early in the present year. By reason of the highly technical character of 

 the matter, composition was necessarily slow and proof reading laborious; 

 but the matter is now all in type. 



The Natick Dictionary, compiled from the Eliot Indian Bible by the late 

 James Hammond Trumbull (noted in the last report), is still in the 

 printer's hands, though nearly ready for publication. 



In connection with the collection of Iroquoian mj'ths, Mr. Hewitt has 

 continued recording the vocables and working out the gram matic structure 

 of the languages spoken by several Iroquoian tribes. Some of the results 

 of the work will appear in his memoir on comparative mythology now 

 practically ready for the press; others are in condition for incorporation 

 in future rejiorts. 



As already noted, ]Mr. John R. Swanton spent the entire year in collect- 

 ing linguistic material in British Columbia. The languages of this district 

 give promise of special importance in their bearing on questions of tribal 

 migrations and intertribal relations. Mr. Swanton has not yet taken up 

 the preparation of his material for publication. 



The work on the Diccionario de Motul, described in the last report, is 

 still under way. A considerable portion of the manuscript in Maya and 

 Spanish was transcril)ed by ^liss Jessie E. Thomas during the year, and 

 Senor Andonaro Molina, of Merida, Yucatan, is engaged in furnishing an 

 English translation and in extending the vocabulary through personal 

 acquaintance with the Maya tongue. 



WORK IN SOPHIOLOGY. 



As indicated by the contents of previous reports, the Director has for 

 some years been engaged in developing a system of anthropolog'c classifi- 

 cation designed primarily to serve as a basis for the researches in the 

 Bureau, though it is hoped that the system will be of use to the students 

 of the Science of Man throughout the world. It was through the partial 

 development of this system that recognition was led first to discrimination 

 of the human activities and later to the definition of the five groups of 

 activities observed in the researches and described in recent reports. 

 During the last five years several of the groups or categories of activities 

 have been formulated and characterized with some degree ot fullness. The 

 treatment began with the arts, or esthetic activities, and proceeded to the 



