REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 83 



only one specimen, since a specimen may be broken n]) into a hundred 

 or more pieces, each of whicli would in a strict count be properly 

 regarded as a separate specimen. 



DEPARTMENT OF ETHNOLOGY. 



The curator, Prof. Otis T. Mason, reports that the accessions of this 

 year compare very favorably with those of previous years. Many 

 additions have resulted from gifts received from foreign exhibitors at the 

 World's Columbian Exposition. Among the most important accessions 

 may be mentioned a rare collection of 662 specimens, illustrating the 

 divinatory games of various peoples, from the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania; a very valuable series of specimens from eastern Turkestan, 

 collected and presented by I)r. William L. Abbott, through whose gener- 

 osity several of the departments in the Museum have been enriched 

 both in this and in previous years; a large collection from west Africa, 

 presented by Mr. J. H. Camp aiul illustrating the arts and industries of 

 several native tribes; an extremely valuable lot of ethnological objects 

 from the region of Mount Kiliina-Njaro, collected and presented by Mr. 

 William Astor Chanler; a collection from east Greenland, gathered 

 by Captain Holm and transmitted in the name of the Museum of Royal 

 Antiquities in Copenhagen, and a collection of nearly 700 articles 

 illustrative of the native life and arts of the Congo Free States, secured 

 by purchase from Mr. Dorsey Mohun. The Bureau of Ethnology has 

 contributed a most important series of objects collected by Mr. W J 

 McGee among the Papagos and Seri Indians in southwestern Arizona 

 and northwestern Mexico. 



The already overcrowded condition of the exhibition space assigued 

 to this department has rendered it necessary to place in storage most 

 of the recently acquired material, and, to partially accommodate it, the 

 lower rooms of the west balcony have been provided with shelving. 

 Here it is proposed to store unit boxes, swinging screens, and mounted 

 pictures. In the north storage room will be kept the reserve and study 

 series illustrating the ethnology of Asiatic and North African tribes. 

 The third story of the north tower is devoted to Eskimo material. A 

 card catalogue of the entire exhibit is being prepared. 



Regarding the exhibition series, the curator remarks: 



The exhibition .series in the department of ethnology at the close of the fiscal 

 year was to be found in two groups — tlie material actually on exhibition for public 

 insi>ection and the exhibition series returned from the Chicago Exposition, which 

 had been filed away for future use. A great many of these were also designated to 

 be sent to Atlanta. The series actually displayed is exhibited under two motives — 

 the first that of technology, the second that of ethnology. Wherever the material 

 is sufficiently abundant, and from a great number of localities, the whole of man- 

 kind are considered to be of one sj^ecies, and all objects belonging to a certain class 

 are assembled and arranged for the purpose of showing their historical elaboration 

 and their geographic distribution. This is called the technographic series. How- 

 ever, where there is a large mass of material of great variety from many peoples and 

 not exclusively collected from any one, the speciuieus are displayed at present iu 



