146 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



The list which I will also send later will give careful notes on each article. The 

 notes on the musical instruments may not be sent until I return. 



When transportation, etc., is paid, the sum in my hands will be exhausted, and an 



account of the same will be duly transmitted. 



I am, very respectfully, yours truly, 



Talcott Williams. 



Hon. S. P. Langley, 



Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



At the request of Mr. Williams the examination of the contents of 

 his collections will be deferred until be arrives. In the next report a 

 complete list of the collection will probably be published. 



Mr. YV*. W. Bockhill, formerly of the American Legation of Pekin, has 

 recently undertaken a journey through Thibet, with a view to making a 

 special study of the ethnology of that region, having already made him- 

 self familiar with the customs of the natives. The Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion has supplied him with a barometer and other instruments desired by 

 him for his journey. His previous investigations have resulted in an 

 exceedingly valuable collection of objects, illustrating the religious oc- 

 cupations and amusements of the various peoples in different parts of 

 China, Thibet, and Turkestan. Among those from Thibet are a number 

 of prayer-wheels, a divination bowl made from a human skull, a sprink- 

 ler for holy water, a Lama's drum, a bell and score-book used in re- 

 ligious worship, an exercising flute made from a human femur, a rosary 

 of one hundred and eight beads made from bones of human skulls, a 

 charm box and sacred books, images and scroll pictures of gods. From 

 Western China and Mongolia are carved rosaries, and figures of gods 

 supposed to preside over medicines, riches, etc. From Northern Tur- 

 kestan is a scroll picture showing the occupations and sports of the 

 people. 



Dr. James Grant Bey, who some years ago established a sanitarium 

 at Cairo, Egypt, attended the International Medical Congress held in 

 Washington in 1887, and was much interested in the work of the Na- 

 tional Museum. He has, since his return to Egypt, devoted his leisure 

 time to special studies of the arts of the ancient Egyptians. Several 

 very valuable collections have been received from him, among which 

 are the following objects : Fifteen fragments of the Egyptian " Book of 

 the Dead" in Hieratic, seven water-color sketches of ancient lamps, 

 many ancient coins of various sorts, a modern Arabic almanac for the 

 year Hegira 1300, containing autograph, two gold ornaments of Thoth- 

 mes III, flower of the Nymphcea cerulea, the lotos of Upper Egypt, a 

 beetle from Thebes, and many other objects of value and interest. 



Mr. Jeremiah Curtin was sent, during the summer, by the Bureau of 

 Ethnology to the Hupa Reservation in California, in order to study the 

 languages and mythology of the tribes of Indians inhabiting the reser- 

 vation. The Smithsonian Institution was fortunate enough to secure 

 the assistance of Mr. Curtin in investigating their arts and industries 



