REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



Kvith the Bureau iu order to accept an important position in the Field 

 Columbian Museum, at Chicago. 



The study of Maya and other Mexican codices and inscriptions has 

 been continued during- the year. Some of the ancient inscriptions 

 have been deciphered and appear to indicate that the calendar systems 

 of the prehistoric people of the Western Hemisphere were elaborate and 

 of considerable accuracy. 



One of the lines of work in the Bureau since its institution is the 

 systematic arrangement of scattered information relating to the tribal 

 names and characteristics of the Indians found on this continent by 

 early explorers and travelers, Tliis work, which involves extended 

 literary research, together with correspondence and conference with 

 travelers, missionaries, and others, has been carried forward during the 

 year, and the data collected are arranged on cards, forming' a tribal 

 dictionary, which is now quite voluminous. The information relating 

 to several tribes is now considered sufticiently complete to warrant 

 ])ublication, and plans have been formulated in the Bureau for printing 

 the work in a series of bulletins. 



Several years ago the Bureau began the task of collecting the rude 

 rock inscriptions made by the Indians on bowlders, cliffs, canyon walls, 

 and the sides or roofs of caves in many parts of the country. As shown 

 iu the earlier published reports, these inscriptions are in some cases 

 connected with symbolic or heraldic paintings on skins or other sub- 

 stances, and in some degree with the gesture speech or sign language 

 so commonly employed among certain Indian tribes. The researches 

 have been continued, chiefly by Colonel Mallery, and are now substan- 

 tially completed. A monograph on pictography was published during 

 the year in the tenth annual report of the Director, while an accom- 

 oanying monograph on gesture speech is nearly ready for publication. 

 Although the work in sign language is not unique, the information 

 brought together is voluminous and exact, and the work is regarded 

 as especially interesting and useful to students of primitive modes of 

 expression in this and other countries. 



One of the chief lines of research in the Bureau relates to the lan- 

 guages of the aborigines. The collection of texts, vocabularies, and 

 grammatic material has been continued, and reports on the subject 

 have been i^ublished. It is thought that the primitive languages of 

 this continent, which are remarkable for number and diversity, give 

 unexcelled opi)ortunities for the study of linguistic development, and 

 with this view a large body of more or less complete manuscript material 

 has been brought together for purposes of comparative study, as well 

 as for immediate publication. The linguistic manuscripts are stored in 

 fireproof vaults, where they are kept accessible to philologists and 

 other students. It is believed that the manuscript and other linguistic 

 material in the possession of the Bureau is richer than any other body 

 of linguistic records of primitive men. 



