DEPARTMENT OF ETHNOLOGY. 137 



six or seven years, but it was impossible to study tliem or put them on 

 exhibition for want of information. This was kindly supi^lied by Mrs. 

 Matilda Stevenson, who spent several days in the Museum aud,with the 

 help of a stenographer, supplied a legend for each one of the specimens. 

 With this added information, the collection becomes the largest and 

 best in the world on the subject of Pueblo religion. 



On the lOtli of April, ISOl, was celel)rated the beginning of the sec- 

 ond century of American patents. The curator was appointed to jire- 

 pare and read an essay on this occasion, and he was induced to comply 

 with this request, in the hoi)e that a large number of those who at- 

 tended the Congress might have their interest aroused in the Museum. 

 The result was far greater than he anticipated. Col. Dodge's collection 

 of breech-loading firearms; Dr. Maynard's series, showing the unfolding 

 of a single invention — tlic Maynard rifle; and Gen. Berdan's collection, 

 have all been added to the National Museum, besides others which will 

 be mentioned in the report of Mr. J. E. Watkins. The permanent 

 organization otthe Patent Association secures to the Museum a body of 

 new friends. 



In May the curator delivered a course of lectures in the Crozier ^ 

 Tlieological Seminary, Pennsylvania, on the Natural History of Reli- 

 gions. The object of these lectures was to show that religion may be 

 brought within the ])urview of science as a body of i)henomeua. From 

 the point of view of the Museum, religion is what men believe concern- 

 ing a spirit world, and all tliat they do in consequence of such belief. 

 That which they believe is creed, that which they do is cult. The 

 science of religion is the comparative study of the creeds and the cults 

 of the world. 



Much time has been S])ent during the i)ast year in working up a 

 series of bows and arrows and shields and other objects connected with 

 the art of war, or wluit the older writers call the "artillery" of the 

 American aborigines. The material in the Museum to illustrate this 

 subject is now very rich. The linguistic stocks of our American abori- 

 gines have been fully studied out, and the locations of each tribe when 

 first mentioned by travelers and explorers, marked upon a map. By 

 collecting the weapons of Avar of each tribe and studying their charac- 

 teristics minutely, it is possible now to formulate a geography of them. 

 This study has begun to bear fruit in two directions : Poorly labeled 

 specimens wliicli have been in the Museum a long time, and therefore 

 extremely valuable, can be relegated to their proper tribe, and collec- 

 tions belonging to other bureaus for which no data have been fur- 

 nished can be easily labeled by reference to our large series. 



At the silggestion of Prof. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and greatly aided by materials which he was able to secure in his 

 travels abroad, the curator has commenced an exhibition series of time- 

 keeping apparatus, beginning with the earliest known process of 

 mechanically marking divisions of the day or small periods of time, and 



