64 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOE. 62 
to medicine and love. This deficiency may be supplied by future 
gatherings, but for the formulas already translated, it may be con- 
fidently affirmed that no important additional light is now procurable. 
While the formulas constitute the largest body of aboriginal Amer- 
ican literature extant, the plant collection constitutes probably the 
largest ethno-botanic collection from any one tribe, comprising some 
700 species with Cherokee names and uses, nearly all of which have 
been scientifically identified by expert botanists. This collection 
represents the combined plant knowledge of the principal doctors in 
the tribe. 
Opportunity was also afforded for special studies and observations, 
particularly of the ceremonial “ going to water,” and augury with the 
beads to forecast the health prospect and life-span of each member 
of the family, before partaking of the first corn of the new crop. 
CEREMONIAL DANCES OF THE CREEKS IN OKLAHOMA 
In July and August, Dr. John R. Swanton of the Bureau of Ethnol- 
ogy visited the territory of the old Creek Nation in Oklahoma, 
1G. 61—The “ Feather” dance, Fish Pond square ground. 
Photograph by Swanton. 
to attend several of the ceremonial dances or busks about which he 
had collected much information in previous years. He witnessed 
four of these ceremonials ; that of the Eufaula Creeks near Eufaula, 
MeIntosh County, those of the Hilibi and Fish Pond Creeks near 
Hanna, in Hughes County, and that of the Tukaba‘tci near Yeager. 
Notes were taken on all of them and a number of photographs were 
obtained of the first three. Considerable supplementary information 
