118 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 
March in work on the Ventureno dictionary, which already covers 
about 8,000 cards and has served as the basis for similar dictionaries 
which have been started for the other dialects. The entire summer 
was devoted to an intensive study of the Barbareno, Ineseno, and 
Purismefo dialects. The supposedly extinct Purismeno is now 
represented by a vocabulary of several hundred carefully written 
words and phrases. This work was followed by a month’s further 
study of the Obispeno dialect, beginning September 16. More 
and better material was obtained than previously. The informant’s 
health being such as not to admit of long or steady hours of work 
daily, there was opportunity to memorize every word and to digest 
the material thoroughly as it was presented. 
The period from October 14 to November 15 was spent at the 
Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, in elaborating the notes, and the 
remainder of the year in field-work on Ventureno, correcting, im- 
proving, and adding to the previous notes. 
Some of the interesting features of language and culture dis- 
covered in Mr. Harrington's studies have been: the use of vowel 
triplication as a unique grammatical process; a system of relation- 
ship terms which extends to the fourth generation (for example, 
ereat-great-grandparent, great-great-grandchild, and not merely to 
the third as with most tribes); the use of sun shrines and their 
renewal at the coming of the new year; the use of one word for 
world, year, and God; the use of seaworthy board canoes (fragments 
of these taken from excavations and now at the Southwest and other 
museums not hitherto having been recognized as such) ; the institu- 
tion of berdaches as undertakers; the erection of tall poles hung 
with property on the graves of rich persons; the identification of the 
site of ‘‘ Pueblo de las Canoas”’ of early Spanish narratives, and 
that the Venturefo name for it was Shisholop, meaning “ the mud.” 
In connection with this last determination it is interesting to note 
that the surrounding tribes called Ventura the “ mud place” and 
the Venturenos the * mud people.” 
WORK AMONG THE OSAGE INDIANS 
During the year 1916, Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, visited 
the Osage reservation in Oklahoma for the purpose of continuing 
his researches among the people of that tribe. While changes are 
continually taking place in the religious institutions of these people, 
many of the full-bloods still believe in the ancient rites and retain 
the practices that have grown out of them. 
After considerable difficulty Mr. La Flesche prevailed upon 
Sho"’gemo"i", one of the oldest members of the tribe, to recite two 
