-~I 
REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. va 
COLLECTIONS. 
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 
The additions to this department were comprised in 317 accessions 
and amounted to 10,487 objects, of which over two-thirds belonged 
in the divisions of ethnology and prehistoric archeology. 
Ethnology.—The ethnological accessions exceeded the average of 
past years in both number and value. The most important one, 
presented by Dr. W. L. Abbott, consisted of about 600 specimens 
gathered in West Borneo, south of the region explored the previous 
year by this generous contributor. While mainly illustrative of the 
basket work of the region, it includes a large series of swords, dag- 
gers, knives, and blowguns, a number of objects of personal adorn- 
ment and others relating to religious beliefs. The Abbott collection 
is rapidly becoming one of the most notable of its kind in the world, 
in view both of its extent and diversity and of the care with which it 
has been assembled and labeled. Several noteworthy collections 
from the Philippine Islands were also received. <A fine series of 
weapons, basketry, costumes, models, etc., was donated by Maj. 
George P. Ahern, U. S. Army, and many costumes, weapons, basketry, 
and domestic utensils from the Igorot and Ilocano of Luzon were 
contributed by Maj. E. A. Mearns, U. S. Army, in continuation of 
his former gifts. Capt. Jesse R. Harris, U. S. Army, presented 54 
objects from the Moros of Mindanao, including household utensils, 
tools, weapons, and musical instruments, and Mr. W. E. Safford, of 
the Department of Agriculture, 42 examples of the weapons with 
which Spain in the eighteenth century armed the natives of Guam 
against attacks by pirates. The latter were made by a native ar- 
morer, descended from Philippine stock. Many stone and_ shell 
implements, pertaining to the extinct Chamorros of Guam, were 
obtained from Mr. L. H. T. Costenoble. Surg. H. C. Curl, U. S. 
Navy, donated a small but excellent collection of Australian weapons 
and cult objects. A large number of oriental weapons, costumes, 
and other objects, obtained by United States Senator Albert J. Bev- 
eridge during his recent travels in the Far East, was secured as a 
loan for exhibition. The collection includes a series of Filipino and 
Moro weapons, Japanese swords, spears, and knives, Chinese hats, 
embroideries, and weapons, among the latter being a jade-handled 
dagger of exquisite form and workmanship. Noteworthy also is 
a huge votive sword of the Tokogawa shoguns, bearing inscriptions 
of Buddhist texts in Chinese and Sanskrit characters. It is nearly 
9 feet long and is constructed with all the skill in art for which the 
Japanese are famous. Another large loan collection of exceptional 
interest consists of several hundred examples of Japanese metal and 
