ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 15 



While marriages, baptisms, and burials are attended with 

 the rites of the Catholic Church, a native ceremony is always 

 performed before the arrival of the priest. While their 

 popular dances of foreign admixture are sometimes almost 

 depleted by reason of intoxication, no such thing happens 

 when a purely Indian ceremony is performed, for the dread 

 of offending their gods prevents them from placing themselves 

 in such condition as not to be able to fulfill their duty to the 

 higher powers. 



Mrs. Stevenson not only prepared the way for a close study 

 of the Tewa of Nambe' by making a warm friend of the rain 

 priest of that pueblo, but found much of interest at the Tigua 

 pueblo of Taos and Picuris, especially in the kivas of the latter 

 village. It was in an inner chamber of one of the Picuris kivas 

 that the priests are said to have observed their rites during 

 the presence of the Spaniards. Another interesting feature 

 observed at Picuris was the hanging of scalps to a rafter in an 

 upper chamber of a house, the eastern side of which was open 

 in order to expose the scalps to view. At Picuris the rain 

 priests, like those of Zufii and San Ildefonso, employ paddle- 

 shaped bone implements (identical with specimens, hitherto 

 undetermined, found in ruins in the Jemez Mountains and 

 now in the National Museum) for lifting the sacred meal 

 during their rain ceremonies. 



During a visit to Taos Mrs. Stevenson obtained a full 

 description of an elaborate ceremony performed immediately 

 after an eclipse of the sun. 



After her return to Washington, in February, Mrs. Steven- 

 son devoted attention to the preparation of a paper on the 

 textile fabrics and dress of the Pueblo Indians. For com- 

 parative studies it was necessary to review a large number 

 of works on the general subject and to examine collections 

 pertaining thereto. Mrs. Stevenson also prosecuted her 

 studies of medicinal and edible plants. 



During the entire fiscal year Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnolo- 

 gist, was engaged in office work devoted chiefly to studies 

 connected with the Handbook of American Indians, espe- 

 cially part 2. A number of articles designed for this work 



