XX REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



Ethnologist in Charg-e, and entrusted with many administra- 

 tive details. 



With the Ijeginning- of the fiscal year the method of |)rep<u-- 

 ing administrative reportswas modified. In lieu of oral montldv 

 reports of prcigress, with more extended annual reports, formal 

 monthly reports have been required, and these have been suni- 

 marized periodically for transmittal to the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. The current operations of the Bureau 

 are set forth fulh' in these reports; and the ])eriodical summa- 

 ries are incorporated herein as a detailed exhibit of \\'ork and 

 progress. 



MONTHLY REPORTS 

 OPERATIONS DURING JULY 



Work in sign language and pictography — Colonel Garrick Mal- 

 lery ^vas occupied throughout the month in correcting and 

 revising the proofs of a memoir on the "Picture-writing of the 

 American Indians," which forms the gTeater part of the Tenth 

 Annual Report of the Bureau. This memoir, which will occupy 

 about 800 octavo pages and will contain about 1,500 figures in 

 the text, besides 54 full-page plates, is at this date all in type, 

 and the correction, as well as the preparation of lists of contents 

 and illustrations, index, etc, is well advanced. 



Work ill mounds and earthworks — During the first part of the 

 month Professor Cyrus Thomas was engaged in preparing the 

 index to his "Report on Mound Explorations," which accom- 

 panies the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau. The greater 

 part of the proofs of this volume have been revised, but some 

 time was devoted to final proof correction. 



Durin": the month Professor Thomas g-ave some time to the 

 studv of the IMava codices, with the view of settling, if possible, 

 the question of the phoneticism of the writing therein, the set- 

 tlement of this question being of great importance to Amei'ican 

 archeology. In the course of the work the investigation on 

 the "Time Periods of the Mayas" was continued; and it was 

 shown from the Dresden codex that the civil year used therein 

 comprised 365 days, divided into 18 months of 20 days each, 



