ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XXXIX 



on Zufii ceremonials, making satistactory progress tlierein. 

 Tlu'diigliout tlie later portion of the month her work was 

 untortunately interrnpted li\' serious illness. 



Work ill Ji/iif/uisfirs — During the earlier halt' of the month 

 Mr J. Owen Dorse v was occupied chiefly in recording the Win- 

 nebago myths dictated by Philij) Longtail, Avho has been found 

 to possess a wealth of information relating to the language, 

 beliefs, and customs oi' his tribe. Plight important texts and 

 mauA' explanatory notes were acipiired through his aid. Dur- 

 ing the later portion of the month Mr Dorsey completed proof 

 revision of his "Study of Siouan Cults," forming part of the 

 Eleventh Annual Report, and began the preparation of the 

 index. He also completed the correction of the final proof 

 of the preface to volume ix of the Contributions to North 

 American Elthnology, and brought to sulistantial conipletion 

 the index to tliis volume. Meantime he contimied arrang'ing' 

 and supervising the arrang-ement of linguistic and other manu- 

 scripts in the fireproof A^aults in the otfice. More than half of 

 these manuscripts, most of which are unique and invaluable 

 to ethnologic students, are now arranged in the vaults and 

 a systematic catalog thereof prepared with a y\ew of future 

 puldication. 



Dr Albert S. Gatschet continued work on the Peoria lan- 

 guage, giving special attention to its grammar. A larg-e amount 

 of material has been extracted from manuscript notes and ar- 

 ranged in categories based on the animate and inanimate forms 

 of adjective and verb; on the modes of forming plurals in the 

 substantive, adjective, and pronoun; on the differences in inflec- 

 tion of transitive verbs without object, with oljject in the sin- 

 gular, and with object in the plural; on comparisons of Peoria 

 inflection with parallel forms in other Algouquian languages, 

 etc. During the last fiscal yeai- Dr Gatschet began the com- 

 pilation of a comprehensive table of Algouquian dialects, em- 

 bracing a series of terms in twenty-five tribal branches of that 

 stock. Important contributions to this comparative list have 

 been made during the last two mouths. These comj)rise names 

 for parts of the human and animal body, for a number of ani- 

 mals, jilants, and implements, for meteoric phenomena and 



