XXX ANNUAL REPORT OF THK DIRECTOR 



Mexico. Five of the ruins were accurately measured and 

 platted to scale, and a full series of sketches, plans, .-'nd photo- 

 graphs was secured. Mr. MindelefF returned from the field on 

 the 1st of October. He then made a trip to the great Etowah 

 mound, near Cartersville, Ga., under the direction of Prof. 

 Cyrus Thomas, in order to secure an accurate survey and scale 

 drawing, as a basis for the construction of a model. 



At tlie close of this work Mi-. Mindeleff returned to Wash- 

 ington, on October 7, and was engaged in office work until the 

 middle of the following June, when he took the field in ad- 

 vance of his part)^ for further studies among the ruins and 

 pueblos of the Cibola and Tusayan groups. He was also in- 

 structed to secure similar material at other available points for 

 comparison. 



LINGUISTIC FIELD WORK. 

 ■WORK OF MRS. ERMINNIE A. SMITH. 



From the 1st of July to the 15th of August, 1884, Mrs. 

 Smithy assisted by Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, of Tuscarora descent, 

 was engaged among the Onondaga living near Syracuse, N. Y., 

 in translating and annotating two Onondaga manuscripts ; after- 

 ward, until the latter part of October, with the same assistance, 

 she was at work on the Grand River reservation in Canada, 

 where she filled out the vocabulary in the Introduction to the 

 Study of Indian Languages from the dialect of the Cayuga. 

 She also obtained from the Mohawk a translation, with annota- 

 tions, of a manuscript in their dialect. 



The three manuscripts mentioned are now in the possession 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology. Their origin and history are not 

 distinctly known, as they are all probably copies of originals 

 which seem to have been lost or destroyed. It was intended 

 in these manuscripts to reproduce, by the alphabet and the 

 script used by English writers, the sound of the dialects em- 

 ployed. 



These records have their chief interest in the preservation of 

 many archaic words, or those of ceremony, law, and custom, 

 which in these dialects, as is the general rule, remain un- 

 changed, although the colloquial language may be modified. 



