60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



under the guidance of his preconceived notions. All this is so ob- 

 vious that it hardly requires a full discussion. Our needs become 

 particularly apparent when we compare the methods that we expect 

 from any investigator of cultures of the Old World with those of the 

 ethnologist who is studying primitive tribes. Nobody would expect 

 authoritative accounts of the civilization of China or of Japan from a 

 man who does not speak the languages readily, and wdio has not 

 mastered their literatures. The student of antiquity is expected to 

 have a thorough mastery of the ancient languages. A student of 

 Mohammedan life in Arabia or Turkey would hardly be considered 

 a serious investigator if all his knowledge had to be derived from 

 second-hand accounts. The ethnologist, on the other hand, under- 

 takes in the majority of cases to elucidate the innermost thoughts 

 and feelings of a people without so much as a smattering of knowledge 

 of their language. 



It is true that the American ethnologist is confronted with a serious 

 practical difficulty, for, in the present state of American society, 

 by far the greater number of customs and practices have gone out 

 of existence, and the investigator is compelled to rely upon accounts 

 of customs of former times recorded from the mouths of the old gen- 

 eration who, when young, still took part in these performances. 

 Added to this he is confronted with the difficulty that the number of 

 trained investigators is very small, and the number of American 

 languages that are mutually unintelligible exceedingly large, probably 

 exceeding three hundred in number. Our investigating ethnologists 

 are also denied opportunity to spend long continuous periods with 

 any particular tribe, so that the practical difficulties in the way of 

 acquiring languages are almost insuperable. Nevertheless, we must 

 insist that a command of the language is an indispensable means of 

 obtaining accurate and thorough knowledge, because much informa- 

 tion can be gained by listening to conversations of the natives and 

 by taking part in their daily life, which, to the observer who has no 

 command of the language, will remain entirely inaccessible. 



It must be admitted that tliis ideal aim is, under present condi- 

 tions, entirely beyond our reach. It is, however, quite possible for 

 the etlinographer to obtain a theoretical knowledge of native lan- 

 guages that will enable him to collect at least part of the information 

 that could be best obtained by a practical knowledge of the language. 

 Fortunately, the Indian is easil}^ misled, by the abilit}^ of the observer 



