XXVIII REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



accoiupauying ceremonies and the theories ou which they were 

 based, together with descriptions of the mode of preparing the 

 medicine and the various articles used in the same connection. 

 He was also permitted to witness a number of these ceremo- 

 nies, notedly the solemn rite known as "going to water." 

 About 300 specimens of plants used in the medical practice 

 were also collected, with their Indian names and uses, in addi- 

 tion to the 500 previously obtained. These plants were sent 

 to botanists connected with the Smithsonian Institution for 

 identification under systematic names. The study of the Chei'- 

 okee j^lant names and medical formulas throws much liglit i»n 

 Indian botanic classification and therapeutics. 



The study of the botany is a work of peculiar difliculty owing 

 to the absence of any uniform system among the various 

 practitioners. Attention was given also to the ball play, and 

 several photographs of difterent stages of the ball dance were 

 taken. In addition, one of the oldest men of the tribe was 

 employed to prepare the featlier wands used in the Eagle 

 dance, the Pipe dance of the prairie tribes, and the Calumet 

 dance spoken of by the early Jesuit writers, which has been 

 discontinued for about thirty years among the Cherokees. 

 These wands were deposited in the National Museum as a 

 juirt of the Cherokee collection obtained on various visits to 

 the reservation. Much miscellaneous information in regard 

 to myths, dances, and other ceremonies was obtained. 



Mr. Mooney undertook during the year a special study of 

 aboriginal geographic nomenclature for the purpose of prejiaring 

 an aboriginal map of the old Cherokee country. With this 

 object, a visit was made to the outlying- Indian settlements, 

 especially that on Cheowah river in Graham county. North 

 Carolina, and individuals who had come from widely separated 

 districts Avere questioned. The maps of the United States 

 Geological Survey, on a scale of 2 miles to an inch, were 

 used in the woi'k, and the i-esult is a collection of more tlian 

 one thousand Cherokee names of localities within the former 

 territory of the tribe, given in the correct form, with the mean- 

 ings of the names and whatever local legends are connected 

 with them. In North Carolina every local name now known 



