24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



called Akixage, or weeping over one another in mutual 

 sympathy by the members of the two great divisions of the 

 tribe. There is no regular time for the performance of the 

 Washa'beathi" ceremony. It is given only when a mem- 

 ber of the tribe loses by death some specially loved and 

 favored relative and seeks a ceremonial expression of sym- 

 pathy from the entire tribe. It is the intention to procure 

 the songs and rituals of this ceremony, and specimens of 

 the standards employed in its performance. 



Altogether Mr. La Flesche has made excellent progress 

 in his study of the Osage people, and the results are already 

 shedding light on the organization and the origin and func- 

 tion of the ceremonies of this important tribe. 



SPECIAL RESEARCHES 



The special researches of the bureau in the field of 

 linguistics were conducted by Dr. Franz Boas, honorary 

 philologist, one of the immediate and tangible results of 

 which was the publication of Part 1 of the Handbook of 

 American Indian Languages. It seems desirable to restate 

 at the present time the development of the plan and the 

 object of this work. 



Through the efforts of the late Major Powell and his 

 collaborators a great number of vocabularies and a few 

 grammars of American Indian languages had been accu- 

 mulated, but no attempt had been made to give a succinct 

 description of the morphology of all the languages of the 

 continent. In order to do this, a series of publications was 

 necessaiy. The subject matter had to be represented by a 

 number of grannnatical sketches, such as are now being as- 

 sembled in the Handbook of American Indian Languages. 

 To substantiate the inductions contained in this grammar, 

 collections of texts are indispensable to the student, and 

 finally a series of extended vocabularies are required. The 

 plan, as developed between 1890 and 1900, contemplated the 

 assembling in the bulletin series of the bureau of a series of 

 texts which were to form the basis of the handbook. Of 

 this series, Doctor Boas's Chinook, Kathlamet, and Tsiiu- 



