ADMIKISTR.\TIVE REPORT ^ 27 



that of linscuistie stocks. In 1893 Doctor Boas called at- 

 tention to the fact that a number of languages in northern 

 British Colmnbia seem to have certain morphological traits 

 in common, by which they are sharply differentiated from 

 all the neighboring languages, although the evidence for a 

 common origin of the stocks is unsatisfactory. Doctor 

 Boas and his assistants have followed this observation, 

 and it can now be shown that throughout the continent 

 languages may be classed in wider morphological groups. 

 It is interesting to note that phonetic groups may be distin- 

 guished in a similar manner, but these do not coincide with 

 the morphological groups. These observations are in ac- 

 cord with the results of modern inquiries in Africa and 

 Asia, where the influence of Hamitic phonetics on lan- 

 guages of the Sudan and the influence of Sumerian on 

 early Babylonian have been traced in a similar manner. 

 Analogous conditions seem to prevail also in South Africa, 

 where the phonetics of the Bushman languages have influ- 

 enced the neighboring Bantu languages. In this way a 

 number of entirely new and fundamental problems in lin- 

 guistic ethnography have been formulated, the solution of 

 which is of the greatest importance for a clear understand- 

 ing of the early history of the ^American Continent. 



The Handbook of American Indian T^anguages as 

 planned at the present time deals exclusively with an ana- 

 lytical study of the morphology of each linguistic family, 

 without any attempt at a detailed discussion of phonetic 

 processes, their influence upon the development of the lan- 

 guage, and the relation of dialects. Doctor Boas recom- 

 mends that the present Handbook of American Indian 

 Languages be followed l^y a series of handbooks each de- 

 voted to a single linguistic stock, in which the development 

 of each language, so far as it can be traced by comparative 

 studies, should be treated. 



The study of aboriginal American music was conducted 

 among the Chippewa Indians by Miss Frances Densmore, 

 who extended her field of work previously begun among 

 that people and elaborated the system of analyzing their 

 songs. After spending several weeks on the Lac du Flam- 



