18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
along the Rio Grande, which was officially characterized as 
one of the most important and interesting that had ever 
come before the department. 
In pursuance of his investigations of the Creek Indians 
and allied tribes, Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, pro- 
ceeded to Oklahoma early in July to attend the busk cere- 
monies, and was present at those of the Eufaula, Hilibi, 
Fish Pond, and Tukabachi Creeks. Notes were taken on 
all of these and photographs obtained of various features of 
all but the last. At the same time, with the valued assist- 
ance of Mr. G. W. Grayson, of Eufaula, Doctor Swanton 
gathered further ethnological information from some of the 
old people, and continued this work after the ceremonies 
ceased. Somewhat later he visited the small body of Indians 
in Seminole County who still retain a speaking knowledge of 
Hitchiti, and added about 40 pages of text to that previously 
obtained, besides correcting a portion of Gatschet’s Hitchiti 
vocabulary. He made an arrangement with an interpreter 
by which 100 pages of additional text were received after 
his return to Washington. 
While some time was devoted to studies of the Alabama, 
Hitchiti, and Choctaw languages, most of Doctor Swanton’s 
attention while in the office during the year was centered on 
two particular undertakings. One of these was the proof 
reading of the Choctaw-English section of Byington’s Choc- 
taw Dictionary, and the compilation, with the efficient help 
of Miss M. C. Rollins, of an English-Choctaw index, which 
will comprise about 850 printed pages, to accompany it. 
The other was work on the first draft of an extended report 
on the Creek confederacy, of which the historical part, con- 
sisting of 300 typewritten pages, is practically completed. 
At the beginning of the year Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnolo- 
gist, undertook the work of editing and copying the Seneca 
text ‘““Shagowenotha, or The Spirit of the Tides,’’ which was 
recorded by him in the form of field notes in 1896 on the 
Cattaraugus Reservation, New York. ‘This particular piece 
of work, forming a text of 3,692 native words, was completed 
in August, 19138. The task of making a literal, almost an 
etymological, interlinear translation of this text was next 
