20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



monial forms. This is a war ceremony, which, although 

 not counted as a degree, is a rite to which the seven degrees 

 lead. The name of this ceremony is derived from the war 

 insignia, which is the charcoal ceremonially prepared from 

 certain sacred trees, and which s}aiibolizes the black marks 

 denoting the birds and animals used to typify strength, 

 courage, and fleetness. Mr. La Flesche's Osage informant 

 regards this as the final act of the seven degrees. The 

 Osage text comprises 90 pages, nearly one-half of which 

 has been ti*anscribed, together with 36 songs, which have 

 been transcribed by Miss Fletcher, and 7 diagrams. 



Mr. La Flesche was fortvmate enough to procure the 

 sacred bundle of the Deer gens and the reed-whistle bundle 

 of the Wind gens ; the contents of the latter are of excep- 

 tional interest. Mrs. Brogahige, one of the ceremonial 

 weavers of the Osage, at considerable sacrifice to herself, 

 presented Mr. La Flesche two sacred looms, one of Avhich 

 is used in weaving the buft'alo-hair case, and the other in 

 weaving the rush case for the sacred bird. These packs, 

 together with specimens of ceremonially made burden 

 straps which Mr. La Flesche collected, have been placed 

 in the National Museum. 



Dr. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, continued the 

 preparation of the material for the Handbook of American 

 Indian Languages. As stated in the last aimual report, the 

 manuscript of the grammar of the Chukchee language, to 

 appear in jDart 2 of this handbook, was completed and in its 

 final form was discussed with the author, Mr. Waldemar 

 Bogoras, during the visit of Dr. Boas to Berlin in the sum- 

 mer of 1912. The results of these discussions were em- 

 bodied in the work, the manuscript was delivered, and the 

 t}ijesetting conmienced. At the same time Dr. Boas stud- 

 ied the Koryak texts collected by Mr. Bogoras, published 

 in accordance with the plan previously outlined, at the ex- 

 pense of the American Ethnological Society, and the indis- 

 pensable references were embodied in the granmiatical 

 sketch. 



