XXIV BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



wroug-ht ill accordance with archaic ritual. The family tipis 

 are also practically extinct, though nearly every family has 

 surviving- representatives acquainted with the family crests 

 and with the ritualistic modes of constructing both tipis and 

 heraldic devices. Mr Mooney's method has been to employ 

 survivors of both brotherhoods and families to reconstruct 

 their shields and tipis in miniature, with the armorial bear- 

 ings, these models to be preserved in the National Museum 

 after the study is finished. The task has been a tedious one, 

 yet the progress has been satisfactory. The heraldic system 

 of the native tribes opens the way to knowledge of various 

 obscure customs of primitive peoples and to vital stages in 

 cultural progress. They are closely related to the pictograph 

 systems found among the tribes of the Plains, and through these 

 they are akin to the glyphic systems employed in the aborig- 

 inal books and sculptures of Mexico and Central America. 

 Moreover, since they represent the transition from prescrip- 

 torial to scriptorial culture, they are found to throw much light 

 on the genesis of European systems of heraldry. The heraldry 

 of those tribes in which it is best developed forms a nucleus 

 for the esthetic activities generally; in the heraldic devices 

 artistic forms and coloring find their highest expression; in 

 connection with them the powers of imagination attain their 

 highest perfection; and through them symbolism, ritual, faith, 

 and war ceremonial were crystallized and kept alive. 



Ethnologists have long realized that tlie widest gateway to 

 aboriginal life is that afforded by games of chance; for primi- 

 tive men, especially in tliat barbaric cultui'e in which divina- 

 tion is the keynote of psychic character, are habitual gamesters, 

 and not only devote much time to gaming, but play openly 

 with infatuation, so as to afford constant opportunities to the 

 student. The lowly games that are played by the native 

 Australians and Polynesians have received much attention; 

 those of Korea, Japan, and China, in which the barbaric 

 element of divination is supplemented by skill, have been 

 described by eminent authors; tlie games of the American 

 aborigines have been studied not only by collaborators of the 

 Bureau but by other able ethnologists, notably Tylor; and 



