XXVI BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



tliat represented in the decoration of fictile ware, and the 

 author of this monograph, combining as he does thorough 

 technical knowledge of the potter's craft with high artistic 

 skill and singular esthetic appreciation, has been able to trace 

 in masterly fashion and to illustrate effectively the growth of 

 fictile decoration. As a faithful description of aboriginal })ot- 

 tery the treatise will undoubtedly become standard; and it 

 is the most comprehensive contribution thus far made to the 

 history of those stages of culture in which the fashionino- and 

 decoration of pottery have ranked high among the voca- 

 tions of mankind. The monograph forms the body of the 

 Twentieth Annual Report. 



During the year the series of graphic representations of 

 personages in the Hopi pantheon collected by Dr Fewkes, 

 mentioned in previous reports, was sent to press as a part of 

 the Twenty-first Annual, under the title Hopi Katcinas. Dr 

 Fewkes also completed the illustrated memoir on his unique 

 collections of pottery and other material from Arizona and 

 New Mexico, noted in the last report. It is in press, under 

 the title Two Summers' Work in Pueblo Ruins, as a part of 

 the Twenty- second Annual. 



Work in Technology 



Primarily, Professor Holmes's monogi'aph on aboriginal pot- 

 tery of the eastern United States is a description of the fictile 

 ware classified by districts, so far as practicable by tribes, and 

 also by technologic types. The art of the potter is old, far 

 older than written history, so that its beginnings can never be 

 traced directly. The antique and prehistoric wares themselves 

 yield a partial record of the development of the art; the arche- 

 ologists of the Old World have been able to supplement and 

 extend the written history of pottery through study of such 

 material, and their researches have lent interest to the ancient 

 vessels and sherds wnth wliich the museums of the world are 

 enriched. Yet the fictile ware of Egypt, Babylonia, Etruria, 

 India, and other Old World provinces falls far short of telling 

 the whole story of the art, since it fails to reveal the actual 

 motives and sentiments of the early artisans; the relics are 



