ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XLI 



languages, is highly complex in its inflections and in the per- 

 mutability of its consonants. From October 1 to the end of 

 April Dr Gratschet was occupied in the study of the Peoria, 

 Shawano, Arapaho, and Cheyenne languages in Indian Terri- 

 tory. Eight weeks were devoted to the Peoria language, 

 during- which period over three thousand terms and a corre- 

 sponding number of phrases and sentences were collected and 

 revised This study is deemed of exceptional interest, since no 

 texts of the Peoria language are known to have appeared in 

 print. 



The Shawano language was next taken up. Assisted in the 

 field by good interpreters, Dr Gratschet obtained copies and 

 reliable material in texts of the phraseology and terms of the 

 Shawano language, a number of verbal and nominal paradigms, 

 and a choice selection of instances showing the multiplicity of 

 duplication. 



Subsequently Dr Gratschet took up the Arapaho and Chey- 

 enne languages. Both are nasalized and are spoken in several 

 dialects differing but little from one another. Ample collections 

 were made of lexic and phraseologic material, with texts and 

 some poetic specimens. The ethnographic study of these gen- 

 uine prairie Indians is highly interesting, since they have had 

 but a few years of intercourse with the white man and his civ- 

 ilizing influences. 



Mr Hewitt continued his work on the Iroquoian languages, 

 with which he is thoroughly familiar. He was able to ascer- 

 tain and formulate the principles or canons governing the num- 

 ber, kind, and position of notional stems in symphrases or 

 word-sentences. Six rules are formulated which establish 

 and govern the morphologic groundplan of words and word- 

 sentences. These are as follows: 



First. The simple or the compound stem of a notional word 

 of a word-sentence may not be employed as an element of dis- 

 course without a prefixed simple or complex personal pronoun, 

 or sign or flexion denotive of gender, the prefixion of the lat- 

 ter taking place with nouns only. 



Second. Only two notional stems may be combined in the 

 same word-sentence, and they must belong respectively to dif- 

 ferent parts of speech. 



