XXX REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



ceremouies are preceded by a mortuary ritual, lasting one entire 

 night, in honor of the deceased member, whose place is filled 

 later on by the initiation of a substitute. 



Investigations were made of the Menomoni ceremony to 

 compare it with a similar ritual found among the Ojibwa. It 

 appears that the Menomoni practices are oftshoots from the 

 Ojibwa, and that where the Ojibwa shamans repeat certain 

 phrases in an archaic form of language as handed down to 

 them, the Menomoni employ Ojibwa words and phrases, per- 

 haps to mystify the hearers, or, perhaps, because the ritual 

 was obtained from the Ojibwa in that form. The mode of 

 manufacture of the several kinds of mats made by the Menom- 

 oni was also examined, and typical specimens were secui'ed. 



On the completion of his work at the above reservations. Dr. 

 Hoffman proceeded to La Pointe to inquire of the Ojibwa 

 shanians concerning certain sacred birch-bark charts employed 

 by them in the initiation of candidates into their society, 

 and also to secure additional information relative to the expla- 

 nation of pietographic cosmogony records. He then visited 

 the OttaAva Indians on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, 

 near Mackinaw, to ascertain whether the ceremonies of the 

 Grand Medicine Society are still practiced by them. This 

 body of Indians profess to have discontinued these rites, but 

 assert that a band of the Ottawa, living farther southward, near 

 Grand Traverse, adhere to the primitive belief and conduct 

 annual ceremonies. 



WORK OF MR. JAMES MOONEY. 



Mr. James Mooney made a short visit in July to the moun- 

 tain region of North Carolina and Tennessee, the former home 

 of the Cherokees, for the purpose of collecting additional facts 

 for a monograph on that tribe. In connection with the same 

 work he had intended to visit the Cherokee nation in Indian 

 territory during the following winter, but in the meantime the 

 "Messiah religion" had begun to attract so much attention 

 that he was directed to investigate that subject also at the 

 same time, as well as to gather more material bearing on the 

 linguistic affinities of the Kiowa tribe He left Washington 



