XXXVI REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



and the Englisli-Tuskarora part commenced. ^lucli material 

 ft)r tlie compilation of a complete grammar of the Tuskarora- 

 Iroquoian tongue was added to that previously acquired. 

 For this object such anomalous, redundant, and defective verbs- 

 as have been recorded in the dictionary have been coinjugated 

 in all the derivative forms of which they are susceptible, a 

 ditftcult but instructive task. Several regular A-erbs have also 

 been conjugated to develop all their known derivative forms. 

 The nmnber of possible derivative forms of a regular verb in 

 the several conjugations is estimated by Mr. Hewitt to reach 

 between 2,800 and 3,000. This enumeration is of interest, first, 

 because it has been asserted by students of Indian languages that 

 the number of possible derivative forms of an Amei'ican Indian 

 verb is infinite, and, secondly, because it has been estimated 

 that a Greek verb so conjugated would be represented, by 

 about 1,300 forms. 



He also paid special attention to grammatic gender. There 

 are in the Tuskarora-Iroquoian tongue three genders, which he 

 names the anthropic, the zoic, and the azoic, which are ex- 

 pressed through the prefix pronouns only. In the anthropic 

 gender alone sex distinctions are found, and hence there are 

 masculine and feminine pronouns therein; but in the zoic and 

 azoic genders, sex is not indicated. Hence, by the prefix pro- 

 nouns, the objects of discourse are naturally classified into 

 three genders. 



Mr. Hewitt continued making ti'anslations from the old 

 French writers, Perrot, Lafitau, La Potherie, and others, of the 

 notices and accounts of the beliefs, rites and ceremonies, super- 

 stitions, and mythic tales of the Iroquoian peoples. These were 

 collated as aids in explaining and elaborating the matter col- 

 lected in the field by him personally. By adding their testi- 

 mony to the evidence of etymology he forms, the opinion that 

 the Iroquoian cosmogony or genesis-myth originates in the 

 personification of the elements, powers, processes, and the liv- 

 ing creatures of the visible and sensible world. 



Mrs. Matilda C. Stevenson was engaged fi-ora the later 

 part of September, 1890, to June 30, 1891, in preparing for 

 publication the material collected at the pueblo of Sia, New 



