XVIII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



voice, mode, and tense. Further sections were devoted to the 

 suggestion of additional investigations, to the best mode of 

 studying materials collected, and to the rank of Indian lan- 

 guages as instruments for the expression of thought. The work 

 therefore was designed, first, to briefly describe Indian lan- 

 guages in those characteristics commonly found and more 

 necessary to the student yet uninitiated; second, to lead the 

 investigation by natural steps from that which is easily at- 

 tained to that which is more difficult; third, to put the student 

 in possession of such general anthropologic facts as are neces- 

 sary to the intelligent prosecution of his work; and, fourth, to 

 provide a practicable method of reducing an ixnknown lan- 

 guage to writing. 



HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGI- 

 NES, BY LEWIS H. MORGAN. 



In the year 1881 the comprehensive and important work of 

 Hon. Lewis H. Morgan, " Houses and House-Life of the Ameri- 

 can Aborigines," was issued as Volume IV of Contributions to 

 North American Ethnology. Its distinguished and lamented 

 author, the pioneer of American anthropology, and recognized 

 throughout the world as a leader in that science, has died 

 since the publication of this his last scientific production, con- 

 taining the matured results of the studies of his long and in- 

 dustrious life. 



The main purpose of the work was to set forth the house- 

 life and domestic institutions of the North American Indians 

 as explaining the characteristics of Indian life. Earlier writers, 

 with greater opportunities, have been markedly and unfortu- 

 nately inattentive to this inquiry. These institutions appear 

 to be more highly developed and firmly established than had 

 been previously supposed, and faithfully portray the condition 

 of mankind in two well-marked ethnic periods, viz, the Older 

 Period and the Middle Period of barbarism, as they are called 

 by Mr. Moi'gan, the first being well represented by the Iro- 

 quois and several other tribes, and the second by the Aztecs, 

 or ancient Mexicans, and the Indians of Yucatan and Central 

 America. In no part of the earth now understood through 



