XXX ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



color with European sentiment was often apparent, even when 

 distortion in support of favorite theories did not destroy the 

 spirit and real significance of the original. 



It has been before mentioned that, by the plan of the Bu- 

 reau, the myths and folk-lore of the several tribes are pre- 

 served and recorded in their own languages, with interlinear 

 translation, and without foreign coloring or addition, in con- 

 nection with the several dictionaries of those languages. The 

 paper of Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith, though not at this time pre- 

 senting the original language, is written after her reductions 

 of the original to writing, in the course of her linguistic work, 

 and after prolonged residence among tlie Iroquois tribes, into 

 one of which, the Tuscarora, she was adopted. It is, there- 

 fore, an authoritative rendering of some of the Iroquoian myths, 

 both in their letter and spirit. Such of them as have appeared 

 in other forms will be favorably contrasted with those versions 

 in European languages, and others have been for the first time 

 collected by her. Special interest will be awakened by the 

 purely aboriginal character of the Great Heads, the Stone 

 Giants, and the Echo God as now disclosed. 



ANIMAL CARVINGS FROM MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

 VAIiliEY, BY MR. HENRY W. HENSHAW. 



While industry is required to rescue from oblivion the lan- 

 guages, institutions, and all anthropologic peculiarities of the 

 Indians, so fast disappearing by absorption, no less care is 

 needed to correct, by careful analysis, the many false state- 

 ments which corrupt the mass of literature concerning them, 

 upon which prevalent theories have been based. Even after 

 facts have been established and eri'ors eliminated, the science 

 of anthropology must call in the aid of other sciences to deter- 

 mine the value and application of the data comprised in its field 

 of study. The discreditable fact that until within a few years 

 past no real advance has been made in the ethnology of North 

 America is by no means owing to the paucity of published 

 material, but rather to its enormous quantity, confused by its 

 unordered bulk and filled with contradictions and absurdities. 

 Of the costly libraries devoted to collections on this special 



