XXVI ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



He collected vocabularies of the Pani, Ankara, Kaddo, Kichai, 

 and Wichita languages, to be used by the Director for compari- 

 son purposes. He obtained the gentes of the Kaddo and 

 Wichita, and the gentes, subgentes, and phratries of the Iowa 



tribe. 



During the month of May, 1882, he was engaged in the pre- 

 paration of a paper on Omaha Sociology, which appears in the 

 present volume. 



Mr. J. C. Pilling continued the compilation of the Bibliog- 

 raphy of North American Languages during the fiscal year, 

 on the plan outlined in former reports, giving to it such time 

 as could be spared from his regular administrative work. Brief 

 visits to some of the prominent libraries of New York and New 

 England were made during the month cf July, and again late 

 in the fall, and much new material was collected. In October 

 the first "copy" was sent to the printer, and in December 

 type-setting was begun. The proof-reading of such matter 

 is necessarily slow, and at the close of the fiscal year but 128 

 pages had been received. So far as possible these proof-sheets 

 were submitted to the prominent workers in Indian languages 

 in this country, and many additions and corrections were re- 

 ceived from these sources. 



Brevet Lieut. Col. Garrick Mallery, U. S. Army, contin- 

 ued researches into gesture-language among the tribes of North 

 America with verifications and corrections of material previ- 

 ously collected from them and additions to it. The result indi- 

 cated is, that while one system of gesture-speech has long 

 existed among the Indians, it is not to be regarded as one formal 

 or absolute language, several groups with their centers of 

 origin being disclosed. In regard to diversity the gesture- 

 signs of speaking men are found to correspond with those of 

 deaf mutes. Not only do many of the particular signs of deaf 

 mutes in America differ from those used with the same signifi- 

 cation in some countries of Europe, but a similar disagreement 

 is observed among 1 the several institutions for deaf mute in- 

 struction in the United States. When the diverse signs are 

 purely ideographic they are, however, intelligible to all per- 



