XXIV BITREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Thomas, whose researches concerning the native codices 

 of Mexico and Yucatan have familiarized him with the 

 literature of these and neighboring regions, and to some 

 extent with the aboriginal languages. Dr Thomas de- 

 voted several months to the work; and about the close 

 of the fiscal year he had completed a provisional classifi- 

 cation and map of native linguistic stocks in Mexico and 

 Central America, designed to supplement the classifica- 

 tion and ma|) of the American Indians north of Mexico 

 published in the Seventh Annual Report. The material 

 remains in the hands of the Director for use in general 

 study and for revision for publication. 



As noted above, Dr Albert S. Gatschet visited Nova 

 Scotia early in the fiscal year for the purpose of complet- 

 ing his collections of the northeasternmost Algonquian 

 tongues, and his collections will enable him to round out 

 the comparative vocabulary of Algonquian dialects so far 

 as the tribes of northeastern United States and the 

 contiguous territory are concerned. His work on Cape 

 Breton Island was especially fruitful. On returning to 

 the office he resumed the extraction of lexic and gram- 

 matic material, and pushed forward the preparation of 

 the comparative vocabulary ; and in connection with this 

 work he prepared synthetic characterizations of the prin - 

 cipal elements of several typical dialects, including the 

 Kataba of the Siouan stock. 



Mr J. N. B. Hewitt continued the ])reparation of his 

 memoir on the comparative mj'thology of the Iroquoian 

 tribes. On juxtaposing the principal cosmogonic myths 

 of the several tribes, found various indications of incom- 

 pleteness, and it was chiefly for the purpose of verifying 

 certain of the versions that he revisited Ontario, as has 

 already been noted. He succeeded in obtaining a con- 

 siderable body of new data, and after his return from the 

 field he made good progress in the preparation of his 

 memoir, a part of which has been incorporated in another 

 part of this report. Early in the fiscal year Mr Hewitt 

 made a notable comparison between the Seri language, as 



