LIV BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



and Seneka-Onoudag-a, the several tribes represented Ly the 

 uppermost branches being but shohtly differentiated. Thus 

 the linguistic history of the Iroquoian stock is one of differen- 

 tiation and division, probably combined with assimilation from 

 other stocks. It ma}- be observed that this history is ])arallel 

 to that wrought out for the Siouan stock by Dorsey and tluit 

 which Gatschet is now tracing in the Algonquian stock; but 

 this a])parently aberrant course of linguistic evolution in 

 certain instances is in no way inconsistent with the general 

 course of the development of language, which tends toward 

 unitv through the combination and assimilation of the various 

 tongues. Subsequently Mr Hewitt was occupied in analyzing 

 and scheduling the vocabulary of the Tubari language, col- 

 lected in northern Mexico by Dr Carl Lumholtz, and in 

 preparing the matter for publication. The closing months of 

 the year were spent in cataloguing manuscripts and other 

 material stored in the fireproof vaults of the Bureau. 



MYTHOLOGY 



Mrs jMatilda Coxe Stevenson continued the study and 

 elaboration of her records concerning tlie mythology and cere- 

 monies of the Zvini Indians, and practically completed her 

 monograpli on this subject. The Pueblo Indians, and espe- 

 cially the Zviiii, are characterized by an extraordinary subser- 

 viency to belief and ritual. Before her connection with the 

 Bureau Mrs Stevenson became intimately acquainted with the 

 Indians of several pueblos and with their peculiar fiducial 

 customs, and has consequently had unprecedented opportunity 

 for the study of observances and esoteric ceremonies, and it 

 has l)een her aim to record the details of her observations with 

 pencil and camera so fully as to perpetuate these mysteries f( )r 

 the use of future students. In nearly every respect she regards 

 her records concerning the Zuni as complete. At the end of 

 the fiscal year her monograph was finished with the exce}»tion 

 of a single chapter, the material for which was incomplete It 

 was planned to have this material collected during July and 

 August, 1896. 



