OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XIX 
The Third Annual Report contained pp. i-Ixxiv, 1-606, 44 
plates, and 200 figures. In addition to the purely official state- 
ment of the Director, the introduction to the volume contained 
papers by him on kinship and the tribe, on kinship and the 
elan, on tribal marriage, and on activital similarities. The 
accompanying papers were as follows: 
Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts, by Prof. Cyrus Thomas; pp. 3-65, 
plates I-IV, figures 1-10. 
On Masks, Labrets, and Certain Aboriginal Customs, with an inquiry into the bear- 
ing of their geographical distribution, by William H. Dall; pp. 67-202, plates V— 
XXIX, with two unnumbered figures in text. 
Omaha Sociology, by Rev. J. Owen Dorsey; pp. 205-370, plates XXX-XXXIII, fig- 
ures 12-42. 
Nayajo Weavers, by Dr. Washington Matthews, U.S. A.; pp. 371-391, plates XXX1TV— 
XXXVIII, figures 42-59. 
Prehistoric Textile Fabrics of the United States, derived from Impressions on Pot- 
tery, by William H. Holmes; pp. 393-425, plate XXXIX, figures 60-115. 
Illustrated Catalogue of a Portion of the Collections made by the Bureau of Ethnol- 
ogy during the field season of 1831, by William H. Holmes; pages 427-510, figures 
116-200. 
Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections obtained from the Pueblos of Zuni, New 
Mexico, and Wolpi, Arizona, in 1881, by James Stevenson; pp. 511-594, plates XL— 
XLIV. 
FIELD WORK. 
In this branch of duty facts are collected in archeology and. 
technology by means of explorations directed to ancient and 
modern material objects produced by the native tribes, and in 
philology, mythology, and sociology by means of examination 
of the members of those tribes, both as individuals and as 
aggregations. 
Former reports have fully explained that without the au- 
thority and assistance of the Government little useful work 
can be done in the collection and preservation of material ob- 
jects. The purpose of private explorers in this direction is 
usually to procure relics or specimens for sale or merely to 
gratify curiosity, with the result that these are often scattered, 
and lost for any comprehensive study, while their receptacles, 
whether mounds, graves, or ruins, are in many cases destroyed 
without intelligent examination or record, by which students: 
are,forever deprived of needful illustrative and explanatory 
data. The trained explorers of the Bureau preserve all useful 
