4 Dircdor^s Annual Report. 



3-ears of study only to find, as must always be the case, that the 

 limits of his knowledge simply become more defined by the stuch-. 

 Our Hawaiian colle(5lion is by far the best in the world, as it 

 should be, but in very many important matters it is still defedtive. 

 The rapid fading of aboriginal lore from the memory of the present 

 generation, and the rapid passing of the elders of the race, makes 

 it ver}' difficult to add to our knowledge from anything beyond a 

 study of the remains and a comparison with the habits and acflions 

 of other neighboring races and of other branches of the Polynesians. 

 Tt makes ])ainfull\- exidcnt the gaps in the evidence collected by 

 the Director in his notes nearly fort}' years ago, and gives rise to 

 vain regrets that the knowledge of what is needed today could not 

 have been his when as a young man he collected all the items he 

 then knew how to gather. The sciences of Ethnology and Anthro- 

 pology were not then in existence as they are known today, and 

 folklore had not begun to be collected among the backward peoples 

 of the Pacific Ocean. 



The ancient cu.stoms have been forgotten or so far corrupted 

 as to be of little use save as a record of change, and we must study 

 the implements remaining at least as carefully as the hunter .studies 

 the spoor of the game that has preceded him in the path. A large 

 collection of these adds value to the .study, and we have here, for- 

 tunately, the largest and best in the world. In repeating this I am 

 not unmimUul that there are certain private colle(ftions on these 

 Islands, and elsewhere, that should be added to this Museum before 

 they are .scattered beyond our reach. Already, the past year, a 

 feather cloak of a material not in our colle<5lion has passed out of 

 our reach into a more fortunate museum, and I know of no other 

 of this kind accessible. The Hawaiian collections that can be ob- 

 tained, and that supplement our own, should be at once gathered 

 into this treasure house. Five thousand dollars would enable the 

 Diredlor to add these things. At some future time their lo.ss will 

 .be vainly lamented. 



In the department of Osteology we are sadly deficient, for we 



