Xvl PREFACE. 
After his return to Washington in 1880, the author arranged for several 
Indians of the Omaha and Ponka tribes to visit Washington for the purpose 
of aiding him in the revision of his work. From these Indians and Mr. 
Frank La Fléche (see page 525) he gained additional myths and stories, 
which, with numerous letters recorded chiefly at the Omaha Agency, form 
Part II. It has been decided to publish the remaining letters in a bulletin 
of the Bureau of Ethnology, under the title of “‘Omaha and Ponka Letters.” 
This bulletin, with the present monograph and the publications named on 
pp. xvii and xviii, will contain all the @egiha texts, phrases, and sentences 
collected by the author. 
The texts will be followed by a (legiha-English dictionary, an English- 
(fegiha dictionary, and a grammar. Up to July, 1885, over 16,000 (egiha- 
English entries for the dictionary were arranged on slips in alphabetical 
order after they had been transliterated into the present alphabet of the 
Bureau of Ethnology. 
It was decided in 1882 that the present volume, the dictionaries, and 
grammar should be published together. But in November, 1889, another 
conclusion was reached by the Director, resulting in the author’s devoting 
most of his time to the preparation of the additional texts which form 
Part I. It will require at least one year, if not longer, for the completion 
of the @egiha-English dictionary. In the final revision of the slips for that 
dictionary there will be many references to words and phrases in the texts 
by page and line. The English-(egiha dictionary and the grammar must 
be deferred for a few years. 
In translating personal names the author has proceeded according to 
the following rules: In compound names, such as Wajinga-sabé (bird black), 
capitalize each part as far as possible, thus: ‘Black Bird.” In names which 
can not be resolved into two or more primitives use but one capital, as 
Mang¢iqta, Blackbird; Wasabé, Black bear (not ‘“ Black Bear”); Ma*tcu, 
Grizzly bear (not ‘Grizzly Bear”). 
