NO. 2 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, Iyl8 QQ 



Very few of the caverns visited alon^■ the upper Current and ui)])er 

 Meramec Rivers are adapted for sheUers, being damp or with small 

 openings which shut ofif light from the interior ; or difficult to reach ; 

 or at a distance from water. This is also true of the caverns along the 

 lower Osage and lower Gasconade. The best field for research, how- 

 ever, is situated in Phelps and Pulaski Counties, where scores of 

 caverns not only promise good material, but also are of sufficient 

 depth to have stratification containing the handiwork of successive 

 populations. 



Xo aboriginal burial places have been discovered in level bottom 

 lands, though many must certainly exist, when consideration is given 

 to the evidences of numerous villages and long periods of occupation. 



Cairns are found on nearly every ridge, especially on ]Doints which 

 overlook streams or valleys. Nearly all were the ordinary conical 

 or dome shape, formed by throwing stones over a grave, and are not 

 at all distinctive, resembling in this respect similar burial places in 

 various parts of the country. Two types, modifications of a single 

 ])lan. were discovered, however, which have not been observed else- 

 where. The graves in these are indicated by stone walls forming an 

 enclosure as nearly square as the skill of the builders would permit. 

 In one form, only a single row of flat stones was laid, and the grave, 

 including a narrow space around the outside of the wall, was covered 

 with stones, so that the pile outwardly resembled the ordinary cairn. 

 In the other form this wall is carried up several rows, making a 

 structure like a cellar wall or the foundation of a house. The space 

 within this was filled with stones thrown in loosely, but none were 

 placed against the outside. This latter type dififers from the earth- 

 covered stone vaults along the Missouri River where the inside of the 

 vault is laid up as evenly as possible, no attention being paid to the 

 (lutside: whereas, in the former, this feature is reversed. 



FIELD-WORK AMONG THE KIOWA 

 l^'rom July to October inclusive, Mr. James !Mooney, ethnologist, 

 continued his field investigations of the Peyote cult and Kiowa her- 

 aldry among the Kiowa and associated tribes of Oklahoma. 



The heraldry investigation relates particularly to the confederated 

 Kiowa and Kiowa Apache, and involves a study of the origin, his- 

 tory, decoration, myths, and ceremonial regulations in connection 

 with the shields and heraldic tipis formerly existing in the tw'o 

 tribes (there being approximately 250 shields and 50 decorated 

 tipis), with incidental attention to the tribal systems of genealogy, 

 heredity, and medicine, together with the warrior organization and 



