798 EEPORT — 1891. 



Funerals are eoiulucted with much ceremony, the preparations being made by 

 members of that crest from which the deceased was bound to choose his wife. 

 .\fter the funea'al is over ail the people are feasted by the deceased man's nephew, 

 who then assumes his uncle's title and property. 



4. Report of the North-Western Tribes of Canada Committee. 

 See Reports, p. 407. 



5. On the Work of Major J. W. Powell, Director of the U.S. Ethnological 

 Bureau. Bij Professor Max Mijller, M.A. 



Prof. Max Miiller stated that he had just received proof sheets of a most 

 important publication on the classihcatiou of the Indian languages spoken in 

 America. It is a splendid piece of workmanship from Major Powell, the inde- 

 fatigable director of the Americau Bureau of Ethnology. The publications of 

 that bureau count among the most valuable contributions to anthropological 

 science, and tliey reflect the highest credit, not only on Major P;;well and his 

 fellow-workers, but also on the American Government, which has sanctioned a very 

 large outlay for the prosecution of these studies. There is no stint in the way in 

 which these volumes are brought out, and most of the papers contained in them 

 inspire the student with that confidence which can only be produced by honest, 

 conscientious, and truly scholar-like work. Our American friends have perceived 

 that it is a national duty to preserve as much as can still be preserved of the 

 languages and thoughts of the indigenous races who were the earliest dwellers on 

 American soil. They know that the study of what he himself had ventured to 

 call intellectual geology is quite as important as that of terrestrial geology, and 

 that the study of the lower strata contains the key to a right understanding 

 of the higher strata in the growth of the human mind. Coming generations will 

 call us to account for having allowed the old world to vanish without trying to 

 preserve its records. People who ask what can be the use of preserving the 

 language of the Mohawks forget what we should give if some scholar at the 

 time of Cato or Ctesar had written down what many could then easily have done — 

 a grammar of the Etruscan language. 



Some years ago Prof. Max Miiller succeeded in persuading a Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies that it v?as the duty of the English Government to publish a 

 series of colonial records containing trustworthy information on the languages, 

 customs, laws, religions, and monuments of the races inhabiting the English 

 colonies. Lord Granville saw that such an undertaking was a national duty, and 

 that the necessary fimds should be contributed by the various colonies. AN'hat a 

 magnificent work this would have been ! But while the American Government 

 has pushed forward its work, Lord Granville's scheme expired in the pigeon-holes 

 of the Colonial Office. America may well be proud of Major Powell, who would 

 not allow the treasures collected by various scholars and Government officials to 

 moulder and perish. He is a true enthusiast — not a man of mere impulse and good 

 intentions, but a man of sustained efi'ort in his work. He deserves the hearty 

 thanks of our Association, which Professor Max Miiller felt proud to be allowed to 

 tender to him in the name of the Anthropological Section. 



