REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 



northwestern New Meli-co/under a commission from the Bureau, for the purpose of 

 recounoitering and photographing prehistoric works. His notes and pictures were 

 duly trausinitted and have been found of special value. 



The information and material obtained by means of these field operations have been 

 utilized in large part in the preparation of reports; other portions have been added 

 to the archives for use in prospective investigations, while most of the objective 

 material has already been arranged in the National Museum in such manner as to be 

 accessible for study. The scientific results of the work are set forth in other 

 paragraphs. 



Office Research. 



work in esthetology. 



During the greater part of the year Mr. Frank Hamilton Gushing was employed 

 in arranging and cataloguing the remarkable collection of relics exhumed from salt 

 marshes in western Florida during the previous fiscal year and in preparing his report 

 for the press. The objects collected embrace a wide variety of domestic implements 

 and iitensils, weapons for use in war and the chase, fabrics for apparel and fishino- 

 appurtenances to water craft, etc. In addition, there were many objects such as are 

 used in primitive ceremony, comprising elaborately painted and carved masks and 

 effigies, Avhile many of the industrial devices are painted and carved in a manner 

 remarkable for wealth of imagery and delicacy of execution. 



An important part of Mr. Cushing's work was comparative study of the designs, 

 in form and color, found in connection with the ceremonial and other objects; and 

 substantial progress was made in the interpretation of the designs. Most of these 

 are zoic. The bear, the wolf, the wild-cat, the woodpecker, and different waterfowls 

 and aquatic animals are represented in carvings and paintings with a fidelity to 

 detail which renders them not only readily identifiable but really artistic. Some of 

 the effigies apjiroach the natural size, and are attached to other articles in such 

 manner as to indicate that they were worn as masks or crests, probably in dramatic 

 ceremonies analogous to those of the Indians of the pueblos and other primitive 

 peoples. These elaborate carvings are associated with wooden masks, shajjcd to fit 

 the face, bearing painted and carved designs of corresponding character, Init more or 

 less conventiouized in form and color. The realistic or partially couventionized forms 

 displayed on the masks are imitated not only on other ceremonial objects but also 

 on the industrial devices, and the degree of conventionism increases as the repre- 

 sentations are reduced in size or distorted to fit forms determined by various condi- 

 tions, so that an unbroken series of stages in the development of convention maybe 

 traced all the way from the essentially realistic representation of the ainmal head 

 to the design carved on the arrowshaft or tomahawk handle, which, at first sight, 

 would seem to be decoratiAe merely. 



The sequence displayed in these esthetic designs is, indeed, paralleled in other 

 collections ; but the remarkably rich assemblage of aboriginal handiwork from the 

 Floridian salt marshes, in which such perishable materials as wood, bone, plant 

 fiber, feather work, paint, and even leathern thongs are preserved, is especially 

 noteworthy for the completeness of the sequence and the large number of links rep- 

 resented. Accordingly the series of objects would seem to establish the view already 

 advocated by different collaborators of the Bureau that higher esthetic decoration 

 originates in symbolism, which may gradually be transformed through convention- 

 izing, either in the interests of economy or to meet other industrial conditions. 



During the previous year Dr. J. Walter Fewkes made a collection of fictile ware 

 and other aboriginal material among the ruins of Arizona and New Mexico, which 

 was regarded as rich beyond precedent. During the year just closed he made explo- 

 rations yielding a still larger body of material, which has been subjected to prelimi- 

 nary study, and has already been arranged in the Museum. As during the preceding 

 year, fictile ware was the predominant material. This ware is characterized by sym- 

 bolic and decorative designs, represented sometimes by modeling or by inscribed 



