30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 



A study Tvas made by Dr. Fewkes of prehistoric antiquities in the 

 Lesser Antilles and material gathered for a proposed monograph on 

 the aborigines of those islands. Examination was made of many 

 village sites, prehistoric mounds, shell heaps, and bowlders bearing 

 incised pictographs. In a shell heap in Trinidad there was found 

 a valuable collection of animal heads made of terra cotta and stone 

 and other implements illustrating the early culture of the island. As 

 a result of his researches thus far, Dr. Fewkes concludes that — 



The New World, when discovered, had not advanced in autochthonous de- 

 velopment beyond the neolithic age, whereas in Asia, Europe, and Africa a 

 neolithic age was supplemented by one in which metals had. replaced stone for 

 implements. In the Old World this polished-stone epoch was preceded by a 

 paleolithic stone age not represented, so far as is known, in America. The 

 ethnology and archeology of our Indians is therefore only a chapter, and that 

 a brief one, of a segment of a much more extended racial evolution, as illus- 

 trated in Asia, Europe, and Africa. 



Further study was made by Mr. Mooney of the sacred formulas of 

 the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. In connection with this 

 work a collection of medicinal plants was made, including some speci- 

 mens of the native corn still cultivated as sacred and found to be a 

 new and hitherto undescribed variety of special food importance 

 under cultivation. 



Investigations also progressed among the Fox Indians, the Creeks, 

 Osage, Seneca, and other tribes, and in the study of various Indian 

 languages and ceremonies much advancement was made. Toward a 

 work on the habits and customs and ceremonies of the Tewa Indians 

 of New Mexico there has been brought together much interesting 

 information. 



Several years ago there was begvm a series of handbooks on the 

 American Indians. The first of these was issued in two volumes, 

 entitled "Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico," and 

 contains a descriptive list of the stocks, confederacies, tribes, tribal 

 divisions, and settlements north of Mexico, with sketches of their 

 history, archeology, manners, arts, customs, and institutions. The 

 work proved of so great value to the public that several reprintings 

 became necessary, including a special reprint by the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment. 



The Handbook of American Indian Languages forms the second 

 of the series. Part I of this handbook has been published and por- 

 tions of the second part have been printed in separate form. This 

 work discusses the characteristics and classification of the languages 

 of the American Indians and their relation to ethnology. In North 

 America north of Mexico there are distinguished 55 linguistic fam- 

 ilies. The first volume of the handbook contains sketches of a num- 

 ber of the languages of the northern portion of the continent, in- 



