REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 53 



As opportunity offered, Mr. Hewitt continued to work on a sketch 

 of the Iroquois language, and he has now in hand about T5 pages of 

 manuscript, in addition to a considerable body of notes and diagrams 

 for incorporation into final form. 



Mr. Hewitt also made a week's study of the voluminous manu- 

 script " Dictionary of Words that have been Made Known in or 

 Introduced into English from the Indians of North, Central, and 

 South America," compiled by the late William R. Gerard, with a 

 view of ascertaining its value for publication by the bureau. This 

 examination was made difficult by the fact that the compiler of the 

 dictionary had access to many works which were not available for 

 Mr. Hewitt. 



Unfortunately the work summarized above was often interrupted, 

 owing to the need of frequently calling on Mr. Hewitt for the prepa- 

 ration of data for replies to correspondents, whose inquiries pertained 

 to linguistic, historical, sociological, and technical matters. In con- 

 nection with this work there were prepared 110 letters, rarely ex- 

 ceeding a page in length, although some occupied several pages and 

 required considerable study and research in gathering the needed 

 data for reply. 



During the year Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, recorded the 

 rituals and accompanying songs of five additional Osage ceremonies, 

 known as Wawatho", Wadoka Weko, Wazhi"gao, Zhi'^gazhi^ga 

 Zhazhe Thadse, and Wexthexthe. Of these the Wawatho" is com- 

 plete; the record fills about 150 pages, including songs, diagrams, 

 and illustrations. This ceremony, which is of religious significance 

 and is reverenced by all the people, has been obsolete for about 20 

 years, and there now remain only two men in the tribe who remem- 

 ber it in most of its details. It was a peace ceremony that held an 

 important place in the great tribal rites of the Osage, for through 

 its influence friendly relations were maintained among the various 

 gentes composing the tribe, and it was also the means by which 

 friendship with interrelated tribes was established and preserved. 

 Early French travelers mention this ceremony as being performed 

 by the Osage in one of the tribes of the Illinois confederacy during 

 the second decade of the eighteenth century. Unlike the Osage war 

 ceremonies, which are complex and composed of several steps or 

 degrees, the Wawatho" is simple and complete in itself. The " pipes," 

 sometimes called calumets, which are employed in its performance, 

 consist of a number of sacred symbolic articles, each of which, with 

 its attendant ritual, was in the keeping of a certain gens of the tribe. 

 The assembling of these articles formed an essential part of the 

 ceremony, for it was on this occasion that the ritual, which explained 

 both the significance of and the precepts conveyed by the sacred 

 articles, bad to be recited. This Wawatho" ceremony resembled that 



