62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1922, 



of the specific researches properly coming within the activities of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, but many are only requests for the 

 derivation of some alleged native Indian place or proper name, often 

 greatly Anglicized and mutilated. Some of these inquiries require 

 more than a day's work to answer, as it is sometimes necessary to visit 

 the Congressional Library in search of data. Data for more than 

 75 such inquiries were prepared. 



Immediately following the death of the late Mr. James Mooney, 

 Mr. Hewitt assisted Mrs. Mooney in assorting and separating the 

 personal letters and papers of Mr. Mooney, some in advanced stages 

 of preparation (the accumulation of more than 30 years' activity in 

 an official capacity), from those which by their nature are official 

 documents, and correspondence and photographs. More than a week 

 was devoted to this work. 



Before placing this material in the new store-room a rough classi- 

 fication was made of it. Five main groups were made, correspond- 

 ing roughly with the five chief papers which Mr. Mooney had under 

 Avay for a number of years before his demise, namely, (a) A Study of 

 the Peyote and Its Accompanying Keligious Cult; (5) A Monograph 

 on the Population of the Indian Tribes When First Known; (c) A 

 Paper on Cherokee Medical Formulas Recorded in the Sequoya 

 Alphabet by Native Priests; (d) Kiowa Heraldry; and (e) A Study 

 of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Shields. OAving to the peculiar chi- 

 rography of Mr. Mooney and his excessive use of abbreviations pecu- 

 liar to himself, this task proved to be a most tedious and difficult one. 



Mr. Hewitt, who represents the Smithsonian Institution on the 

 United States Geographic Board, attended all its regular meetings 

 except one and all the special meetings of the board. 



Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, continued during the fiscal 

 year the task of assembling his notes for the second volume of his 

 work on The Osage Tribe. The manuscript for the second volume, 

 which embraces two versions of an ancient Osage ritual entitled, 

 "No"-zhi°-zho'' Wa-tho°," Songs of the Rite of Vigil, was com- 

 pleted and turned in to the bureau on February 25, 1922, where it 

 awaits publication. 



The first version of this ritual, which is counted as next in im-' 

 portance to the Hearing of the Sayings of the Ancient Men, pub- 

 lished in the thirty-sixth annual report of the bureau, was given by 

 Wa-xthi-zhi of the Puma gens of the Osage. This man had learned 

 the ritual from his father, Wa-thii-ts'aga-zhi, who is said to have 

 been one of the best informed No"'-ho"-zhi°-ga in the tribal rites. 

 With some difficulty Mr. I^a Flesche managed to persuade Sho"'-ge- 

 mo°-i°, of the Peacemaker gens, a more conservative man than Wa- 

 xthi-zhi, to give the second version, which belongs to his gens. As 

 this ritual pertains to war, old Sho"'-ge-mo"-i'' desired it to be clearly 



