COLLECTOKS OF SPECIMETSTS HOLMES AND MASON. [6] 



best that a people can do is never to be rejected, but the commonplace 

 is more expressive of their dail}- lives. 



(h) A little patience at the outset will go a great way in straighten- 

 ing out the confusion of nomenclature. It is most desirable to assign 

 each specimen to its proper tribe, and to ascertain whether the name 

 refers to race or blood, to language, to tribal or political consider- 

 ations, to location, or to some caprice. 



((?) Everything depends upon the label. At least the use of the 

 object should be told. The common shipping tags are good enough 

 for all purposes. Each object should bear a collector's number and 

 this should correspond with a number in the collector's notebook. On 

 the tag should be given the common and the native name of the object, 

 the localit3^ the tribe, the use, and the collector. Much more will be 

 written in the notebook. 



{d) The crowded condition of the National Museum makes it diffi- 

 cult to show large objects. Moreover, in making comparisons the 

 student and the visitor pass in review a number of small objects more 

 readil3^ It is therefore desirable to secure small lay figures in costume, 

 models of clothing, dwellings, machines, land conveyances, water 

 craft, and even of villages. But the true forms and parts and relations 

 should always be preserved. In ever}^ case, whether full size or 

 model be secured, it is most desirable to have the whole costume, 

 mechanical device, carriage, boat, or whatever it may be. It is very 

 instructive to present a prominent native art from the raw material to 

 the finished product. In many countries the natives themselves are 

 clever at making small models and costumed figures in native dress, 

 but, where this art is lacking, the National Museum has skilled work- 

 men who from photographs, drawings, measurements, and descriptions 

 are able to make reproductions. 



To avoid repetitions under each head, let it be said once for all that 

 for every art there should be procured the materials, receptacles, 

 tools, apparatus, and products, together with the best available pic- 

 tures and description of processes and activities involved. The col- 

 lector may not alwaj'^s be able to secure every detail, but completeness 

 should be aimed at in every case. The fullest possible information 

 should accompan}^ each specimen. 



I.— ARTS AND ACTIVITIES RELATING TO— 



1. Food. — Tribal dietaries. Lists of mineral, vegetable, and animal 

 substances eaten, pictures and models of storage places and receptacles, 

 apparatus and vessels for preparing and serving foods. This class 

 includes all that answers to kitchen, storeroom, pantry, and dining 

 utensils, dishes, and cutlery. 



2. Dkinks. — Semicivilized tribes in all parts of the world have 

 invented processes of fermenting. In the Philippines it is tuha, from 



