38 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of June to the coast of Maine, which has long been known to abound in aboriginal 

 shell heaps; there he was soon afterward joined by Mr. Cushing, and surveys and 

 examinations of the prehistoric works were under way at the close of the fiscal year. 



DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY. 



As administrative duties permitted, Mr. F. W. Hodge (acting chief clerk) carried 

 forward the Cycloxiedia of the American Indians, his field work among the pueblos 

 in August and September yielding much information concerning the relations, and 

 especially concerning the clan organization of the southwestern Indians. In Febru- 

 ary Dr. Cyrus Thomas, having completed his revision and extension of work on 

 Indian land treaties, was transferred to the Cyclopedia, and during the remainder of 

 the fiscal year he was employed in collecting and arranging material relating to the 

 tribes of the Algonquian stock. The character of this Cyclopedia was set forth fully 

 in the last report. 



During the earlier part of the year Dr. Thomas revised and brought up to date the 

 Royce memoir on treaties with the Indian tribes relating to the cession of lands 

 (also described in the last report). The task proved greater than anticipated, since 

 extended research was required for bringing the work to date, and since this neces- 

 sitated the reconstruction of several of the maps. The laborious work was carried 

 forward energetically by Dr, Thomas, and the requisite additions to and modifica- 

 tions in the schedule were made, the maps were prepared, and an introductory and 

 explanatory chapter was written. The work was completed early in April, and was 

 prepared for transmission to the Public Printer for issue as Volume VIII of the Con- 

 tributions to North American Ethnology, when on examination of the statutes it was 

 found that the public printing law approved January 12, 1895, seems to terminate 

 that series ; accordingly, the document was held for incorporation in a forthcoming 

 annual report. 



In the early part of the year Mr. James Mooney was employed in the field in 

 researches among the Kiowa and Comanche Indians of Oklahoma and Indian Ter- 

 ritory. One of his lines of research related to the camping circle of the Kiowa- 

 Comanche group, in which the tents are arranged^n a certain definite order express- 

 ing the social organization and conveying other symbolic meanings; his studies 

 extended also to the patriarchial shields attached to the tents, and to the drawings 

 and paintings by which both shields and tents are decorated. He has found that 

 all of these decorations are symbolic, and collectively represent a highly elaborate 

 system of heraldry, and most of his time in the field was devoted to tracing the ram- 

 ifications and interpreting the details of the heraldic system. Special attention, 

 too, was given to the calendars, or " winter counts," of which several were found 

 among these Indians. These calendars, which represent the beginning of writing, 

 are long-continued records of current events, represented pictographically by rude 

 drawings and paintings on skins or fabrics; and from them the important events 

 in the history of the tribes for many years can be determined with accuracy. 



Another line of research related to the use of "mescal" by several of the southern 

 plains' tribes in their ceremonials as a paratriptic and mild intoxicant; this article, 

 as used by the Indians, is the upper part of the cactus known botanically as Anhalo- 

 nium leicinii, or Lophophora ivilliamsii lewinii, which grows in the arid region of 

 Texas and eastern Mexico. The tops of the plants are collected and dried, when 

 they form button-like masses an inch or more in diameter and perhaps one-eighth of 

 an inch in thickness; these buttons are eaten by the Indians in certain protracted 

 and exhausting ceremonials. Their effect is to stimulate and invigorate the system 

 to such an extent as to permit active participation in the dance and drama for many 

 consecutive hours without fatigue, while at the same time mental effects somewhat 

 akin to those of hashish are produced, whereby the condition of trance or hallucina- 

 tion, which plays so important a part in all primitive ceremonials, is made more 

 conqdete than is customary or even possible under normal circumstances. In addi- 

 tion to the study of effects produced on the Indians themselves by the use of the 



