ANTHROPOLOGIE FUÉGIENNE

Par le D' Deniker

Une des questions portées à notre programme concerne les éléments ethniques de l'extrême sud du continent américain, pour lequel il n'y a pas de nom sur les cartes et qu'on pourrait appeler Archipel Magellanique. 11 se compose d'une grande lie, la Terre de Feu, et d'une série d'îles et ilôts à l'ouest et au sud de celle-ci. Cette région est occupée par plusieurs peuplades.

Les Onas de l'Ile de la Terre de Feu présentent une grande analogie avec les Patagons qui habitent de l'autre côté du détroit. Ils ne connaissent pas le cheval.

La population de l'extrême sud américain, à proprement parler, ne comprend que les Yaghan et les Alakalouf, deux peuplades très voisines entre elles par le type et par les mœurs. On les connaît plutôt sous le nom collectif de Fuégiens, quoique ce nom soit mal choisi, car la Fuégie comprend aussi File de la Terre de Feu peuplée par les Onas. La région habitée par ces peuplades est une des plus inhospitalières du monde, exposée à tous les vents, couverte d'épaisses forêts ou des glaciers qui descendent presque jusqu'à la mer, ne laissant qu'une étroite lisière de terre entre eux et la mer, terre rebelle à toute culture. Quelles sont les causes qui ont amené les Fuégiens dans ces régions désolées? Avec quelles autres populations présentent-ils des

affinités ? A quelle époque sont-ils venus ? Sont-ils de race pure ou mêlée? Autant de questions qui ne pourront être résolues que lorsque nous connaîtrons définitivement les populations de l'Amérique du Sud. Vous avez entendu M. Ehrenreich. D'après ses recherches, on peut déjà signaler quelques rapprochements, au point de vue du type physique, entre les Fuégiens et les populations du centre du Brésil, séparés les uns des autres pourtant par un espace immense.

Voulant contribuer, dans la mesure de ses forces, à la solution des questions que je viens d'indiquer, M. le docteur Hyades, médecin principal de la marine, qui a séjourné pendant deux ans parmi les Fuégiens, avec la Mission française du Cap Ilorn, avait entrepris avec moi d'écrire une monographie complète de ce peuple. Les résultats de nos recherches sont consignés dans un volume qui va paraître prochainement et que je puis présenter au Congrès à l'état de ])onnes feuilles en y joignant quelques planches'. Dans ce volume, nous donnons d'abord la description du type fuégien, en nous basant sur les mensurations prises sur plus de cent indigènes vivants, sur l'étude des crânes et squelettes et de tout ce qui a été écrit sur cette population au point de vue physique ; nous consacrons des chapitres spéciaux à la physiologie et à la pathologie de cette population. Plusieurs pages sont consacrées à un vocabulaire et à quelques rudiments de la grammaire fuégienne. Enfin, les mœurs de cette population qui se trouve encore au degré le plus bas de la civilisation, à l'âge de la pierre et de l'os, sont décrites avec le plus grand soin possible. Nous passons en revue leurs conditions sociales, leur vie matérielle, leurs habitations, leur alimentation, leurs Usages de famille, leurs industries primitives. Le volume se termine par une bibliographie, par trente-quatre planches en photogravure et lithographie et une carte ethnographique de la Terre de Feu.

* Le volume a paru depuis sons ce titre : Mission sctentifiqiie du Cap Horn, 1882-83 (Ministères de la Marine et de l'Instruction publique) ; t. VIL Antropologie, Ethnographie, par P. Hyades et J. Deniker ; Paris (Gauthier-Villars), 1891, 1 vol. in-40, de 422 pages avec une carte et 34 planches.

Nos renseignements linguistiques sont très incomplets. N'étan^ pas linguistes, nous ne pouvons tirer de conclusions au point de vue de la parenté des langues ; nous nous bornons à fournir des documents à de plus compétents que nous. Au point de vue ethnographique, il est difficile d'établir la parenté des Fuégiens; leur état social est tellement primitif qu'il y a peu de chose à signaler et qu'il serait difficile de tirer des conclusions absolues. Néanmoins quelques coutumes sont communes aux Fuégiens et à d'autres populations américaines, comme par exemple l'usage de se teindre le corps en différentes couleurs. Dans la parure, il y a quelque analogie avec les populations de la Guyane et même avec celles de la vallée de l'Amazone : une sorte de couronne, sans présenter la môme richesse, rappelle de loin par toute sa structure la couronne qu'on trouve chez les peuplades de l'Amérique du Nord et du centre. Je n'insiste pas sur ces détails et je m'empresse de vous dire deux mots sur les affinités des Fuégiens au point de vue physique.

Si nous comparons les Fuégiens avec leurs voisins immédiats, les Patagons et les Araucans, nous trouvons une grande différence : les Fuégiens sont mésocéphales, de petite taille ; le nez enfoncé, présente une étroitesse extrême à la racine et est très large vers le bas; le plus souvent, il est retroussé ; la face anguleuse, la couleur de la peau ne correspondent point aux types patagon et araucan. Eafin, il y a une foule de caractères distinctifs. En revanche, les Fuégiens présentent une analogie frappante avec certaines populations du sud du Brésil, les Coroados, les Tapouïos, les Paraguaïos, etc., et avec certains éléments de la population du Pérou et de la Bolivie. Mais ce sont surtout les Botocudos qui se rapprochent le plus des Fuégiens, non seulement par l'indice céphalique, mais par toute la structure de leur crâne, de môme que par plusieurs autres caractères (taille, forme de la face, du nez, etc.)*. Comme ceux des Botocudos, les crânes fuégiens présentent aussi des analogies frappantes avec les crânes, sinon préhistoriques, du moins très anciens,

* Voy. -à ce propos les travaux de Pli. Rey, d'Ehrenreich, etc.

trouvés par Lund à Lagoa Santa (Brésil, province de Minas Geraes), par Roth àPontiinelo (République Argentine) et si bien décrits par MM. Lacerda et Peixoto, de Quatrefages et Sôren Hansen. Il y a aussi des raisons pour croire que les crânes extraits des cimetières environnant les Paraderos du Rio-Negro (Patagonie), et décriis par Moreno et Lista, se rapportent au même type, car ils offrent quelques analogies avec les crânes fuégiens. L'indice céphalique moyen des Fuégiens est de 77 sur le crâne, de 79 sur le vivant , celui des Botocudos est de 78 sur le vivant, de 73 sur le crâne ; celui des crânes de Lagoa Santa est de 71 ; celui des crânes des Paraderos varie de 72 à 78 dans les diverses séries. Une remarque générale se détache de cette comparaison : c'est que les crânes fossiles sont beaucoup plus dolichocéphales que ceux des Botocudos et des Fuégiens ; il ne serait pas improbable que ces derniers fussent les descendants des races primitives, déjà métissés avec les races brachycéphales.

Je passe aux conclusions, qui sont les suivantes :

1° Il existe dans l'Amérique méridionale une race (ou une variété, un type spécial de la race américaine), de petite taille, méso ou dolichocéphale, hypsicéphale,leptroprosope ; à nez concave, souvent retroussé, étroit à la racine, large en bas; aux arcades sourcilières proéminentes; àface losangique, anguleuse; à bouche large, etc.

2° Cette race a dû occuper jadis une bonne partie de l'Amérique méridionale, surtout les pays situés au sud de l'Amazone, comme le prouvent les restes fossiles ou subfossiles (Lagoa Santa, Pontimelo, Paraderos).

3° Aujourd'hui cette race, à l'état plus ou moins pur, est réduite à quelques peuplades dispersées loin l'une de l'autre : les Fuégiens, les Botocudos, certaines tribus du Chaco et des affluents droits de l'Amazone.

4" Les représentants de cette race se retrouvent isolément ou par petits groupes dans nombre de populations actuelles du Brésil, de la Bolivie, du Pérou et du Chili.

5° Cette race forme un contraste frappant, non seulement avec les Patagons (grands et brachycéphales) mais encore avec d'autres races sud américaines. (Araucans, Caraïbes, Pampas, etc.), qui, tout en étant aussi petites, sont néanmoins brachycéphales, platyrhiniennes, ont le nez droit ou convexe, la face arrondie, etc.

6° Il est probable que la plupart des populations de l'Amérique méridionale sont issues de mélanges de ces trois races : petite et dolichocéphale (Fuégiens, Botocudos, etc.), grande et brachycéphale (Patagons), et petite et brachycéphale (Araucans, Caraïbes), si toutefois il n'y a pas lieu d'admettre une quatrième race, dans la région N.-O. de l'Amérique du Sud, encore peu connue au point de vue anthropologique.

- ETHNOGRAPHIE

SACRED HUNTS OF TPIE AMERICAN INDIANS

by Mr. John G. BOURKE

The author describes a Sacred Hunt which he witnessed while among the Zuni Indians of New Mexico, which Hunt was made for the purpose of supplying" the Sacred Eag-les with certain méats ; — he then goes on to show that precisely such Sacred Hunts hâve been described as occurring among the Tlascaltecs in honor of Camaxtly, their god of Ilimting and much the same kind of cérémonies are noted by Fray Diego Duran, Herrera, Gômara, Torquemada, Clavigero, MotoHnia andPadre Sahagun, as existing among the people of Mexico and Guatemala, — while Garcilasso de la Vega is quoted to prove their existence among the Incariai Race of Peru. The more it is proved that the Indians of our own day hâve preserved and still practice the same rites and cérémonies, as their ancestors of past générations, the more smooth shall we make the path of the inquirer into ancient usages, and the better shall we understand the manners of life of the aborigines at the date of the arrivai of Columbus in America.

Références are also made in this paper to the Sacred Plume sticks made from the feathers of the Sacred Eagles at this time and used for planting in the corn-fields in the manner of a prayer or sacrifice to insure good crops.

Also to Incense, Boomerangs, ordinary hunts, the domestication of wild animais, etc.

During one of my visits to the Pueblo of Ziini, New Mexico, some ten years ago, it was my good fortune to be invited to take part in wliat the Caciques called a Sacred Hunt, — to provide méat for the Eagles which were kept in cages of cottonwood saplings in différent quarters of the town.

As this Hunt presented some peculiarities worthy of attention, I hâve thought that the reproduction of my Memoranda taken at the moment, might interest my readers.

To the mind of the savage, whether in America or elsewhere, every animal is a god, and there is a spécial reason why his intellect should humble itself in révèrent admiration of the rapacious bird whose swiftness of flight, keenness of vision, and strengthof limbhave caused it to be emblazoned upon the banners and graven upon the coinage of the most cultured nations of the world.

A the time of which I am speaking, there were thirteen fuUgTOwn eagles in Zuni, each provided with a good-sized cage or house ; no other Pueblo had anything like so many, the nearest approach being that of one of the Moquis villages which had half a dozeii.

They were ail well cared for and as much as possible fed upon field mice, rabbits and other méat of that kind, caught by the little children or the old men and caught alive, if such a thing could be donc; but there was also abundant provision for them from other sources, as the Pueblos, the Zunis particularly, are rich in sheep, goats and cattle.

In return for this plentiful maintenance, they were called upon^ at stated periods, to pay a libéral tribute of feathers and and down with which the priests or niedicine men made Sacred Plume-sticks

Parenthetically, I may say that the most forlorn and crestfallen créature in the world is the proud American eagle when stripped of ail its plumage.

The manufacture of thèse Sacred Plume-sticks was going on briskly during the time of my visit and I naturally enough made

it my business to learn ail on tlie subject tliat could be extracted from the artists.

The twigs used had been selected with great care, were eut to a fixed lengtli, peeled and tipped with the medicine feathers which when not neeàed for such a purpose were preserved in a cylindrical box of cedar.

Four kinds were used ; — those of the eagle, the hawk, the blue bird and the Macaw.

The last named bird is also kept in cages in the Rio Grande Pueblos, the first example coming under my notice being in the Pueblo of Santo Domingo.

When finished, the Plume-sticks are planted in the corners of fields, near the principal springs, and at points on the boundaries of the Pueblo, and with cérémonies which forcibly suggest ail that as been written concerning the « Terminalia » of the Romans. Good crops are supposed to bless the land thus protected, as my red-skinned friends took care to inform me when I cameback again lather in thefall.

Résides the feathers mentioned,, those of the wild Turkey and the « Road Runner » or Chapparal Cock could be used, but never those of the Owl. The poor deluded wretch who would resort to Owl feathers would hâve his crops torn out by tempest and eut down by bail.

The Owl bas suffered from the suspicions of mortals every where, — in ail âges and in ail countries.

True, the Athenians regarded it as a fit companion for Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom ; but, even to them, its hooting was an Omen of Evil.

I bave taken upon myself, at an earlier date to refer to this subject and show how our Apache scouts dreaded nothing so much as the lugubrious hoot which announeed to them thatsome one of the tribe was soon to die, — and I bave also mentioned the incident occurring in gênerai Crook's expédition into the Sierra Medre in pursuitof « Geronimo », in 1883, where a white man caught an owl but was compelled to release it in deferenee

to the clamor of the scouts who asserted that the worst luck would befall us ail if the bird were not set free,

My Zuni informant, old Pedro Pino, viewed my note-books with some misgiving and manifested a desinclination to give me any explanation which could be avoided; « My friend », said he in Spanish « the Good God who made us ail, gave each one his own business to mind. Now, for example, there is the Comandante down at Fort Wingate, he bas ^w business to attend to ; then there's the schoolmaster, he has his business ; and then there is Mr. Graham, the store-keeper, he has his business to attend to ; and then I hâve my own business to attend to. »

The old man didn't say as much in words, but there was something in his manner that gave me the impression that I had bettermind my business and corne back as I did, at a later day when I might find him in a more complacent humor.

One word more need be said about thèse Plume-sticks ; though generally simple, they are sometimes artistic in construction, and recall that we are now getting down close to the tribes of Mexico who, in the fîrst days ot the Spanish Conquest, astonished the followers of Cortes so much by their skill in the casting of metals, in the manufacture of « plumage » or feather work, and in walking upon the tight-rope, that proficients in the lastnamed art were taken back to Spain to exhibit before the Court and before the Pontifl in Rome, while spécimens of the featherwork where collected to delight the eyes of ail who looked at them.

The art of feather- work has not yet been lost, and one can still see on the south side of the Rio Grande exquisite représentations of bright-colored bird s patiently stuck together by Indians who can neither read nor write.

For several days before the Sacred Hunt took place the Pueblo was in a state of subdued excitement.

AU the young menwere attendingto the « boomerangs » they were to use, or looking carefuUy after the ponies they were to ride.

When the moment for starting arrived, a crier roared through the streets that ail the préparations were complète and, in a few moments, throngs of young men had saddled and bridled their ponies and started for the place of rendez-vous, whither also groups of men on foot were wending their way.

I borrowed a « plug » and started ofF with the brother of the « Gobernador », a very dandifîed chap, dressed in trousers of

BOOMERANG OF THE ZUNIS AND MOQUIS

Handie, E-F, 2,675 inches long. — From A lo A', 20 inchcs — A-B, 2a inches.— G-D, 1,73 inches. — Perpendicular from G lo G', 3 inches. — Thickne.«sat edges 0,25 inches. — Greatcst Ihickness at x.

blàck velvet, decked with silver buttons, a red shirt and a dark blue plush cap, also, ornamented with buttons of the precious métal.

We jogged along over gentle hills and flat red clay valleys, passing through stretches of corn-fields, and at a distance of something more than two (2) leagues from Zuni, ascended a low timbered knoll, npon whose summit was burning a small lire, the rallying point for a concourse of not less than four hundred and fifty young men and old, two thirds of then mounted, tliere were no women or girls to be seen.

An old man, vénérable in appearance and dignifiedinmanner, was haranguing the multitude, giving instruction upon the régulation of the Hunt, as my companion stated, and interspersing his remarks with advice of a moral character,

When he had conclue! ed, the Zunis, in parties of from six to ten approached tiie fire, and vvith heads bowed down and with sedate and révèrent deportment, recited in an audible tone prayers of considérable length, each at the same time holding towards the Fire in his Icft hand a crust of bread and in his right one or two boomerangs, they can be called by no other name,

The prayers finished, the crusts were placed in the fire and the boomerangs held in the smoke ; the devotees then divided, one half moving off by the left, the other by the right.

The whole congrégation performed the same ceremony, those <n horse-back dismounting before approaching the Sacred Fire, and the crusts of bread making a pile three or four feet high.

My présence so near the fire was the occasion of no little sarcastic comment and hilarity to the younger Zunis, but I summoned to my aid ail the audacity I possessed and stood my ground.

The Indians rapidly scattered over the face of the country which was thickly covered with stunted cedar and sage-brush and well suited as a hiding-place for Jack-Rabbits.

The dismounted battalion acted as beaters, while the horsemen pursued the frightened animais the instant they broke cover.

The scène was animated and picturesque, a kaleidoscopic mass of life and color.

The dust scattered and the amount of exertion wasted should bave sufficed to catch and kill a hundred buffaloes ; but the resuit of ail this vast expenditure of times and labor, as we learned at night-fall, was only four Jack-Rabbits which were promptly fed to the sacred Cha-ka-li, or Eagles.

The strangest thing about this hunt to my mind was that it served as sucli a strong link between our own day and the dim, misty past

Numerous old Spanish authors allude to such hunts having

beon carried on by the people of the Valley of Mexico ; and Moctezuma himseif took command on occasion.

There vvere petty différences, of course, as might be expected wlien the same ceremony occurs in vvidely separated localities or is described by severalauthorities.

For example, the Aztecs are said to bave had an idol of their god hof Hunting, Camaxtly, on top of the hill whicli was designated as the rendezvous.

The Tlascallecs set the whole country on fîre, someting the Ziinis do not now do.

And, in some cases, we are infornied, the Hunt lastedfour days instead of only one.

The Mexicans had under the patronage of and in honor of Camaxtly, their god of the hunt. Diego Duran describes one, but indifferently. He says that the hill selected was surrounded and the game driven to the summit where there was a shrine of the god, made of stravv, with an idol within, etc. After the hunt was ended, lires were lighted, Diego Duran, vol. 3, cap 7, p. 267. Again, he says ; « Los sacerdotes do este templo, (i. e. that of Camaxtly, the god of hunting,) que hemos venido tratando, enseûabanâla gente popular unos conjuros para conjurar la caza, de los cuales conjuros y hechicerias usaban los cazadores para efecto de que la caza no viese ni se apartase, y para que se fuese à los lazos y redes ; tambien les mandaba que antes de salir delà caza (â la caza, possibly. ) sacrificasen al fuego y le hiciesenoracion, y a las umbrales de las casas, y on llegando â los montes que los saludasen y hicieson sus sacrificios y promesas ; mandabanles que saludasen â las quebradas, â los arroyos, é las yervas, â los matorrales, â los arbolos, â las culebras ; finalmente, hacian una invocacion gênerai en todas las cosas del monte, haciendo promesas al fuego de le sacrifîcar cuando en la gordura de la caza que prondiesen. Estos conjuros andan escritos, y los he tenido on mi poder y pudieranlos poner aqui si fucra cosa que importara ». Diego Duran. Mss. lib. 3, cap. 7, p. 275.

Moctezuma from time to time went huixting with « ocho ô diez mil indios, i muchas veces mas, asidos por las manos, cercaban quatre 6 cinco léguas de Tierra dando vocesi silvos, levantando i ojeando la caça sacandola de sus Madrigueras i Cuevas, la hechaban en campo raso, en donde estaban los flecheros i los que tenian armas ». Herrera, Décade 2, lib. 7, p. 187.

The ïlascaltecs liad a Sacred Ilunt in which they carried the god of Hunting out to a certain hill and then, surrounding the country for miles, set fire to it and drove the game towards the altar in proximity to which the hunters made their butchery, and then taking the carcasses on their backs, returned home to a greatfeasts. See in Herrera, Décade, 3, lib. 2, p. 68. As the Tlascaltecs were pre-eminently a « Bread » people, their hunt had become like that of the Zunis, more of a cérémonial observance than a necessity. It commémora ted the old days when the success or faihire of their hunters meant life or death to the populace ; therefore, thegoodwill of their god had to be secured before the hunting bogan by formai blandishment.

Gomara, in his « Ilistoria do la Conquista de Mejico », page 445, describes a sacred hunt in honor of the god QuechoUi, in which not only food animais, butsnakes and worms, everything in fact thatcould bc cauglit, were brought in as atribute, those priests or warriors who were most successful being rewarded with praise and présents. The description is too long for insertion and has no spécial value beyond recording the fact mentioned.

Torquemada's description of the sacred hunt of the Mexicans is very meagre ; it took place in their 14th. month and lasted four days, the first of which was spent in fasting ; the people spread themselves ovor the country and drove into nets and snares spread for them « Venados, Conejos, Coyotes o Adives, yotros». Torquemada, « Monarcliia », lib. X, cap. XXVL.

The Aztecs had a Sacred Hunt in our month of February, their eighteenth month. The youth then went to the chase not only of « the wild beasts in the woods, but also to catch the birds in

the lake ».., One part of the spoils was « consumed as a burnt olïering... The women made oblatioiis of Tamalli, which they afterwards distributed amongtlie hunters ».. Clavigero, (( History of Mexico ». Philadelphia, 1827, vol. 2, p. 91.

(Mexicans.) « Un dia en el aiio salian los seîiores y principales para sacrificar en los templos que habia en los montes, y andaban por todas partes cazadores para cazar de todos animales y aves para sacrificarlas al demonio »... « Leones, tigres, cayutles (coyotes).. « cazaban venados, liebres, conejos, codornices, culebras y mariposas »... The Unknow nFranciscan, (Motolinia) author of« Ritos Antiguos de los Indios de la Nueva Espaùa », in Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. IX, page 27.

Falher Sahagun refers to a Sacred Hunt of the Mexicans, occurring intheir 14th month, (Quecholli.)They hunted rabbits, deer and coyotes, rounding them up andkillingas many as possible. The successful hunters were regaled with présents and the heads were hung up in their houses ; this « fîesta » as Sahagun takes care to call it was in honor of the Otomi god Mixcoatl (The month of QuecholU corresponded to our month October.)

Sometimes, the estimâtes of the numbers of people engaged in thèse Hunts arouses very strong doubts.

The preposterous statementis made that the Incas of Peru conducteda yearly hunt in which from 20.000 to 30.000 men participated. SeeGarcilassodela Vega, « Comentarios Reaies », (Markham's Transi.) Hakluyt Soc. Transactions, vol. 45, pp. 117, 118.

Villagrâ, in his poem of « Nuevo Mejico », published at Alcalâ de Henares, in 1610, says that Don Juan de Onate who entered New Mexico in the latter years of the 16th century, was invited to take part in a hunt exactly like the one I hâve described among the Zunis ; on that occasion, the Zunis hadbetter luck as they are reported to hâve killed eighty hares, thirty four rabbits and some « raposoa » or coyotes.

In the relations of one of the earliest travellers in the Arctic régions, wefinda description much resembling the prelimina^ ries of the Hunt of the Zunis.

(Eskimo.) « Being- amongst them at shore, the 4th of July, one of them making a long oration, beganne to make a fire in this manner ; lie took a pièce of board wherin was a hole large enough halfe tlirougli thorow ; into that hole he puts the end of a round stick like unto a bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in Trane (Traia Oil) and in fashion of a turnervvith a pièce of lether, by his violent motion doeth very speedily produce fire ; which done, with turfes he made a fire into which with many words and strange gestures, he put diverse things which were supposed tobe a sacrifice. Myself and divers others of my corapany standing by, they were desirous to hâve me go into the smoke ; I willed them likewise to stand in the smoke which they by no meanes would do. I then took one of them and thrust him into the smoke and willed one of my company to tread out the fire, and to spurne it into the sea, which was done to shew them that we did contemm their sorcery »... Second Voyage of Mr. John Davis fort the Discovery of the North-\Yest Passage »... 1586, in Hakluyt, vol, 3, p. 139... The English at this period were terribly afraid of Witchcraft ; Frobisher relates in his First Voyage that his men captured an old Eskimo squaw ; ail were agreed thatshe must be a Witch and her shoes were puUed oll to see whether or not her feet were cloven.

A distinction should be made between Sacred Hunts which bave become merely cérémonial observances and Hunts conducted for the purpose of procuring food for the tribe, and which are attended with religions preliminaries ; thus, as an example of the latter, we find that the Indians of British North America, (of the Ojibway stock) when they started to impound buffalo, erected a tall pôle in the centre of the corral to which the game was to be driven ; upon this they hung offerings to their spirits, and also stationed in the upper part a man who was provided with a « medicine-pipe », and performed the duties of a look-out, while he chanted prayers for the success of the hunt. See Paul Kane, « Wanderings of an Artist in British North America », London, 1889, p. 119.

Morgan « League of the Iriquois », N. Y., 1851 , p. 345, describes a hunt of the Iroquois wliicli was exactly like those of the Navajoes, Apaches, Shoshonees, Crows and other tribes,being a V-shaped corral with arms extending for miles along the country ; into this the ganie was driven by beaters who set fîre to the timber and grass in the rear. Our savage tribe» aiso drove the mountain sheep and the biiffala over précipices.

The custom of driving wild animais into pounds must in time , hâve led to their domestication ; indeed, the Shoshonees hâve toM me that tliey used to pen buffaloes up in ravines and canons of the Rocky Mountains near the Yellowstone park. and kill them when needed.

Dunbar, in bis account of the Pawnees, says that on certain occasions that tribe vvould sacrifice w^ith great ceremony, and for the purpose of ensuring success in their agriculture, a young maiden, a captive, whose heart was burncd in the fire. « The fire arising from the fire in which it was burning was supposed to possess wonderful • virtues and implements of war, hunting and agriculture vverepassed through it to ensure success in their use ».

In some cases, where accounts bave not reached usof Sacred Hunts after food for the Eagles, we bave références to Hunts for the Eagles themselves or their feathers ; in Guatemala, on such occasions, great care was taken to incense every article to be used in the Hunt, in the smoke of a fire, after the Zuni manner.

Maximilian says that the Mandan conceals himself in a hole in the ground, covered with a framework of twigs, grass upon which are placed pièces of méat, « and a crow or some small bird fastenedto it ». The Eagle swoops down upon the prey and is caught by the legs. See Maximilian, Prince of Wied, London, 1843, p. 386.

Matthews, « Hidatsa », page 68, describos an Eagle hunt among the Mandans almost like that of Maximilian.

In Guatemala, « Cuando ibanà cazar plumas â los pajaros, la liga con que los habian de tomar, la incendiaban y sanctifîca-

ban, creyendo que en aquella tenian mas fuerza ». Ximenes, « Guatemala », (Scherzer) Vienna, 1857, p. 190.

Colonel Mallery refers to tlie Dakota method of capturing the eagle which agrées substantially with the accounts previously obtained from Prince Maximilian of Wied and Surgeon Washington Matthews ; see in the Annual report of tlie Bureau of Ethnology fer 1882-1883.

Charlie Spencer, one of the most peculiar of frontiersmen, who married a Hualpai Indian woman, and lived for years with her tribe in the Grand Canon of the Colorado, often spoke to me of the Hunts for the Eagle and its feathers ; — the long prayers and cérémonies ot the Medicine men, and the fears of ail of falls from the tops of précipices or of dangers from infuriated Eagies ; — a danger not to be under-rated as I can assert from an unpleasant personal expérience in South-Western Texas, with two eaglets which I had taken from their nests on the top of a cottonwood tree and whicli, although no bigger than pullets, fought and scratched so that my horse ran away with me.

To conclude, it may be said that the Boomerangs of the Zunis and their neighbors hâve been noted from the earliest times ; Vaca saw them in 1536 ; — 1540.

« Chaque Indien avait avec lui un bâton de trois palmes de longueur»... « Lorsqu'un lièvre paraissait, ils l'entouraient à l'instant et le frappaient de leurs bâtons avec une adresse surprenante »... « C'était la plus jolie chasse que l'on pût voir »... Alvar Nuîlez Cabeza de Vaca, in Ternaux, vol. 7, p. 223.

Clavigero speaks of « curved sticks » used by the California Indians in hunting and thrown with such dextcrity that tliey would break the legs of a rabbit. Clavigero, « Ilistoria de laBaja California », Mexico, 1852, p. 26... « Un palillo curvo de casi pie y medio de longitud ». idem.

Surgeon Corbusier, U. S. Army, in an article published in the American Antiquarian, of November, 1886, describes the Apache-Yumas as hunting the rabbit in a circle with boomerangs, but makes no allusion to religious features.

Ethnographie indigène moderne du nouveau Mexique et de l'Arizona.

Le Comité regrette de n'avoir pas reçu de M. le chev" de Hesse-Wartegg le manuscrit devant expliquer sa présentation de photographies de ruines, types, habitations, industries, etc., des Indiens de ces régions.