have not eaten. Cook for them slices of squash," said the one with white hair; and they cooked the ears of the dead man. "We do not eat such things," said the chief. "If so, what do you eat?" said the old man, pretending that he thought they did not like sliced squash. "Cook ye fine sweet corn for them," said he, meaning lice. When the chief saw what it was, he said, "We do not eat such things." And one of the Thunders said, "Let them cook the bear and buffalo for themselves." And the men were glad. Having done their own cooking, they had pleasure in eating. Then it was night. After the meal the man with white hair said, "Grandchild, if a man travels he has plenty of things to talk about. Tell about yourself." "True, grandfather,” said the chief, "you are grown, and are an old man, so you must know a great many things. So you can tell about yourself first." "Well, grandchild, though I am an old man, I have nothing to tell about myself; but I will tell a myth." "Once upon a time, grandchild, there was an old man, who lived with his three brothers. The brothers went far away to hunt game; but they returned home at night. Once when the old man was the only one taking care of the lodge, a great many people entered it. The old man thought,

Though my brothers have undergone much in travelling so far after game, I will kill a great many persons right at home.' Come, grandchild, now is your turn." "Yes, grandfather, let me tell a myth. Once there was a powerful chief, who had a lazy son. Though his father frequently urged him to travel, he would not heed him. He had not the least desire to do anything. By and by the son said that he was going to fast, so his mother made a lodge for him. As he fasted, he thought he would like to wear a robe of scalps, so he went on the war-path with many followers. And there were four old men who lived together. The chief and his party went thither. When they reached the lodge the leader sat thinking, I have said I will wear a robe of scalps. Truly, this is a good robe. I will have it.' One of the old men had white hair, one had red, the third had yellow, and the fourth green hair."

And the old man laughed at him, "Ha! Ha! Ha! My grandchild has, I think, guessed the very thing." That night the chief lay with his eye peeping through a hole in his robe, as he wished to watch the old men. He told his men not to sleep. While they were lying the first old man lifted his head very cautiously, and looked at the (supposed) sleepers. At last the old man seized his hammer, but just then the chief sprung to his feet, whirled his club, and at the fourth time, said, "Kau." He killed the four old men. "Warriors, arise, and take the hair of all; take each scalp in one piece." Then they went home. When they reached the end of the sky the chief made his men jump across in advance of him. Running very fast, he made a flying leap, bringing up the man from the ground, and reaching the other side, both being alive. He did in like manner at the graves of those who were killed by the bear, wolf, and buffalo. Thus it happened that he took all of his men home alive. As they went home they saw the many villages which they had reported to the chief on their former march. "Well, warriors," said the chief, "you, too, shall wear robes of scalps." So he killed the people of four villages with his club, and gave to each of his friends enough scalps for a robe. And they reached their own village, and all his villages made him head chief, and he governed them.

The President inquired whether the legend was taken literally from the Indians, and Mr. Dorsey replied that he wrote it out as dictated to him by one of them.

Prof. Mason referred to the tendency of such stories to grow by repetition.

Mr. Dorsey said he had often obtained two or three different versions of the same myth.

THIRTY-NINTH REGULAR MEETING, May 3, 1881.

Dr. Clay MacCauley read a paper entitled PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLORIDA SEMINOLES.

Dr. MacCauley prefaced his paper with a statement of some interesting facts he had found in taking a census of the Florida Indians. Chief among them was the peculiarity of special moment to the future of the tribe, that, while Seminole society is polygamous, the number of males in it between five and twenty years of age far exceeds that of the females less than twenty years old.

In reference to the personal characteristics of this tribe of Indians the speaker turned attention to their physique, their manner of clothing themselves, their personal adornment, and their psychical qualities, successively, giving ample description and copious illustration to each part of his subject.

The paper, of which it is difficult to make a proper abstract, closed with the words: "Recalling, then, what I have recorded of my observations of the personal characteristics of the Florida. Indians, they present themselves as a unique people, as a rule, superior to a high degree in their physical development of form and feature, novel and curious in their costume, and peculiar in the ornamentation of their persons and clothing; and, so far as personal characteristics distinctively psychical are concerned, as a people, not only, as was hitherto acknowledged, brave in warfare, and proud and independent in their relations with the white man, but also well endowed with the gentler and more attractive personal traits, amiability, truthfulness, frankness, and geniality in their intercourse with those who have gained their confidence, and gifted with comparative excellence of intellectual faculties and activity, patience, and persistence in mental effort."

At the conclusion of the paper Prof. Mason inquired whether the well developed limbs described as characteristic of the Seminoles might not in some cases be due to bandaging and other artificial devices sometimes resorted to by savages.

Dr. MacCauley replied that, as the children always go naked, this was impossible; and he was sure that no such practices prevailed. In answer to further questions, he stated that the hole

pierced in their ears were very small, but often numerous; that he had not seen shells or pearl beads used as ornaments.

Dr. Antisell asked what the Government was doing to benefit these Indians, and Dr. MacCauley replied that nothing was being done; that the Seminoles refused to accept any aid, and were independent without any. The attempt of Capt. Pratt to obtain from them students for his school at Carlisle had been repelled with indignation. In reply to a question by Mr. Thomas, he further stated that the Creek and Seminole languages were originally the same, but that at present the several gentes of the Seminoles were not homogeneous. The Otter, Tiger, and Wind gentes are the ruling ones.

The President called attention to the term Seminole, which properly signifies renegade, scattered, or dispersed, and has been fastened upon these Indians because they refused to go with the body of their tribe after the war with the United States. He further remarked that with these Indians clothing seemed to have been originally used for ornament rather than protection. The lower garment, or petticoat, described by Dr. MacCauley, was formerly the only one worn by the women, who had no sense of modesty which required them to clothe the breasts. The short upper garment, now worn as described in the paper, was a modern innovation probably taken from the whites. He also spoke of the turban, which was originally purely ornamental, and was often made in fantastic fashions out of the skins of the heads of animals or large birds.

Prof. Mason called attention to the law of ethnic progress that customs relating to clothing, ornamentation, &c., yield less readily and quickly to the influence of contact with civilized races than do those of a more practical or industrial character, such as arms, agricultural and mechanical implements and pottery. He had often been surprised to observe along what irregular and, as it were, irrationally drawn lines civilization advances.

FORTIETH REGULAR MEETING, May 17, 1881.

Dr. W. J. Hoffman read a paper entitled THE APPLICATION OF GESTURES TO THE INTERPRETATION OF PICTOGRAPHS. The following is an abstract of the paper :

The speaker stated that, apart from the direct representation of objects in the picture writings of the North American Indians, those subjective ideas which were beyond the range of the artist's skill formed the parts most difficult of interpretation. As attempts at the reproduction of gesture lines are of frequent occurrence in pictographs whose meaning is known to us, it was suggested that a knowledge of the gesture language was essential in deciphering others, the import of which was unknown. Numerous examples were submitted illustrating the gesture origin of apparently unintelligible characters, but as the nature of the paper demanded illustration on the black-board it is impossible to attempt an abstract satisfactorily.

Col. Mallery remarked that, as Dr. Hoffman and he had been working together on the subject of the paper, with constant interchange of views, he naturally had no criticism to offer upon it. It was, however, of interest to mention that the idea which had borne fruit in the present paper was suggested by him in some sentences of a paper read before this society on October 21, 1879-to the effect that Indians and other peoples among whom neither alphabetic nor phonetic writing was known, and whose artistic skill was limited to the rude outline portraiture of a few objects, would, in seeking to represent ideas graphically, resort to the lines of gesture signs already used by them with distinct signification. This deduction at the time was supported by little ascertained proof, but the subsequent studies both of signs and of pictographs had established it to be correct, of which the paper read was sufficient evidence to the Society. The same illustrations drawn on the black-board by Dr. Hoffman had also been drawn by him, together with others, for the engraver, and will be produced under one of