RECORD OF AMERICAN FOLK-LORE.
NORTH AMERICA.
Algonkian. In the "American Anthropologist" (vol. xi. pp. 88–91) for March, 1898, Dr. W. J. McGee describes "A Muskwaki Bowl,"—a small wooden bowl kept as an heirloom in a family of the Muskwaki ("Red Fox") or Sac and Fox tribe of Indians in Tama County, Iowa, together with the curved knife with which it was carved from a maple knot. An interesting point noted by the author is that among the Muskwaki, "when the first child is born, the father has the right to name it; but if it dies, the mother takes the right."
Eskimo. By far the most important of recent contributions to Eskimo literature is Dr. W. J. Hoffman's "The Graphic Art of the Eskimos," which forms pp. 739–968 of the "Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1895 (Washington, 1897)." With 80 plates and 154 text-figures, the essay deals with effects of environment, art facility, materials and implements, techique, decoration and ornamentation, pictography, ideography, shamanism, gesture-signs, etc. Very interesting are the author’s remarks on the resemblances and differences between the art of the Eskimo and that of cave man in France. For the folk-lorist who would study "Eskimo Tales and Legends," Dr. Hoffman’s paper is indispensable, as corrective and interpreter.—In German dress appears Sigurd Rink's "Kajakmänner-Erzählungen grönländischer Seehundsfänger" (Berlin, 1897),—tales of Eskimo seal-hunters.—"The Origin and Range of the Eskimo Lamp" is the title of an interesting paper by Walter Hough in the "American Anthropologist" (vol. xi. pp. 116–122) for April, 1898. The lamp seems to be peculiarly the possession of the women, and the Eskimo is wonderfully dependent upon it. The lamp has not only entered into folk-lore and religion, but "seems to have determined the distribution of the Eskimo race,"—the invention of the lamp having been, perhaps, "the initial of the movement to the northern coasts." It may have been originated "on some seacoast, beginning with rude beach-stones having natural concavities."—"Eskimo Boot-strings" is the title of an interesting paper by Mr. John Murdoch in the "American Anthropologist" (vol. xi. pp. 22, 23) for January, 1898. It is a welcome contribution to the study of the details of dress so often neglected by travellers and investigators. The winding, twisting, and tying of strings are important subjects for research,—A further note is published by the author in the April number (p. 122) on the same topic.—In the "American Anthropologist" (vol. xi. pp. 55–58) for February, 1898, Anna Fulcomer describes "An Eskimo 'Kashim,{{' " or dance-house, at old Fort St. Michaels, 700 miles up the west coast of Alaska.
