Siouan. In the "Journ. Anthrop. Inst." for February, 1898 (vol. xxvii. pp. 436–450), Miss Alice C. Fletcher publishes a valuable and critical article on "The Significance of the Scalp-Lock: a Study of an Omaha Ritual,"—a description of the ceremony of the first cutting of a child's hair, and its relation to social and religious institutions and beliefs of the tribe. It would seem that, of the two ceremonies combined in the rite, that of "the turning of the child" was older than that of "cutting hair," being, moreover, less specialized and of wider application to the people.—Another excellent contribution to the religio-sociology of primitive peoples is Miss Fletcher's "The Import of the Totem," which appears in "Science" for March 4, 1898 (pp. 296–304). The Personal Totem, Belief Concerning Nature and Life, The Common Life, Anthropomorphism, Will-Power, The Appeal, Basis of the Efficacy of the Totem, The Social Totem and What it Stood for in the Tribe, The Influence of the Religious Societies upon the Gens, The Totem in the Tribal Organization, Linguistic Evidence as to the Totem, are some of the topics discussed. Miss Fletcher notes that the totems of individuals and of gentes represented the same class of phenomena, and as totems could be obtained in but one way, through the rite of vision.
Tarascan. In the "Bulletin Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist." (vol. x. pp. 61–79), Lumholtz and Hrdlicka describe some "Marked Human Bones from a Prehistoric Tarasco Indian Burial Place in the State of Michoacan, Mexico." Some interesting items of folk-lore respecting the bones of the dead among these and other Indian tribes are given. Descriptions of 26 marked bones, together with measurements, are added.
Tsimshian. In the "American Antiquarian" (vol. xix. pp. 276–282) Dr. George A. Dorsey publishes an article on "The Geography of the Tsimshian Indians." The paper deals with village sites and distribution of population, and is accompanied by a map showing the range of the Tsimshian stock.
Tusayan. In the "American Anthropologist" (vol. xi. pp. 1–14), Dr. J. W. Fewkes gives a detailed account of "The Feather Symbol in Hopi Design." More than two thirds of all the pictographs on ancient Tusayan pottery, where animals are intended, represent avian forms, and the "predominance in the number of pictures of feathered gods is a faithful reproduction of denizens of their ancient Pantheon. The majority of the gods were avian in character, even when anthropomorphic." Many triangular figures are simply reduced feather symbols. The ruling motive in ceramic decoration seems to have been religious.—In the same periodical (vol. xi. pp. 65–87, 101–115), Dr. Fewkes describes a length "The Winter Solstice Ceremony at Walpi," as observed by him in 1891–1893, together with the
