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Show viii PREFACE. This method of treatment has another important reason for its justification. It seemed desirable to make the hints and suggestions as brief as possible, so that the whole volume would form a convenient handbook for the collector in the field. In preparing this chapter, in its earliest stage, illustrations were accumulated from many sources. Had they been used the work would have been more than doubled in size, and as its practical purpose would not be subserved thereby they were chiefly eliminated. As the work of the Bureau has extended from time to time, it has been found necessary to prepare a series of volumes like the present, each to be an introduction to some branch of anthropologic research. The previous edition of the present " Introduction" was the first of the series; since that time the following have been published: SECOND, " Introduction to the Study of Sign Language among the North American Indians," by Lt. Col. Garrick Mallery, U. S. A.; and THIRD, " Introduction to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians," by Dr. H. C. Yarrow, U. S. A. Several others are in course of preparation and will soon be issued. This field of research is vast; the materials are abundant and easily collected; reward for scientific labor is prompt and generous. Under these circumstances American students are rapidly entering the field. But the area to be covered is so great that many more persons can advantageously work therein. Hundreds of languages are to be studied; hundreds of governments exist, the characteristics of which are to be investigated and recorded. All these peoples have, to a great extent, diverse arts, diverse mythologies, as well as diverse languages and governments; and while the people are not becoming extinct but absorbed, languages are changing, governments are being overthrown, institutions are replaced, and arts are becoming obsolete. The time for pursuing these investigations will soon end. The assistance of American scholars is most earnestly invoked. J. W. POWELL. WASHINGTON, Mvrch, 1880. |