very slight development of the extreme ritualism that is so characteristic of the American Indians, and by an almost entire absence of symbolism of any kind. Fetishism is also unusual. One set of ceremonies was usually connected with a secret religious society; during initiation members were disguised by feathers and paint, but masks were not worn. There was also an annual tribal spectacular ceremony held in remembrance of the dead. In the north-west portion of the state a somewhat more highly developed and specialised culture existed which has some affinities with that of the north-west tribes, as is indicated by a greater advance in technology, a social organisation largely upon a property basis and a system of mythology that is suggestive of those further north. The now extinct tribes of the Santa Barbara islands and adjacent mainland were more advanced. They alone employed a plank-built canoe instead of the balsas or canoe-shaped bundles of rushes of the greater part of California. They made stone bowls and did inlaid work. Like the North Californians and tribes further north they buried instead of burning their dead. The eastern tribes shade off into their neighbours. The Luiseno, the southernmost of the Shoshonians, had puberty rites for girls and boys[829]. The belief in a succession of births "is reminiscent of Oceanic and Asiatic ways of thought[830]." [About] 1788 a secret cult arose inculcating, with penalties, obedience, fasting, and self-sacrifice on initiates[831]. VI. Plains Area. The chief traits of this culture are the dependence upon the bison ("buffalo") and the very limited use of roots and berries; absence of fishing; lack of agriculture; the _tipi_ or tent as the movable dwelling and transportation by land only, with the dog and the travois (in historic times, with the horse); no baskets, pottery, or true weaving; clothing of bison and deerskins; there is high development of work in skins and special bead technique and raw-hide work (parfleche, cylindrical bag etc.), and weak development of work in wood, stone and bone. This typical culture is manifested in the Assiniboin, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Comanche, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Sarsi and Teton-Dakota[832]. Among the tribes of the eastern border a limited use of pottery and basketry may be added, some spinning and weaving of bags, and rather extensive agriculture. Here the tipi alternates with larger and more permanent houses covered with grass, bark or earth, and there was some attempt at water transportation. These tribes are the Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Pawnee, Ponca, Santee-Dakota[833], Yankton-Dakota[833] and Wichita. On the western border other tribes (Wind River Shoshoni, Uinta and Uncompahgre Ute) lack pottery but produce a rather high type of basketry, depending far less on the bison but more on deer and small game, making large use of wild grass seeds.