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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. &a. Skin Bag of the Arapaho. (After A. L. Kroeber.) 



is always the same. As a matter of fact, the number of ideas ex- 

 pressed by it is often quite varied. We find, for instance, the obtuse 

 triangle with enclosed rectangle (Fig. 4) explained by the Arapaho 



as the mythic cave from which 

 the buffalo issued, as cattle-tracks, 

 as a mountain, cloud, brush hut 

 and tent; an acute triangle, with 

 small triangles attached to its 

 base, as a bird-tail, frog, tent and 

 bear-foot. 



Nevertheless the explanations 

 given by various tribes show pe- 

 culiar characteristics in which 

 they differ from those of other 

 tribes. The explanations possess 

 no less a style of their own than 

 the art itself. Triangles are ex- 

 plained as tents by all the tribes, 

 and mountains or hills form a 

 prominent feature of their de- 

 scriptions; but among the three 

 tribes mentioned only the Sioux 

 see wounds, battle scenes with 

 moving masses of men, horses, the 

 pursuit of enemies, the flight of 

 Fig. 86. Side ok Arapaho Bag. arrows, in their Conventional de- 



