318 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



boLs. The former are apparent and coiistaut and extremel}" limited, the 

 latter ideal and as varied as an Indian woman's fancy. But in the chapter 

 on ornamentation it was seen how varied in different hands and mate- 

 rials twined patterns might be made. Twined ware is, if anythin«-, at 

 the start the coarsest of all, for what could be ruder than the wattling 

 of a lish weir or the wall of a granary ( Taking the geographic areas 

 in turn, it is not until southeastern Alaska is reached that an attempt 

 to tell a story in twined decoration occurs. Even there the S3'mbol 

 exists more in the false em])roiderv on the surface than in the twined 

 work. In point of fact, however, whether studied with Ennnons for 

 southeastern Alaska; with Farrand on Salish ware; or with Dixon in 

 northern California tribes, it is not in twined work that the most 

 exalted and idealized s3'mbolism has l)een wrought. 



Coiled ware also has such a variet}' of technical treatment, with the 

 whole color scheme of nature to select from, that in practice there is 

 no limit to the form and coml)ination of designs or of syml)olism. In 

 these the weaver secretes her thoughts. You must ask her what the}^ 

 mean. Rarely is one of her symliols widespread. In the next tribe the 

 sign will stand for quite something else. It is well to observe here that 

 a vast deal of coiled basketry has no symbol or design on it whatever. 



Etlvnic .si/n(hoJ!stn. — Recui'ring to the six ethnic areas which for 

 convenience have been adopted in this publication, basketr}' has lost all 

 trace of symbolism among the Indians of eastern North America. It 

 can not be for a moment supposed that they have none, for with 

 Algonquian, Siouan, Kiowan, the substitutes for basketry, rawhide 

 receptacles, as well as moccasins, cradles, and objects in three dimen- 

 sions, are covered with idealism in painting and embroidery. 



To understand the richness of this survival of aboriginal symbolism 

 the student will receive his principal aid at hand in the researches of 

 A. L. Kroeber among the Arapaho." Four hundred and fifty-eight 

 distinct symbols are given in figures covering Indian ideas from com- 

 mon objects to spiritual beings. All the closing pages of the above- 

 named paper (pp. 138-150) must be examined carefully in order to 

 comprehend both the sign and the thing signified, the thought and the 

 overthought, the text and the symbolic context in Arapaho embroid- 

 eries, paintings, and three dimension designs. The closing paragraph 

 will give the gist of Dr. Kroeber's stud}'': 



The closeness of connection between this Arapaho decorative symboHsm and the 

 religious life of the Indians can not well he overestimated by a white man. x\.2>art 

 from the existence of a great amount of decorative symbolism on ceremonial objects 

 not described in this chajiter, it should be borne in mind that the making of what 

 have been called tribal ornaments is regularly accompanied by religious ceremonies; 



« Symbolism of the Arapaho Indians (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, XIII, 1900, pp. 69-86); Decorative Symbolism of the Arapaho (American 

 Anthropologist N. S., Ill, 1901,' pp. 308-336); The Arapaho (Bulletin of the Ameri- 

 can ]Museum of Natural History, XVIII, 1902, pp. 1-150). 



