is a beaded design not unlike a deer's tail. Thus, it seems more likely that 

 the simple deer's tail had its place on the dress of these Indian women 

 before the yokes were beaded or quilled and that all for a time retained it, 

 carrying the beaded design around its base. This in its turn became so 

 fixed that though some tribes gave up the tail, they still kept its niche. 



Unfortunately neither theory can be proved. Yet there are so many 

 similar relations in the art of lowly peoples, that we incline to the assump- 

 tion that the design is a deer's tail and not a turtle. On many objects even 

 among our collections from the Plains may be seen a ^•ariety of identical 

 designs symbolizing one thing to one tribe, a different thing to another, 

 and nothing whatever to still others. Like all of us, the Indian has ideas 

 and feelings to express, and seizes upon such symbols as come to his hand, 

 reading into nature and art what is in his own mind. 



So in this story we have one oft-repeated in decorative art: the adapta- 

 tion of color and form to the contour of the decorated surface, the wide 

 distribution of the motive because of its peculiar merit, and at last the 

 touch of a refined personality who sees in it the symbol of some mighty 

 thought. That the re\erse order of procedure is the usual one is a theory 

 often read in books and no doubt true in some instances, but absolute 

 proof in either case is lacking. 



67 



