LXVI BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
after the close of the fiscal year. Among the Kiowa, as among 
other plains Indians, and indeed among all of the aboriginal 
tribes, there is a widespread symbolism by which the arts are 
influenced and guided. Under this symbolism tents, shields, 
arrows, pipes, musical instruments, robes, and other articles 
are inscribed, painted, or otherwise marked with designs. In 
many cases these designs possess decorative value, and by 
superficial students they are commonly supposed to be used 
simply for decoration; but study of the Indian character and 
motive shows that the design is not primarily decorative 
(though the germ of decoration may be found therein), but 
symbolic and fraught with meaning to those who understand 
the symbolism. This primitive symbolism is found to be de- 
veloped and differentiated in various ways among: different 
tribes of the American aborigines; among the Kiowa Indians 
it is differentiated into a crude yet highly significant system of 
heraldry, which throws much light on the medieval heraldry 
of Europe; and in another direction it is differentiated into a 
system of winter counts or calendars, forming at the same time 
a chronologic system and an historical record which, although 
crude and imperfect, are of great interest. Among the same 
Indians the system of symbolism has been differentiated in a 
third direction, though one nearly parallel with the first, in 
such manner as to form a symbolic record of social organiza- 
tion and relation, this part of the record being largely painted 
on the dressed-skin tents. Thus the symbolism of the Kiowa 
Indians elucidates the origin of several arts brought to perfee- 
tion only among much more highly cultivated people; it rep- 
resents a crude heraldry, a budding chronology, a nascent 
decorative art, and the germ of writing. 
Although remaiming in the field, Mr Mooney made consid- 
erable progress during the fiscal year in the preparation of a 
memoir on the Kiowa calendar, though the manuscript will 
require revision as his studies approach maturity, after his 
return to the office. 
ARCHEOLOGY 
Professor W. H. Holmes, who retired from the Bureau 
before the beginning of the fiscal year, left two reports nearly 
