1902.] 



Kroeber, The Arapaho. 



59 



up inside the tent to hang saddles and blankets upon. The 

 designs above them are saddle-blankets. The cross is the 

 morning star. A row of blue squares represents rocks. A 

 blue stripe represents a rope. Be- 

 low this are ornaments consisting 

 of a line with a hollow square at 

 the bottom. These represent 

 men's stirrups. On the back of 

 the waistcoat, instead of these 

 ornaments, are others consisting 

 of a line with a triangle at the 

 bottom. These represent women's 

 stirrups. The Arapaho at present 

 use saddles of their own manu- 

 facture for women. These have 

 triangular stirrups of wood and 

 rawhide. The men ride Ameri- 

 can saddles, which usually have 

 oval wooden stirrups. Thus, as 

 in many other cases (the sky, the 

 earth, the sacred hoop) , the square 

 or rectangle here represents some- 

 thing circular or oval. In sym- 

 bolism anything four-sided or 

 four-cornered is eqmvalent to a 

 circle, and anything circular is 

 considered to have four ends. 



Tents, even now that canvas 

 has replaced buffalo-hides, are <=<>»'■ 

 still often decorated with a con- 

 ventional set of ornaments. These ornaments are the fol- 

 lowing. 



I. A circular piece of hide about eight inches in diameter, 

 covered with embroidery of beads or quills (Plate ix, Fig. 

 2). This is sewed to the back of the tent at its very top, just 

 below the plaCe where it is fastened to the hiinana'kaya", — 

 the pole in the middle of the back which is used to raise the 

 tent into position. To the bottom of this ornament are 



Fig. 8 (, 



Front of Beaded Waist- 



