1 16 Bulletin American Muscuin of Natural History. [Vol. XVIII, 



these are caves inhabited by bears. As in the last bag de- 

 scribed, the blue enclosing lines are mountains seen in the 

 distance. On the back, the blue square with its diagonals 

 represents the baax6ti, or big wheel, one of the Arapaho sacred 

 tribal objects. It is a wooden hoop with two strings tied 

 across it. As has been stated before, the square and the 

 circle are often equivalent in Arapaho symbolism, the circle 

 being generally regarded as something four-sided, so that the 

 symbolism here is not so forced as it might appear. On the 



Fig. 34. 1 (iiVi), * (tJSj)- Designs on Rawhide Bags. Width of 

 bags, 20 cm., 33 cm. 



triangular piece forming the cover-flap, the blue line border- 

 ing the edge represents the rainbow, and the small red tri- 

 angle is the heart. 



Fig. 34, 6, shows a bag of about the same size as the pre- 

 ceding, with much the same pattern and symbolism. The 

 rectangles represent bear-feet. The triangles are the places 

 where the bears live, i. e., the mountains. The small black 

 marks just below the vertices of these triangles are wild 



