1 34 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVIII, 



two or three rows of tents. These are painted in red, black, 

 and yellow, — the only colors that appear to be used on 

 medicine-cases; sometimes even the yellow is omitted. Fig. i 

 of Plate XXV shows such a case. The top cover has a design 

 which may be considered as four tents or as the morning-star 

 cross. 



A second kind of design on medicine-cases is shown in Fig. 

 2 of Plate XXV. The symbolism of this design is elaborate. 

 It has been described before.' It represents with some detail 

 the acquisition of supernatural power, especially of control 

 of the buffalo, by the owner of the case. 

 Another case, whose design is very similar 

 to the last, is shown in Fig. 3 of Plate 

 XXV. Nothing is known of the signifi- 

 cance of this design. The Arapaho declare 

 that the symbolic decoration that occurs 

 on this kind of medicine-case was used 

 (this probably does not mean invented) by 

 a medicine-man who was famous for his 

 power over the buffalo, and by his fol- 

 lowers. This medicine-man is said to have 

 died not very long ago. How far the sym- 

 bolism of these similarly ornamented cases 

 was alike, is not known. 



In the Field Columbian Museum in Chi- 

 cago there is a Kiowa medicine-case whose 

 Fig. 43(JM.). Design on dcsign is somewhat intermediate between 



a Medicine-case. Length, 



50 cm. these two kmds of Arapaho designs. This 



pattern consists of inverted triangles re- 

 sembling the inverted tents of^ Fig. i of Plate xxv. At their 

 vertices are wide crescents, causing the entire figures to re- 

 semble some of the figures of Fig. 3, Plate xxv. 



Fig. 43 shows a third kind of design from a medicine-case. 

 This is painted in red, yellow, and black, on one side or half 

 of the case. The other half of the case is left unpainted, and 

 the top is missing. The triangles (eight in all) represent 



• Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1900, p. 82; and American 

 Anthropologist, 1901, p. 319. 



