144 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVIIl, 



objects that have been described in this paper, the rhomboid 

 or diamond-shaped symbol can be found with the following 

 ten significations: the navel, a person, an eye, a lake, a star, 

 life or abundance (hiiteni), a turtle, a buffalo-wallow, a hill, 

 the interior of a tent. All of these meanings, except the first 

 two, are totally unrelated. If the significance of the decora- 

 tion on a larger number of specimens had been obtained, it 

 is probable that the known number of meanings attached to 

 this symbol would be still larger. What makes the varia- 

 bility of this system of decorative symbolism appear still 

 more plainly is the fact that nearly all of these ten significa- 

 tions have also been found attached to very different sym- 

 bols. Thus a person is denoted, on other specimens that have 

 been described, by a small rectangle, triangle, square, or 

 cross, by a dot, by a line, as well as by rudely realistic de- 

 signs. The eye is represented by a rectangle, and again by a 

 nearly triangular figure. A lake is represented on different 

 specimens by a square, a trapezoid, a triangle, a pentagon, 

 a circle, or other figures. A star is often represented by a 

 cross; the life-symbol by a trapezoid, hills by triangles. 

 In fact, of these ten significations, that of the navel is the 

 only one that was found several times and always represented 

 by the same symbol. 



It thus appears that there is no fixed system of symbolism 

 in Arapaho decorative art. Any interpretation of a figure is 

 personal. Often the interpretation is arbitrary. Much de- 

 pends upon what might be called symbolic context. In a 

 decoration which symbolizes buffalo-hunting, a stripe natu- 

 rally represents a bow; on a parfleche whose decoration repre- 

 sents such parts of the landscape as mountains, rocks, earth, 

 and tents, an identical stripe would naturally have the 

 signification of a river or of a path; but whether a path or 

 a river, would depend on the fancy of the maker of the par- 

 fleche. On another man's parfleche such a stripe may repre- 

 sent a rope; on still another, red paint or the blue sky, because 

 the maker of this particular article thought of the color of 

 the stripe before he did of its shape. Naturally one person 

 cannot guess what the decorations on another person's par- 



