14 PRIMITIVE ART 
In many cases 
these pictographs 
become more geo- 
metrical in char- 
acter, so that they 
may be called or- 
namental designs. 
Such is the case, for 
instance, in a young 
woman’s head - band 
made of buckskin 
(Case 12 d), painted 
red with designs representing lodges 
\\ in the lower part and stars in the 
j upper. In some cases the whole form, ig 
of the object is given a symbolic in-{\ 
terpretation. Thus we find a stone war-axe (Case \ 
12 €) representing the woodpecker. This design sym- 
bolizes the idea that the point of the axe is to be as 
powerful in piercing skulls as the beak of the wood- 
pecker is in piercing the bark of trees. The point of 
the axe represents the beak of the bird; the red dot 
on the rounded part of the stone, its eye; the handle, 
its body. In the pictographic art of this tribe, cer- 
tain motives have obtained a conventional meaning. 
Such is the case, for instance, with the triangles 
on the girl’s head-band mentioned before, which 
always represent lodges. Crosses, like those on 
the drinking-tubes in Case 12 d, represent 
the crossings of trails; parallel lines represent 
ditches, and a circle with four equidistant rays 
symbolizes the sun. 
The pictographic art of these tribes tends 
to assume a geometrical character particularly 
on their woven bags and on their imbricated 
basketry. The merging of the pictographic and 
purely decorative elements may be observed 
very clearly in a bag (Case 12 d), on which 
