. The Arapaho. Arapaho Indians; Arapaho art; Symbolism in art; Picture-writing, Indian; Indians of North America; Indians of North America. 134 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 t
. The Arapaho. Arapaho Indians; Arapaho art; Symbolism in art; Picture-writing, Indian; Indians of North America; Indians of North America. 134 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
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