Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/562

 214 Journal of A merican Folk-Lore.

ing individual Red Men. — Arapaho. To the " Bulletin of the Amer- ican Museum of Natural History " (vol. xiii. 1900, pp. 69-86) Mr. A. L. Kroeber contributes a valuable and interesting article (illus- trated) on the " Symbolism of the Arapaho Indians." The author's investigations were carried on during the summer of 1899 in Okla- homa Territory, where some of the members of this outlying branch of the Algonkian linguistic stock now reside. According to Mr. Kroeber, "every decorative design of the Arapaho is also pictorial," so realistic is even what seems to be purely ornamental. Arapaho art is also " strongly imbued with the symbolic tendency," which is indeed its most marked feature. Its decorative value is mediocre. Arapaho art (pottery and textile fabrics not occurring) is confined to "embroidering with colored beads, quills, or fibres ; carving in out- line or bas-relief ; and painting." While suggesting picture-writing, it is not real pictography. With the Arapaho "designs of animal origin are abundant, but they by no means predominate." The buf- falo and things associated with it naturally furnish a good many symbols. An interesting fact is that " separate parts of the body, animal and human, are not infrequently represented." Plant-designs are not very common, as indeed they are not with most primitive peoples. Symbols numerous and very varied are furnished by in- animate nature, — sun, rainbow, lightning, rain, stars, Milky Way, clouds, etc. The earth, lakes, mountains, etc., have also their sym- bols. The human figure (generally in profile) " is not often repre- sented, except in painting and carving." Mr. Kroeber informs us also that " symbols of abstract ideas have been developed by the Arapaho," as with the closely related Cheyennes, according to Ehren- reich. Perhaps the most common abstract symbol is " that called ' hii teni,' which denotes abundance or the prayer for plenty." This symbol "varies considerably, but all the forms are connected with the square or rectangle," — also the symbol for earth and buffalo. The use of color in Arapaho art is also very interesting ; and " we may have a shape symbolism and a color symbolism in the same dec- orated object, each totally independent of the other." — Onomatology. The new "History of Westchester County," shortly to be issued, will contain a valuable article by Mr. Wallace W. Tooker on " Amer- indian Names in Westchester County," in which some 100 place- names of Algonkian origin are discussed with his usual skill in inter- pretation. In looking over the list one is struck by the considerable number of place-names which perpetuate the name of some chieftain or other individual. The corrupt form of not a few of these names makes it possible for only a ripe scholar like the author to detect the etymology. Cohomong is, e. g., Mr. Tooker suggests, possibly "a survival of Chaubun-Konganmang, ' the boundary fishing-place,' " a

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