Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/493

Rh with a bar on the instep, from which arise at each end two short lines. These designs are so complex that evidently they must have bad a common origin. It is of great importance to note that nevertheless the explanations given by the various tribes arc quite different. The design is interpreted by the Arapaho as the morning star; the bar on the instep, as the horizon; the short lines, as the twinkling of the star. To the mind of the Sioux the design conveys the idea of feathers, when applied to a woman's moccasin; when found on a man's moccasin, it symbolizes the sacred shield suspended from tent-poles. The identical design was explained by the Shoshone

US signifying the sun (the circle) and its rays; but also the thunder-bird, the cross-arms of the cross evidently being the wings; the part nearest the toe, the tail, and the upper part, the neck with two strongly conventionalized heads attached. If these are the ideas conveyed by this design to the weavers, it is clear that they must have developed after the invention or introduction of the design; that the design is primary, the idea secondary, and that the idea has nothing to do with the historical development of the design itself.

It may be well to give a few additional examples of such similarity of design and difference of symbolism. One of the typical designs