Boas, Franz: Primitive art (Oslo , Leipzig [u.a.], 1927)

94

Symbolism

Sioux and Blackfeet, and H. H. St. Clair that of the Shoshone.
Later on the study was extended over other adjacent areas.
The results obtained by Kroeber indicate a close similarity between
the symbolism of the Arapaho and that of the Cheyenne. Here
also abstract ideas appear in considerable number. It will suffice
here to give a few examples. On a moccasin1 (fig 84) “the longi-


Fig. 84. Moccasin, Arapaho.


Fig. 85. Knife case, Arapaho.

tudinal stripe signifies the path to destination. A small stripe at the
heel of the moccasin (not shown in the figure) signifies the opposite
idea, the place whence one has come. The variety of color in the
larger stripe represents a variety of things (which naturally are of
many different colors) that one desires to possess. The small dark-
blue rectangles are symbols that are called ‘hiiteni’2. The white
1 A. L. Kroeber, The Arapho, Bulletin American Museum of Natural History,
Vol. XVIII, pp. 39, 40.
2 Hiiteni is explained as meaning life, abundance, food, prosperity, temporal
blessings, desire or hope for food, prayer for abundance, or the things wished for
(A. L. Kroeber. ibid.., p. 40).