When we study the significance of the pattern we find the greatest possible divergence of meaning. As pointed out before, different individuals in one tribe, do not all assign to it the same meaning, but more or less decided tendencies to certain interpretations are found in each tribe. The design is sometimes drawn steeply and the sides of the triangle extend slightly beyond the apex. Thus the form of a tent with tent poles, doorway and pegs for pinning down the tent cover is expressed. At other times the triangle is more obtuse and represents a hill. It may be placed on a white background which signifies snow or sand; blue lines extending downward from the base indicate springs of water and small triangles may be placed in the inner triangle. Thus it becomes the mythical mountain in which, at the beginning of time, the buffaloes were kept and which is located on a snowcovered plain. On the slopes of the mountain grow trees. Again, quite different, is the interpretation given by the Pueblo Indians. In their arid country the greatest need is rain without which their crops wither and starvation stares at the people. The communal life centers around the idea of fertility to be attained by an abundance of rain. Accordingly they interpret the symbol as a cloud from which the rain falls. Since their art is far less angular in style than that of the Plains Indians, they often substitute a semicircle for the triangle and attain a greater realistic resemblance to clouds by superimposing three of these semicircles, from which flow down the rain lines. When we turn to the western plateaus, we find among the Shoshone the regular design of the obtuse triangle applied and explained on the basis of geographical features; it suggests to them mountain-passes and a fort protected by palisades. Further to the north we do not find the enclosed rectangle, but the triangle and the spurs at the base persist. These are explained as paws of a bear, the triangle being the sole of the foot, the spurs the claws. In the eastern woodlands new developments occur. The triangle now is exceedingly narrow, so that there is no room for the enclosed rectangle which is reduced to a triangle. The sides of the triangle are produced beyond the apex, even more so than among the Sioux Indians, and a considerable number of almost straight vertical lines are added to the sides. The form bears now a certain resemblance to a fish tail and is so interpreted. Still more curious are the developments in New England. The triangle and the enclosed rectangle are still unmistakably present, although curved lines, characteristic of eastern American art, are added on. The interpretation has changed again. The pattern is a symbol of the town or of the tribe and its chief.