I will mention one more case in which the actual process of reading in has been observed. At one time, when I visited British Columbia, I purchased a woven bag from an elderly woman. It was decorated with a series of diamonds and small embroidered cross-like figures. Upon inquiry I learned that the bag had been purchased from a neighboring tribe and that the new owner did not know anything about the original significance of the pattern,—if such a significance existed which is doubtful, because the tribe in question is not given to interpretations. It appeared to the new owner that the diamonds looked like a series of lakes connected by a river. The different colors of the diamonds appeared to her to suggest the colors of the lakes;—a green border, the vegetation of the shore, a yellow area inside the shallow water, and a blue center the deep water. The interpretation did not seem to her sufficiently clear, and in order to emphasize it she added, in embroidery, figures of birds flying towards the lakes. Thus she gave greater realism to her conception and made it more intelligible to her friends (Plate VII). [Illustration: PLATE VII. Woven Pouch, British Columbia.] The needle cases of the Alaskan Eskimo offer an excellent example of an elaboration of geometrical into realistic forms. It must be remembered that all the Eskimo tribes, east and west, are very fond of carving and that they produce many small animal figures that serve no practical purpose but which are made for the pleasure of artistic creation, and that many of their small implements are given animal forms. The mind of the worker in ivory is imbued with the idea of animal representation. The Alaskan needle cases have a stereotyped form to which the bulk of the specimens conform (fig. 119). The type consists of a tube slightly bulging in the middle, with flanges at the upper end, with lateral knobs under the flanges on opposite sides. On the body of the tubing, between the flanges, is a long narrow concave face, set off from the flanges and the body of the tube by parallel lines with small forks at the lower ends. Lines border the sides and ends of the flanges and the upper end of the concave face, and an alternate-spur band is found at the lower end of the tube. This type is presumably related to the ancient type of needle case from Hudson Bay, which is characterized by a tubular form, flanges at the upper end and a pair of large wings in the middle part of the tube. These, I believe are the prototypes of the small knobs at the sides of the Alaskan type. These are sometimes so small that they can hardly be seen, although they may be felt when the fingers glide lightly over the surface of the tube. However this may be, the majority of Alaskan specimens are of the type here described. The variations in geometrical form are very slight.[71]