Dr.Culin regards this particular design "as representing the spider web with the dew upon it," and adds: "The 'water shield' [of one of the Zuni War Gods], from which he shook the torrents, was suggested, no doubt, by dew on the web." (Ibid., p.425.) To one unfamiliar with the Indian's habit of mind it may seem strained to connect the beads of dew on a spider's web with the torrential rain, but to one familiar with native thought as expressed in myths where the Indian has dramatized his conceptions of nature and of natural forces and phenomena, the connection ceases to be strange.
On the Pueblo altars the netted shield is always associated with arrows, bows or darts.

In the various types of this game the arrows, darts, bows, javelins and lances that are associated with the hoop are interchangeable, some tribes using one and other tribes another.

Under all the varied types with their different forms as found among scattered and unrelated tribes the game holds to its original significance, primarily religious in character, being an appeal for the protection and the perpetuity of life.
Only two articles are required for this game, the hoop and the javelin.

In one type the hoop is covered with a netting more or less closely and elaborately woven.

In all the netted designs it is usually possible to trace a figure as of a path crossing at right angles in the center of the space within the hoop and ending at four equidistant points on the edge of the hoop.