272 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the eye being such as would he necessary to follow a curve. It 

 was soon found that frets drawn, probably at first unintentionally, 

 with rounded corners, were pleasant to examine with the eye, and 

 afterward they wei-e purposely rounded down, giving rise to the beau- 

 tiful linked scrolls, Fig. 11. At first, the most important part of this 

 ornamental border was the scroll, and the connecting curve was 



Fig. 11. Fig. 12. 



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treated, so to speak, as a mere hair-line ; but, by-and-by, the eye be- 

 gan to take more and more pleasure in following this more subtile con- 

 necting line, and it came finally to be cultivated, to the neglect of the 

 scrolls, giving rise to the sigmoids, Fig. 12. 



Some have claimed that this last ornament was originally emblem- 

 atic of water. This was certainly not the case, and it never came to 

 mean water until, having fully grown, it was recognized as resembling 

 the curling waves of the sea. In Etruscan art we frequently find a 

 series of little dolphins gracefully leaping over the crests, or fishes 

 are drawn in below. Here, undoubtedly, the ornament was treated 

 as representing water, or the sea. A host of beautiful borders grew 

 up by combining two or more series of these scrolls and shading the 

 spaces in various ways, but I have not time to speak of them here. 



With the culture of the sigmoid curves, and the neglect of the 

 spirals, much vacant space is left in the border which will look better 

 if filled in with ornament. 1 



In Brazil I have found little triangles drawn in these spaces, as in 

 Fig. 13, while exactly the same border is found in Etruscan art. 



Fig. 13. Fig. 14. 



^Mslsi^lsib c-^^^^^ 



It will be observed that the sides of the little triangles are approx- 

 imately parallel to the parts of the sigmoids and bounding lines to 

 which they are adjacent, thus producing a pleasant effect on the eye. 

 The next step in the evolution of this border consists in uniting the 

 little triangles with the sigmoids, as in Fig. 14, and this form I have 

 observed on a Peruvian vase. 



With progress in culture comes the love of variety and change. 

 Savage music, savage art, every thing in fact in uncivilized life, is 

 monotonous. An Amazonian Indian will listen enrapt for hours to 



1 Some writers say that a space demands ornament, but the demand is subjective, not 

 objective. 



