234 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



the survival of the ancient kiieh, there is on the right the figure of a 

 phenix standing on clouds and looking towards the slender-bodied 

 hydra (ch'ih) below, which has the bearded head of a bird with pointed 

 beak very similar to that of the phenix. The left hind-foot of the mon- 

 ster terminates in the figure of a bird's head, presumably symbolizing a 

 cloud. It is rearing the left fore-paw in the direction of the bird, 

 supporting the right on the clouds below. Large cloud-bands are grace- 

 fully displayed along the upper edge. The reverse (Plate XXX, Fig. i) 

 is plain except that the central medallion is filled with engraved spiral 

 patterns; the color of the jade is here green-gray interspersed with 

 reddish specks and veins. This carving (15.1 cm in length, 7.1 cm in 

 width and 4-6 mm in thickness) was discovered in a grave of the Han 

 period in the village Wan-ts x un west of the city of Si-ngan fu. 



The designs in Figs. 2 and 3, differing only as to their dimensions 

 are identical even in minute details, which goes to show that there were 

 typical patterns available for this purpose. Two hydras, their heads 

 seen from above, are winding around the lower and left side of the jade 

 plaque, and spiral ornaments in open-work surround the two spear- 

 shaped points. The jade of the carving in Fig. 2 is grayish, and red in 

 the left and lower right portion; that in Fig. 3 bluish green and gray. 



The girdle-ornament in Fig. 4 of the same Plate is of a milk-white, 

 smooth, lustrous jade and has the fundamental nucleus with oval 

 perforation shaped in the same way as Fig. 1. Four monsters of con- 

 ventionalized design, carved in open-work are laid around the edges; 

 above a bearded creature with long head similar to the k'uei lung, to the 

 left a bird joining it, then an elephant or tapir head, and below a run- 

 ning quadruped the head of which is not clearly outlined. This find 

 comes from a grave of the Han period in the village Kiao ts'un, west of 

 the city of Si-ngan fu. 



We have seen that these designs relate to and are emblematic of 

 procreation. Not only the pairing of the animals, the most conspicuous 

 feature in all of them, but also the minor decorative elements point in 

 the same direction. The ornamental clouds are emblematic of genera- 

 tive power too, as they send fertilizing rain. On the lower faces of the 

 four carvings in our collection, phallic designs are engraved with undis- 

 guised explicitness (Plate XXX) ; the spear-like ends of the oval kiieh 

 are presumably also intended as emblems of that kind. These four 

 pieces were found in women's graves; apparently they had been worn 

 by these women during their life as girdle-pendants and were, on their 

 death, buried with them. The opinion of Chinese archaeologists ill 

 Si-ngan fu, where this type is designated "chicken-heart girdle-orna- 

 ment" (see below p. 238), is that it was placed in the womb with the 





