GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 



825 



and elaborate, while in other instances, as upon a metal surface, the 

 result is a mere zigzag, the result of using a narrow graver, and as it 

 is pushed forward the tool is rotated from side to side. 



The character of the material upon which decoration is attempted 

 greatly influences the artistic result. 



Some circles from eastern Turkistau, to which my attention was 

 called by my friend Doctor Walter Hough, of the National Museum, 

 resemble almost exactly those mentioned by Doctor A. B. Meyer, 

 who presented some interesting illustrations of shields from the Bis- 

 marck Archipelago and New Guinea, upon some of wliich are several 

 series of concentric rings (four) while some are nucleated with a solid 

 spot and three surrounding rings.^ 



In his monograph on the whirring toy or " bull-rorer," Doctor J. D. 

 E. Schmeltz^ presents a number of illustrations from various localities, 

 nearly all of which are ornamented. Two si)ecimens from West Aus- 

 tralia are of peculiar interest, from the fact of the recurrence of two 

 figures shown on a lloman lamp from Carthage (plate 45, p. 81G). The 



Fig. 38. 



GOLD BOAT FOUND AT NORS, PENMAKK. 



one specimen of these wooden toys is ornamented with five figures of 

 concentric circles, the three middle ones having each five rings, while 

 the flanking or end figures have each but four rings. 



The other toy has upon one side three figures of rectangles, each 

 figure consisting of a nest of five, one within the other, as in the con- 

 struction of concentric rings. At either end are short curved lines. 

 Such a coincidence — as it can be nothing more — is truly remarkable, 

 especially as the Australian designs are not in exact accordance with 

 the usual type of designs. 



The district of Thisted, Denmark, contains many small grave mounds, 

 from some of which unique finds have been obtained. One clay vessel 

 covered with a flat stone contained about one hundred small boats, the 

 ribs and sailing of which are made of bronze bands bent around one 

 another, while in the middle of these lie sheets of thin plates of gold 

 whose corners overlap each other at the bottom of the boat and are 

 bent around the bronze bands above, covering it. In the same manner 



1 Publicationen aus dera Kongl. Ethnog. Museum Dresden. X. 1895. Plate 

 xviii, figs. 3, 4, and 5. 



2 Das Schwirrliolz. IIaiultiii<r, 189(5. 



