LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



an oval-shaped figure is inserted, connecting the body with the stripes in 

 dicating the feet. 



Combined Cocks, Type A. Figs. 2 and 3, Plate vn, repTesent two Gilyak 

 bear-spears made of iron. The greater part of the design is inlaid with silver, and 

 the portions shown in hachure are inlaid copper and brass. On the blade of Fig. 2 

 are two single cocks symmetrically arranged, each with a circle in front of the 

 beak, the body and tail shaped like a fish. This circular object was explained to me 

 by natives as a grain of wheat that the bird is about to swallow ; but this expla 

 nation seems to have arisen after the true and original meaning had been forgot 

 ten. It is rather more probable that the circle which is generally between two 

 cocks facing each other, or in front of a single one, represents the sun, which, 

 according to Chinese mythology, belongs to the cock. In fact, the sun is repre 

 sented on mythological pictures of the Gold as a simple circle, or as two concen 

 tric circles, with two diameters at right angles to each other. This particular 

 type of single cock appears doubled in Fig. 3 in such a way that the two roosters 

 face each other, and hold one circle in common between their beaks ; this is the 

 attitude called &quot; combatant &quot; in heraldry, and this frequently occurring typical 

 device we shall designate for brevity &quot;Type A.&quot; On this blade we see, all 

 together, two symmetrical pairs of such combatant cocks, easily distinguished as 

 birds, particularly by their crests ; feet and wings being omitted, as in the preced 

 ing case, and only the tail-feathers denoted. Besides these approximately natu 

 ralistic cocks, which are explained and recognized as such also by the natives, 

 there are other purely geometrical designs on these blades, which seem to have a 

 certain connection with the cock-ornament, although we cannot prove that they 

 are derived and developed directly from it. The native interpreters deny that 

 they mean cocks, or have anything to do with them. In Fig. 2 we see, next to 

 the single cock, a combined figure placed around a circle, and terminating in 

 a helical line ; if there were an indication of a comb, the components of this 

 figure might be regarded as cocks. The following figures consist of a pair of 

 combined triskeles connected by an oval, two arms of the triskeles being spirals. 

 There is also a geometrical repetition of the combatant cocks on Fig. 3, the heads 

 ending in simple scrolls, and the tails in convoluted forms. The animal at the 

 upper end of this blade is explained to be a fox devouring a carp, and that on the 

 raised medial line at the lower end is said to be a lizard. There is also a lizard 

 on the corresponding part of the other spear, and, a little farther below, a 

 flat fish. 



Fig. 4, Plate vn, shows an embroidery made of reindeer-hair, probably of Ya 

 kut origin. We observe here the type of the two combatant footless cocks, whose 

 beaks, heads, eyes, long-extended bodies, and four tail-feathers each, are distinctly 

 marked. In the beak of each is an oval object, the two uniting into one figure. 

 Under these cocks we observe a symmetrical geometric figure composed of 

 spirals and curves, which, however, is nothing more than an ornamental sketch 

 showing, as it were, the reflected images of the cocks above. Corresponding 



