26 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



side, and the bodies are adapted to the top of the conical hat. Heads and circles 

 are colored blue, and the other parts are blackened. 



In Fig. 3, Plate ix, is reproduced a painting on the upper part of a pair of 

 fish-skin leggings. Across the extreme upper edge is a border of black ; and of 

 the two ornamented fields below, the upper is red, the under one blue. The lat 

 ter is edged with a narrow red band. The lines of the pattern are painted with 

 black China ink. In the illustration, only a portion of the leggings is repre 

 sented. The ornament, however, is continued to both sides, and terminates at 

 some distance from the seam. The design is painted on a special piece of fish- 

 skin, which is sewed to the material of the leggings proper. In the under section 

 we see on the extreme sides a band-spiral terminating in a fish-tail. This one is 

 continued toward the other side so as to form a double spiral, one of which 

 is disconnected and represents a conventionalized fish of semicircular form. 

 Under the central pair of spirals are three pairs of corresponding fishes, one 

 below another, the undermost of which is connected with the spirals by a hook 

 resembling a bird-head. The upper of these three pairs of fishes finds its coun 

 terpart in the figure placed above the central spirals by way of rounding off the 

 design. That this device also has arisen from the combination of two conven- 

 tionalix.ed fishes, is perceived by a glance at the corresponding design on the 

 upper section, in which the head of the fish is distinctly marked off from its 

 body. On this border we see spirals connected with fish-tails, and in the centre 

 compound but disconnected spirals. Above, on the spirals, are visible tiny off 

 shoots, looking, as it were, like survivals of bird-heads. 



An embroidery-pattern made of birch-bark, for use on an ear-lappet, is shown 

 in Fig. 4, Plate ix. Above and at the base of this pattern are two distinct 

 groups of roosters. In the upper group the heads (&amp;lt;i) are turned upward and 

 away from each other ; the body is represented by a closed spiral, the interior of 

 which assumes the conventional form of a fish. In the under group the head of 

 the cock (/;) is cut out of birch-bark, body and feet being likewise indicated, and 

 the pinions by an exaggeratedly large spiral. Here also occurs the type B. 

 What significance the additional arms terminating in the circles c, in the centre 

 of the figure, may have, is hard to decide : they are either ornamental fillings, or 

 perhaps reminiscences of the circular figures connected with the cock. The same 

 may be said of the circular forms d. 



Fig. 5, Plate ix, represents a boot, the leg of which is made of cloth, the 

 foot part of seal-skin, and the upper, the ornaments on which are cut out in 

 relief, of sturgeon-skin. The lower part of this ornament is made up of two 

 pairs of facing spirals, which are connected with each other by a heart-shaped 

 figure. On this heart are drawn two ovals combined as in an 8, that is usually 

 placed between the beaks of two combatant cocks. For this reason it may very 

 probably be correct to suggest that the two curves bent toward the border-lines 

 to the right and left represent birds necks, and that we have here the same 

 cock type as occurs in Fig. i of this plate. The upper double spirals continue 



