LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



are unsurpassed in cutting ornaments for decorating birch-bark baskets. At 

 all events, if we consider the geographical distribution of decorative design 

 in these regions, the art industry carried on by the Gold in Khabarovsk and 

 its environs remains the central circle from which the practices of the other 

 tribes radiate, and lose in light and warmth toward the periphery. 



Although the elaboration of ornaments is still actively going on, and in no 

 more danger of dying out than the Gold and Gilyak themselves, yet the people, 

 whose interests are more and more absorbed by recent demands of Russian 

 intercourse, seem to overlook the relics of the past ; at least at times they fail 

 to understand their own singularity, for I came across but few individuals 

 who were able to &quot; read &quot; their ornaments. To the great mass of the people 

 they are indeed a mystery. Perhaps, however, they have never paid much 

 attention to decoration, which may always have been confined to the initiated. 

 If the common people are questioned as to the significance of a particular 

 ornament, their usual answer is, accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders, that it 

 is only for decorative purposes. Very few expert artists are able to give approx 

 imately satisfactory information, and even what they do give is fragmentary, and 

 probably a mere skeleton of what must have been known about the subject in 

 previous times ; so that out of these shreds it is hard to piece together the 

 perfect original fabric. The following account is an objective, although somewhat 

 disconnected, record of the ideas which the native artists of to-day know how to 

 develop on their productions. I think the clews obtained from this source of 

 interpretation should form the impassable boundary to our knowledge in this 

 domain of research, beyond which limit we should not attempt to go ; for we 

 should neither pretend nor strive to know more about things than the people who 

 have made them. Gaps may in many cases be filled in, perhaps, by comparisons 

 of single pieces one with another. An explanation for a definite form cannot be 

 transferred unhesitatingly to another homologous one, except on the condition 

 that the latter appears in the same connection of lines and structures as the 

 former, the same rule as holds regarding comparisons of traditions of various 

 tribes. Just as in a fragmentary manuscript many a missing link may be guessed 

 at, inferred, or even restored, so may it also happen in ornamentation ; neverthe 

 less one ought never to be off one s guard, but should adopt the expectant 

 method until new sources are opened from allied provinces, be our present 

 knowledge never so meagre and even in shreds. 



Our investigation starts with an analysis of the simple component forms of 

 this ornamentation, i. e., the band and the spiral, and will then deal with the usual 

 forms of animals. 



BANDS. The fillet or band ornament occurs primarily on handles of spoons. 

 Such decorated spoons are now things of the past. At the present day they are 

 used only by the Gilyak, on the occasion of the bear-festival, having been super 

 seded in every-day life by spoons of Russian make. The specimens represented 



