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2 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



minds of the natives. Artistic representations of the bear in wood-carving are 

 limited to the Gilyak, for use at their bear-festival. This animal, however, is 

 never reproduced in drawings or paintings, either in natural or conventional 

 form, according to the verbal testimony of both the Gilyak and Gold. Neither 

 have I myself discovered even a trace of the bear-heads suggested by Schurtz. 

 Of the existence of his eye-ornaments, apparently a mere outcome of his enthu 

 siasm, my authorities were also entirely ignorant. 



I am under obligations to Professor A. Bastian for permitting me to take 

 advantage of those collections in the Konigliche Museum fiir Volkerkunde in 

 Berlin which relate to the Amur region, and which were made by Captain A. 

 Jacobsen. I have also to thank the authorities of the Konigliche Kunstgewerbe 

 Museum in Berlin for placing at my disposal fourteen specimens of Chinese and 

 Japanese weavings. These objects from the two Berlin museums have been drawn 

 by Mr. W. von den Steinen ; drawings for the other illustrations were prepared 

 by Mr. Rudolf Weber. A list of plates is given at the end. 



HISTORICAL ASPECT. The history of the decorative art of the Amur tribes 

 is shrouded in mystery, since no written records give any account of it ; never 

 theless we may be able to make some historical observations regarding its devel 

 opment. A comparison of the artistic material found in my collections with that 

 obtained by Schrenck nearly half a century ago, and illustrated in his work 

 &quot; Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande,&quot; affords instructive evidence that the 

 forms of this sphere of art have remained unaltered up to the present time, not 

 withstanding all political turbulence and change that have affected the Amur 

 region in the mean time. Although Russian influence is nowadays all-powerful, 

 yet it has not been able to suppress or eradicate native art, nor to replace it by 

 something better, for the apparent simple reason that the Russian settlers had 

 indeed nothing better to offer. Whereas Russian &quot; culture &quot; tended to shatter the 

 entire life of the natives, its effect is the more striking and remarkable in view of 

 the fact that the native art has been retained pure and intact. From this we may 

 be justified in inferring that their artistic conceptions have taken deep root in the 

 hearts of the people, and have acquired a high value in their intellectual world. 

 The tenacity with which the style of art survives should be counted as evidence of 

 its national character, at least of an ancient naturalization on the soil in which it 

 was planted. On the other hand, we observe at first that the forms and concep 

 tions of this ornamentation are imbued, for the most part, with a Chinese spirit ; 

 but considering the historical feature just mentioned, and, moreover, the fact that 

 the present aspect of the wide propagation and the skilful execution of this art 

 all over the Amur region can be the result only of long-enduring tradition, it can 

 hardly be designated en masse as a Chinese importation. Its basis rests unde 

 niably in China. In the course of time the Amur tribes appropriated Chinese 

 forms to themselves, and very likely further developed them independently. The 

 introduction of Chinese devices must surely date as far back as the earliest connec- 



