LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 31 



picture of a fish, from which radiate three cock-heads with circles before their 

 beaks. The two on the left side are shaped like triskeles, the lower one end 

 ing in a fish-tail. The bird branching off from the fish on the right side holds its 

 head turned downward to the left, wing and feet being slightly symbolized by a 

 short crooked foil, and terminating in a disproportionately extended fish-tail. 

 The following isosceles is occupied by two conventional, almost heraldic forms of 

 animals explained by natives as musk-deer (see p. 41 ), whose bodies are usually 

 treated like that of the cock, their ears standing upright, their faces turned away 

 from each other, two legs being indicated above the body, and the other two 

 below it ; the tail a bushy tuft consisting of five curved broaches. The animal is 

 shaped intentionally in the form of a spiral ; its mouth being the starting-point, 

 and one of the fore-legs the terminus. Its body is in the form of a fish, and, 

 besides, in its interior is a bipartite fish adapted to the outline of the body. The 

 head of this fish is directed downward, its eye distinctly marked by a circle and 

 its gill by a crescent, which is somewhat bigger in the animal on the right side. 

 The tendency to introduce fishes into these decorations goes so far as to affect 

 even the clearness of the fundamental design. In this case the ends of the; fore 

 most lobe of the tail and of the adjoining hind-leg are so connected with each 

 other as to leave space for the design of a conventional form of a fish on the hind 

 part of the deer. To see to advantage the picture contained in the third triangle, 

 one should invert the illustration. Then it is possible to observe the two long- 

 stretched heads of the roosters holding a green-colored circle between their beaks, 

 the pinions being duly indicated by a tricorned branch, the bodies being formed 

 by graceful wave-lines to which cling two carp full of life and vigor, characterized 

 in the usual way, and having, besides, a spinal fin. To the; tail of each is joined 

 an S-shaped fish, to the head of which is attached another fish with a triskeles-like 

 tail. Only one half of the following central triangle is shown in the figure : con 

 sequently it contains but one of the combatant cocks. In front of its beak is 

 visible a conventionalized tripartite fish with a bifurcated tail. I ; rom below the; 

 head of the bird branches out to the left a conventionalized fish consisting of 

 head and body. From the same point proceeds a curve representing the bird s 

 breast, and continuing to the left into the pinions, sending three prongs to the 

 left and one to the right. The last two offshoots form jointly a fish-tail. 

 Oddly enough, the foot is symbolized by a three-lobed leaf joined on either 

 side by a branchlet which seems to signify part of a spur. The body, hori 

 zontally placed, follows the outlines of the fish drawn into it. The tail attached 

 to this part is formed in a style widely different from the usual cock-tail, being 

 simply an imitation, or rather adaptation, of the musk-deer tail in the preceding 

 triangle. 



Fig. 2 a shows a portion of the ornamentation a continuation of which con 

 stitutes the back of the same rim. The division of the ornamented surface is 

 executed here by an elegant sweep of a wave-line. In the first concavity the 

 under part of this wave-line forms at the same time the outline of a fish that clings 



