LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 33 



preceding, has the form of the cock s beak and neck. These two arms form a 

 rounding whose space is filled up by a kind of trident. In the upper part of 

 this decoration two triskeles, with one part shaped like a fish-tail and the other 

 like a cock s head, are placed together in a way similar to that below. 



Fig. 5, Plate xi, is an embroidery-pattern the ornament on the tinder part 

 of which consists of four spirals. To the outside of each of the inner spirals 

 clings a conventionalized fish, the form of which has become somewhat stiff 

 owing to the kind of work. To the outer spirals below is added a triskeles of 

 the well-known fish-tail form, and at the extreme ends a conventionalized fish 

 holding the head downward. In the upper part of this ornament we note double 

 combinations of triskeles in which one arm is rolled in like a scroll, and to which 

 ovals or circles are joined, as they appear elsewhere in front of the cocks beaks, 

 so that here the idea of conventionalized cocks may be the underlying conception. 



Fig. 6, Plate xi, shows an embroidered collar. The ornament consists of a 

 double row. The element of the inner row is formed by a wave-line, which joins 

 in the centre in a pair of spirals. In the concavities on either side are two 

 distinctly designed cocks with fishes for their bodies. In this case, the plum 

 age is marked on the body, not, as elsewhere, outside of it. The outer row of 

 ornaments is composed of single pieces reproducing, as it were, diagrams of the 

 cock holding the fish in its mouth, the heads of the cocks being recurved so 

 that they are turned toward each other ; the fishes have the shape of the triskeles. 



Fig. 7, Plate xi, represents the embroidery on a wristlet, the design ex 

 emplifying a very curious amalgamation of the cock with the fish. The beak 

 of the cock with the circular object under it is clearly visible, as well as the 

 form of its body. All the remaining parts, however, are shaped like a fish, 

 two dorsal fins, at the same time the bird s pinions ; the bipartite fish-tail, at the 

 same time the cock s tail-feathers. The close association of both animals, and 

 their ornamental harmony, have advanced to such a degree, that one might speak 

 in this case of a cock-fish or a fish-cock, according to the predominance of the one 

 or the other element. The other spirals occurring here, and the S-shaped cocks 

 with two circles between their beaks, require no further explanation. 



Fig. i, Plate xn, represents the ornamentation on the inside of a birch-bark 

 basket. It consists of three rows, one above another, the uppermost and under 

 most containing the same design. The middle field shows at both ends two 

 naturalistic cocks with long, bent beaks, and bodies in the form of fishes ; the 

 head of the latter is indicated by a scroll. This fish-body is embedded in the 

 curve of the wave-line, between the upper end of which and the cock s head is 

 the design of a crescent-like conventionalized fish, indicating at the same time 

 pinions. To recognize the pictures in the two central hollows, the plate must be 

 inverted. Then we see the cock, Type B. It is worthy of note that the conven 

 tionalized bipartite fishes are attached to the neck of the cock in the rounding 

 between the neck and the spiral body. In the edge ornaments we observe again 

 a series of fish-spirals. The fishes form here the starting-point of the spirals ; 



