LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



35 



as fishes. In the pair at the upper end we see the type B inverted ; beak 

 and head shaped like a fish-tail, a bifurcation forming the pinions, and leaving 

 between them and the head a space outlining the conventional form of a fish. 

 The ovals, semicircular curves, and the compound braces placed around the 

 spirals are well-known appearances to be traced back to the cock-ornament. The 

 next pair of spirals shows the pronounced figure of a fish, its two sides running 

 parallel to each other, its head not being especially marked off, as in that seen 

 in Fig. 2 of this plate. The left side ends in a fish-tail, to which is closely 

 joined a triskeles or a triskeles-shaped fish, suggesting perhaps that the short 

 hook of the first-mentioned tail should be regarded as at the same time the beak 

 of a cock holding a fish. 



Fig. 12 offers a very interesting pattern as showing the predominating, 

 all-governing influence of the fish-ornament, for the sake of which all other forms 

 are remodelled. In a the cock is clearly to be recognized as a bird ; its beak, 

 however, assumes the form of a fish-tail. On the left, to its trisulcate wing-feather 

 a conventionalized bipartite fish is attached. Its body is, of course, conceived 

 of as a fish, and ends above in a fish-tail. In b we see a figure to be defined 

 neither as cock nor as fish, but to be designated only as cock-fish. The body 

 has the outer form of a cock s body and a fish incised on it. To the right, in the 

 interior of the spiral, a fish-head is appended, whereas to its narrow neck two 

 conventionalized fishes are annexed. Between a and b we see a spiral to which 



