LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



37 



produce rain and thunder. This monster is very popular throughout eastern 

 Asia, and is a favorite subject in ornamentation. 1 



Fig. 4, Plate xn, is a decoration cut out of paper, in which the picture of 

 the dragon is repeated four times. It is laid out in the form of a double spiral, 

 the starting-point of which is, on the one side its head, on the other side its tail. 

 To the single spirals are now added offshoots representing the legs of the 

 monster, so that one might distinguish the form of the dragon as well as the 

 combination of two triskeles. The curved lines outlining the dragon s body run 

 parallel to each other, 

 and are covered with a 

 row of small triangles 

 indicating scales. The 

 upper part of the head 

 has almost a helmet- 

 like shape, its mouth 

 being strongly promi 

 nent, and its tongue; 

 quivering. On the face 

 of the dragon () there 

 is a very remarkable 

 design : in the three 

 objects, eye, semicircle, 

 body, is reproduced 

 the image of the con 

 ventionalized fish as it 

 usually appears on the 

 naturalistic fish -body 

 or the cock. The con 

 ventionalized fish oc 

 curs once again under the head, where it is formed by the outline of the latter 

 and an added triskeles, representing in this case the whiskers of that mythical 

 creature.-. The horns on its head are so shaped as to remind one of the cock s 

 tail-feathers. The one four-broached portion of the horns is also identical with 

 the design of the dragon s tail on other pictures. On its neck are three claws, 

 representing its wings or flag-feathers. It is a striking fact that the four fields at 

 the ends of the dragon-tails are filled with cocks (6), each holding a fish in its 

 beak, and having their bodies formed like fishes, the symbolical design of the 

 conventionalized fish being cut out of them. This is placed also around the 

 spiral wing-feathers in the: characteristic manner. The tail belongs rather te&amp;gt; 

 the dragon than to the bird, for it consists, which is unusual for a cock s tail, of 

 two bisected parts, each made: up e&amp;gt;f two offshoots. The picture marked c may 

 be interpreted as shewing certain stages in the development e)f the: cock-fish 

 ornament. 



1 The dragon of purely Chinese type has already been referred to on p. 4. 



Tribe, Cold. Alwu 



