LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



Fig. 5, Plate xn, is another paper pattern representing dragons, likewise in 

 the form of double spirals, but in much simpler form than in the preceding case. 

 The head (a) is extended, and has only one horn of the shape of the familiar con 

 ventionalized bipartite fish. The mouth projects and is wide open. An oval 

 figure is put under its lower jaw, significant of a bright pearl. 1 The serpentine 

 body is covered, not with scales, but with an ornamental spur-line. The tail (3) is 

 a bushy tuft with four branches, one of which corresponds to the form of a con 

 ventionalized fish. Feet and claws are not indicated. 



Fig. 6, Plate xn, shows a painting on the upper edge of a pair of leggings, 

 colored in red and black. In this case two dragons are placed side by side, the 





3n of Paper Patter 



faces turned away from each other. These are strongly conventionalized, indicat 

 ing in reality only the open jaws, the scales marked as in the foregoing example. 

 The tops of the heads are connected by a brace. Both above and below the body 

 is a foot with claw. The tail consists of a circle and adjoining triskeles-shaped 

 fish-tail. 



Fig. 2, Plate xm, represents half of the decoration on the cover of a 

 lacquered tobacco-box, the edge of which is adorned with a conventionalized 

 design of eight dragons in the form of spirals. These are paired so that their 

 faces, which consist of bifid ovals, are turned away from each other. The horns 

 are fashioned after the cock s tail-feathers. The heads of the dragons on the long 



1 See Grunwedel in Sitzungsberichte der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, 1901, p. 215. 



