LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



thunder is symbolically characterized by a triskeles, one arm of which is enclosed in 

 a semicircle. Below it the lightning is represented by a trident. The meandrian 

 patterns are also a symbolical equivalent for thunder, so that this whole repre 

 sentation might be called the best illustration of the deductions of Hirth in the 

 paper quoted before. 



THE MUSK-DEER. Foremost among the animals which play an important 

 part in the productions of this art, after the cock and the dragon, is the musk-deer ; 

 at least the creature portrayed in the following examples is explained by the natives 

 as such. It is rather naturalistic on some of the larger zoophoric compositions ; 

 but, under the pressure of the leading gallinaceous motive, it undergoes such 

 conventional transformations, especially in its double character, that the dif 

 ference between the construction of its forms and those of the cock is hardly 

 perceptible. 



In Fig. 2, Plate xiv, not only has the deer retained the form of head of 

 the cock, but it has also been invested with its beak grasping the fish. The 

 head is adorned with 

 antlers which are 

 made up of two tris 

 keles joined by a 

 heavy dot. On the 

 body, and parallel 

 with its outline, are 

 cut out two conven 

 tionalized fishes side 

 by side. The two 

 hind-legs are formed 

 in the same way as 

 the tail, consisting of 



two slightly undulating curves. The two animals are rampant, their fore-legs 

 united in a straight bar. 



Fig. 3, Plate xiv, represents a paper pattern for embroidering a pair of ear- 

 lappets. The two figures (a) on both sides are combatant musk-deer of more 

 conventionalized form than the preceding ones ; only their heads, with ears 

 upright and mouths open, have a somewhat natural appearance. Their bodies 

 are shaped like the fish whose form is cut out of them. Two large dots 

 serve to express the feet. The tails consist of one falcation and a combination 

 of two triskeles with an oval knob. The lines b are wave-lines ending below in a 

 form reminding one of the cock s tail-feathers. The ornamental figures c and d 

 signify the last stage of development of the cocks of Type A, that is, of the 

 combatant cocks, d showing two combatant fishes in lieu of cocks bodies. The 

 oblong crenations (e) around the edge are apparently derived from the constitu 

 ents of the cock s wing-feathers. 



On the side of a birch-bark basket (Fig. 19), are delineated two combatant 



