LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 47 



as leaves, chiefly the heads of conventionalized fishes, and the round object held 

 in the beak of the cock. 



Fig. i, Plate xv, represents a carved Goldian wooden dish. In the middle, 

 around a large circle, are grouped four smaller ones showing peculiar forms of 

 svastika. Two opposite fields inside of these have coarse cross-hatchings, two 

 others fine ones. The same kind of hatching occurs in the central circle, which 

 shows the heads of four realistic does holding in their mouths a young fawn. 

 One of the large animals has seized it by the head, a second by the tail, a third by 

 the fore-leg, and the fourth by a hind-leg. The deer are so drawn that their 

 outlines form likewise a svastika. The rim of this dish is covered on the sides 

 with clinging vines, leaves, and blossoms of various kinds and forms, and, on the 

 ends, with flower-spikes. To the four corners at the extreme ends are attached 

 four animal heads in open-work carving. It is hard to say what species of animal 

 is meant. 



In Fig. 2, Plate xv, is seen the cover of a wooden box. This composition 

 is remarkable for the reason that the middle piece of the ornament is not shaped 

 symmetrically, the only symmetry visible being in the arrangement of the 

 ornaments across the upper and lower ends. Below we see a three-lobed leaf. 

 Two leaves of the same kind, though not of the same rigid geometrical form, are 

 found in the central part. The whole is intended, perhaps, to signify the bough 

 of a tree, whence perhaps also arises the irregular arrangement of the single 

 parts. 



The next design shown on Plate xv (Fig. 3) is that of an embroidered 

 tobacco-pouch, the edge of which is trimmed with sable. The stitches employed 

 on the edge are a triple row composed of feather-stitch in the centre with chain- 

 stitch either side of it. In the middle field chain-stitches are mostly used, 

 the leaf parts being worked in satin-stitch. In the right and left upper corners 

 of the central rectangle we observe two three-lobed leaves, under which are two 

 cocks holding triskeles-shaped fishes. There is a red leaf near the fish and 

 a light-green leaf on the cock s body, both seeming to represent the well-known 

 round object. From these cocks branch off toward the middle two double spirals. 

 The smaller, outer spiral has its starting-point in a large two-lobed leaf held in the 

 beak of the cock ; the other, inner spiral, from a petal with three lobes grouped, 

 rosette-like, around a circle. Within this spiral is delineated a conventionalized 

 fish, whose body is assimilated to the winding of the spiral, and whose tail tapers 

 to a point. The heads of these fishes are worked in satin-stitch, in the same 

 manner as the leaves, with dark red. On the lower edge of the rectangle are 

 placed blossoms consisting of five petals in pyramidal arrangement. 



Fig. 4, Plate xv, represents an embroidered border. In the lower part, on 

 a black ground, we see leaf-forms in connection with triskeles, and in the centre 

 two rosette-like blossoms at the starting-points of two spirals. In the upper por 

 tion, with red background, all fish-heads and circular forms are treated as leaves, 

 their surface being filled in with satin-stitches, while the remaining parts are 



