LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



5 



neighborhood, not to mention the large trees the wood of which is valuable 

 to them as timber. As soon as I tried to gather information regarding the names 

 of plants, I was directed in both tribes to consult the women, who indeed proved 

 to have a much more detailed and deeper acquaintance with flowers and fruits 

 than the men, apparently because they are accustomed to collect berries, roots, 

 and certain herbs and leaves, as food for the household. This inefficient knowl 

 edge of the flora makes it difficult to realize that these peoples should have made 

 an independent attempt to allot a space to plants in their ornamentation ; and 

 since the groundwork on which all its other parts rest is borrowed from their 

 teachers, one would hardly err in supposing that this element also originated 



from the same source. Although I am unable at this time to present exactly 

 corresponding patterns from the realm of Chinese art, the weaving-patterns 

 on Plates \\\\, \\iii, and in Fig. 23, point out sufficiently well that leaf and 

 floral ornaments occur in China and Japan in combination with spirals and 

 triskeles, no less than on the Amur. 



The Japanese weaving-pattern in Fig. i, Plate xvn, is a composition of maple- 

 leaves and chrysanthemums. The most remarkable feature here is the association 

 of the conventionalized plants with the mitsutontoye. These tomoye seem to be 

 devised in their outlines as serrated leaves. They are surrounded by a border 

 showing forms of single and compound triskeles in exact accord with formations 

 on our ornaments. A close connection, consequently, may exist between the 

 triskeles and the tomoye. A selection of the latter, obtained from a native 



