52 l.AUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



Japanese book, is presented in Figs. 2-9, Plate xvi ; and in Figs. 10 and n of 

 that plate are shown arabesque rings derived from the same source. 



Fig. 2, Plate xvn, represents clusters of leaves as well as of triskeles, both 

 arranged inside of circles. The foliage reproduced in Fig. i, Plate xvm, has 

 developed shapes reminding one of the forms of our cock-ornaments. The two 

 confronting creatures in its centre may be prototypes of our musk-deer. As to 

 Fig. 2, Plate xvm, as well as the ornamentally related Fig. 23, conventionalized 

 cocks seem to be interwoven with vegetable ingredients; the latter, particularly, 

 illustrate stages of development almost identical with those represented on the 

 Golclian bows on Plate xvi. 



Up to this point in our investigations we have treated our subject from an 

 analytical standpoint, defining the different elements as they occur in ornamenta 

 tion. We shall now take into consideration its synthetical side, and show how the 

 various motives are employed on different groups of ethnological objects. 



BASKETS. As to the technical methods employed in the designs on birch- 

 bark baskets, the following occur: i. The lines are incised in the bark material 

 with the sharp point of a knife, and these incisions are sometimes partially dyed 

 (Plate xix) ; 2. Patterns are cut out of thick bark and sewed to the bark of the 

 basket with a few short, hardly visible stitches ; 3. Only the uppermost layer of 

 the bark is cut out, so that the ornament stands out in relief from the lower bark 

 layer ; in this case the raised parts are usually blackened (Plates xx, xxi). 



The ornamentation around the basket shown in Fig. i, Plate xix, is made 

 up of two closely joined constituents. On the left side there is a pair of facing 

 spirals, symbolical representatives of cocks bodies, as suggested by the two 

 down-stretched heads with pointed beaks, surmounted by two round figures. In 

 the centre of the design on the right-hand side we note two lozenge-shaped figures 

 placed one above the other, the upper one being connected on either side with a 

 large triskeles, and forming with it the bipartite form of a conventionalized fish. 

 These triskeles may stand as an abbreviation for the cock. They terminate below 

 in a knob, the course of the spiral which might here be expected being interrupted, 

 and a cock-spur inserted to fill the space. From the under lozenge a pair of facing 

 spirals of one winding proceed downward. The edge above the main design is 

 decorated with a continuous spur-line. 



Fig. 2, Plate xix, shows a design on the cover, and 2 a that on the side, of a 

 box. The former is divided into four rectangular fields grouped around a lozenge. 

 The two fields above and the two below contain two combatant cocks (white), 

 the tips of whose beaks are connected by an ornamental figure the extremities 

 of which are formed like cock-heads with pointed beaks. The body has an ellip 

 soidal form. A thickened knob and a somewhat larger projection apparently 

 characterize the wing-feather. We see the tail in the shape of a fish-tail, one lobe 

 being fashioned into a conventionalized bipartite fish, the other having the form 

 of a bird s head and neck, under which another conventionalized fish is visible. 



