58 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



ments, one being the figures cut out and buttonhole-stitched to the founda 

 tion ; the other, the designs embroidered on these pieces. The former consists 

 of two pairs of cocks in disconnected parts. The heads and beaks of the two are 

 formed by two triskeles united into one figure ; the bodies consist of two of the 

 cordate figures with appended fish-tails or scrolls. The embroidery on these 

 body-pieces is composed of representations of contiguous cocks in two different 

 forms. In both cases the animal is adapted to the cordate leaf on which it is 

 worked. As to the one form, the neck is recurved in an arch. A fish is substi 

 tuted for the body ; a spiral with an adjacent parallel lobe, for the wing-feathers ; 

 and two huge, almost circular falcations, cleft in the middle, for the tail-feathers. 

 The other type has as body a spiral, the prolongated outer winding of which 

 forms the upstretched neck, whereas the plumage is indicated by an annexed 

 semicircle with an attached offshoot running downward and closing a two-foliated 

 leaf. These two forms of cocks, so far as their relation to each other is concerned, 

 represent Type B. The graceful cordate leaf-forms are reproduced in Figs. 43, 

 5, 5 a, 5 b, but more freedom is displayed in the use of foliage in the figures 

 inside of them. In Fig. 4 a, even the fishes held in the cock s beak are embroidered 

 in the same style as leaves. In the first two fields are two cocks curiously placed 

 one above the other, and connected with each other on the inner side by an arc. 



Fig 8 - 5&amp;gt; 5 a &amp;gt; ar &amp;gt;d 5b, Plate xxm, show the foundations of an embroidery- 

 pattern, the ornaments being cut out of paper and pasted on the underlying cloth, 

 to be worked around. In the first leaf on the left-hand side of Fig. 5 the com 

 bination of two cocks is clearly visible. The one cock holds a realistic spiral- 

 formed fish in its beak, and has a fish-body whose head is indicated by a spiral 

 and the tail by a semicircular appendage. The adjoining cock has seized in its 

 beak two circular objects adapted for embroidering as leaves, and has a strongly 

 marked tail of three long prongs. In the following leaf the two cocks are united, 

 and hold between their beaks a large bipartite fish, while the three wing-feathers 

 of the lower cock have adopted the form of this same fish-body. Also in Fig. 5 a 

 we meet with a field containing two superposed cocks. In the two central leaf- 

 forms the upper birds are combatant, the lower ones opponent and inverted. 

 The upper cock has one leaf above, and another under, its neck, the origin of 

 which is to be explained by the fact that the upper leaf represents the leaf-like 

 treatment of the head, the under one that of the well-known circle. For the 

 body of this cock is substituted a fish, and another realistic fish with recurved tail 

 is attached to the spiral above it. At the place where the tail turns upward is a 

 leaf. Two leaves supply the place of a scroll in the body of the lower cock. On 

 the outer leaf the lower, inverted cock holds in its beak a bipartite fish with the 

 tail pointing upward. Its spiral-formed body sends off to the side a branchlet in 

 the form of a bird s head with an oval under it, so that here again a cock seems 

 to be intended. The superposed figure resembles one of the forms seen in 

 Fig. 4 of this plate. 



Fig. 5 b, Plate xxm, is constructed of three cordate leaves, so arranged 



