LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 59 



that the outlines of the three form another heart-shaped figure. Under the 

 indentation of the upper heart is a circle, three oblong leaves radiating from 

 it, one below, and two on the sides. Its two crescent-shaped lobes are occupied 

 by two confronting fishes coiled into spiral form with tapering body and tail. 

 The two lower hearts agree, in the representations on them, with the two central 

 ones in Fig. 5 a. 



Fig. i, Plate xxiv, is an embroidered pattern. The upper part is taken 

 up by two facing cocks rampant, head and body formed after the fish type. As 

 cocks they are recognizable merely by their two feet. Between these feet are 

 two bird-beaks combined into a geometrical figure in the centre of the lower, 

 wider section of the design, bearing a triskeles, one arm of which is likewise beak- 

 formed, and the other two convoluted into a scroll. The oval into which the 

 under arm runs out is at the same time the head of a conventionalized bipartite 

 fish, which, as it would seem, is drawn on a cock s body whose tail is formed 

 by the triskeles just referred to. The beak is lowered as if about to touch the 

 circle under the throat. The branches intended to indicate crest and pinions are 

 above the head. The remarkable features in this representation are the manner 

 in which the single portions making up the three cocks merge into one another, 

 and the fact that many parts belong to the three types in common. 



Fig. 2, Plate xxiv, is an embroidered pattern in triangular form. In this 

 pattern we observe on both sides three distinct single cock-beaks, the uppermost 

 bent upward, the middle one outward, the undermost still more curved and turned 

 inward, all three set with ovals or circles, probably survivals of head and eye. 

 On the edge below are two separate long-stretched conventionalized tripartite 

 fishes with spoon-formed tails. The same types, standing upright, and connected 

 below with each other, appear in the upper part of this ornament. Also the 

 long branches of the two facing spirals under them are composed of two pairs 

 of cock-beaks which join at their points. In verification of the fact that this 

 principle of displacement occurs also in the area of Sino-Japanese art, a Japanese 

 weaving-pattern is represented in Fig. 3, in which bird-heads having only a long 

 neck are placed parallel to spirals and alternating with them, as in our ornaments. 

 Also the long offshoots of the spirals agree with our conventionalized fishes, 

 as well as the adjoining bipartite figures. 



The next three embroideries (Figs. 4, 5, 6, Plate xxiv), each of double 

 symmetry, are usually united into groups of four, and sewed to sleeping-mats. In 

 Fig. 4 there is a lozenge in the middle, around which cluster four compound 

 spirals, between the inner and outer windings of which are spur-lines. At the 

 upper and lower extremities of this pattern are two smaller triskeles-spirals which 

 proceed from the larger ones. On either side of the large spirals two triskeles 

 are placed, the two outer ones striving after the fish-form, the other two after the 

 cock-form. The square patterns seen in Figs. 5 and 6 are cut out of velvet and 

 outlined in chain-stitch. If we look at one of the quarters from one of its outer 

 corners in the direction of its diagonal, we shall see that the fundamental 



