62 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



this tree. On Fig. la the embroidery is placed on the thumb of the mitten. 

 The motive is here the same, composed of a triskeles form, an S-shaped figure, 

 the under part of which is cordate in shape and encloses two leaves in red. 



The skin glove pictured in Fig. 2 of the same plate is covered with velvet 

 bearing a chain-stitch embroidery in silk. The pattern is an artistic structure of 

 fanciful combinations. On the top are two heraldic combatant cocks, whose 

 heads are formed by an oval (), from which the plumage goes off into three 

 depending branches. On the marginal branches (6) is drawn, with the aid of 

 a spur-line, a bipartite fish ; and a similar figure occurs also in c and d in connec 

 tion with spirals. In e two leaves are enclosed again in a heart-form, f is the head 

 of a cock placed sideways, and g its tail. In the pointed end of //- are united two 

 cock-heads holding in common the leaf ? , while on the outside appears the 

 exquisitely curved bird-neck j bearing the leaf k. In the interior of the under 

 most spiral is the body of a conventionalized bipartite fish embroidered as a leaf 

 (/ ), the head of this fish being held by the beak m. This figure is surrounded by 

 a line. 



Fig- 3&amp;gt; Plate xxvi, represents an elk-skin garment, obtained from the 

 Tungus on the Ussuri. A series of figures is spread over the surface of the 

 back, the decorations being painted in blue, red, and yellow. Only the part over 

 the hips is cut out of fish-skin and appliqueed to the garment. In a we see two 

 opposite single cocks, built up essentially from purely geometrical ingredients. 

 The head consists of two superposed semicircles, the lower of which runs out into 

 a recurved arc. From that issues a branch in the opposite direction, to form with 

 the scroll a triskeles, expressing the fish held in the cock s beak. The body 

 is formed of three semicircles which unite at their ends, and enclose two crescent- 

 like fishes. The feet are in the shape of an anchor-formed combination of two 

 triskeles ; the outer arm of the outer triskeles in both cocks being shortened into 

 a knob, the inner forming a semicircular claw. The cock on the right side has 

 below it an additional figure that repeats a schematic outline of the foot. The 

 tail is a very intricate formation, below a spiral, which appears as a continu 

 ation of the under outline of the body. The upper outline is continued into a 

 strongly conventionalized cock with a circle on its head and a fish-tail beyond. 

 Between the tails of the principal cocks and those appended appear the R-formed 

 figures enclosing the image of a bipartite fish. The cocks b and c stand side 

 ways, and also consist of geometrical elements. The manner in which they are 

 evolved is shown by a comparison of these figures with d. At the sides of d 

 we observe anchor-formed appendages. These are carried out in b and c in such 

 a way that one arm of the anchor forms the head and neck, the other the tail, of 

 the cock. Whether the anchor-formed type d has been developed from b and c, 

 or, better, whether d is a prius which served as a foundation for building up b and 

 c, must still be regarded as an unsolved problem. In the same figures two addi 

 tional groups have been produced, the one in the middle in combatant attitude 

 with spiral body, the other at the top with recurved beaks. This latter, inverted 



