72 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



ornaments a continuous spur-line. This motive, only double, is employed likewise 

 on the other borders, and so intertwined that a long-extended oval figure is 

 produced. Through the middle of this figure is a red line forming a lozenge in 

 the centre. The ornamentation across the bottom goes all the way around. 

 This form of decoration is the typical style for all Ainu clothing. On the upper 

 part of the back is a crest after Japanese fashion, showing a quadrifoil the leaves 

 of which are cut out of bright red cloth, and edged with purple. 



Fig. i, Plate xxxi, shows a decorated attachment for a belt. Two such 

 pieces are generally worn together, suspended from the side. A trapezoidal 

 piece of whalebone is covered with dark red cloth, at both sides with a section of 

 black cloth, and the upper and lower edges are set with blue glass beads fastened 

 in clusters of three. The two ornaments sewed on with chain-stitching are 

 applied in the same manner to both sides of the object. Both forms we have met 

 with in the ornamentation of the Amur tribes. The same is applicable also to 

 the decoration on Fig. 2, a bone implement for untying knots, which is adorned 

 with a band-ornament showing, above and below, two knots especially marked by 

 round incised hollows. Also here, as in the related objects of the Gilyak pre 

 viously described, we see a connection between the ornament and the purpose of 

 the object on which it occurs. 



In Fig. 3 of the same plate is shown a knife-case inlaid with bone, obtained 

 by Professor Bickmore from the Island of Yezo. On the middle longitudinal 

 bone there are cross-hatched triangles. The other decorations are simple band- 

 ornaments, the negative portions of which are indicated either by lozenges or 

 by cross-hachures. 



Fig. 4, Plate xxxi, represents a knife-case, from which the handle of the 

 knife projects. It is likewise from Yezo, and was declared to be an old piece. 

 The plant-ornament on the handle, the end of which is cut off slanting like a 

 Gilyak knife, is incised, likewise the flower on the upper part of the case ; but the 

 group of leaves on the hatched part, like the leaves in the form of superposed 

 semicircles, stand out in relief. These floral ornaments manifest, in both style 

 and technique, an obvious Japanese influence. 



Figs. 5-20, Plate xxxi, represent small wooden sticks (ikuni on Saghalin, 

 ikubaskui on Yezo) used in ceremonial drinking-bouts to lift the mustache and 

 beard to prevent them from getting wet. The pieces represented in Figs. 5-9 

 were obtained by me on Saghalin. They are old family heirlooms, given away 

 by their possessors only with reluctance. The following are explanations as to 

 the carvings on them. The design on Fig. 5 is said to represent a human face 

 wearing a pair of spectacles. Each of the two glasses is indicated by two con 

 centric circles having a round hole in the middle. The connecting-piece between 

 them is likewise cut through, forming a slit. The half-perforated oval projecting 

 above the upper glass of the spectacles is supposed to be an eye, while below the 

 spectacles two pairs of nostrils are represented in the form of pointed arches. 

 The lowest larger hole, the point of which turns upward, indicates the outline of 



