LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 75 



cock-head, whose beak seizes a green fish. There are two fishes over the two 

 cocks a and b. That above a has the head green, the body blue ; that above b, 

 the head yellow, and the body blue. In this case, consequently, we can speak, at 

 most, of a harmony, not of a symmetry, of colors. There is, for instance, the 

 cock c, green as to neck and beak, while the rest of the body is yellow. On the 

 other hand, the opposite cock is green, and only its upper tail-feather of a red hue. 



Fig. 2, Plate xxxii, represents the painting on the upper edge of a boot made 

 of elk-skin, the outside of which is tanned, while inside the hair is left on. The 

 decoration is painted on a piece of salmon-skin which is sewed to the elk-skin. A 

 comparison of this with the preceding specimen shows that fish-skin is a much 

 better substance for painting, and gives the colors a brighter and more resplen 

 dent effect. An extraordinary feature of this ornament is, that parts of continu 

 ous geometrical arabesques, without stepping beyond the pale of their ornamental 

 character, are shaped into fishes and cocks. Thus the spiral ornament at the 

 lower edge starts with a bird-head (a) and terminates in a fish-head (b). Just so 

 a merely ornamental line (V) is treated as cock-head and beak holding an inverted 

 bipartite lavender-colored fish. Around the spirals are distributed a series of 

 conventionalized cocks, all of which represent different variations of the same 

 forms, that is, d, e,f, g, h. In_/ and^ the feet of the cocks are fashioned as two- 

 lobed leaves. To the pure spiral ^corresponds the spiral j, the interior of which 

 is formed like a cock. From the lavender-colored spiral line stand off conspicu 

 ously the red curved beak and the semicircular head-line. Here is demonstrated 

 one of the reasons for the employment of contrasting colors to mark off distinctly 

 one part of the body from another, and thus bring it into prominence. Another 

 characteristic feature appears in the fact that the black tint serves to mark the 

 wave-line terminating in scrolls, which helps to analyze the composition into its 

 subdivisions : it affords, as it were, a frame for miniature pictures. To the yel 

 low color is attributed merely a secondary significance : it serves as a filling for 

 negative portions, mostly for narrow stripes. Of paramount importance is the 

 color red, with which the essential parts are painted ; with it is interchanged, 

 very happily and tastefully, a lavender color, which softens the glare of the red 

 in a most agreeable way, lending a restful and harmonious effect to the whole 

 composition. 



Fig. 3, Plate xxxii, represents the upper front edge of a fish-skin garment 

 which came originally, like the preceding specimen, from the Ussuri River. As 

 regards the use of the colors in this ornamentation, first of all, it should be pointed 

 out that a difference is made between spirals which serve exclusively for decora 

 tive purposes and those which claim, besides, a symbolical meaning. The former 

 are painted with black China ink and surrounded with red lines, the latter with 

 red color and black border-lines. For the representation of the cock, either red 

 or blue, or both colors at the same time, are in use, while yellow is limited again 

 to the filling of intervening spaces and stripes. In this way bipartite fishes, some 

 of which occupy negative spaces, are better brought out. 



