76 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



Fig. 4, Plate xxxn, is a painting on the upper edge of a pair of leggings 

 made of fish-skin. The picture is remarkable on account of its peculiar 

 coloring, a light red for the wave-line ending in scrolls, which effects the 

 ornamental division ; an exquisite magenta for the conventionalized cocks of the 

 type B ; and a light blue for the figures under the wave-line, which are composed 

 of two united cocks, their heads being circles and running out into fish-tails ; 

 a greenish blue for circles, ovals, and united bird-beaks in the form of a crescent. 

 The background is of a light buff hue ; lemon-yellow is twice applied to the 

 circular objects of the crescent-shaped cocks and for negative portions, twice 

 for the heads of conventionalized fishes. 



Plate xxxin represents the back of a woman s dress of fish-skin. Part of 

 the front edge of the same specimen was shown in Fig. 3 of the foregoing plate. 

 The whole surface is covered with a magnificent painting. The decoration 

 consists of three vertical rows, the two outer of which tally and are composed of 

 three single figures each, while the middle series presents a coherent structure. 

 The ornamental principle from which these have arisen is very simple : there 

 is a pair of facing spirals in the middle, above and below them are two 

 erect conventionalized bipartite fishes, and the whole is surrounded by a line 

 corresponding to their forms. Whereas this figure remains constantly the same, 

 the appendages on its sides, components of the cock-ornament, vary. Not to 

 this formal change is due the special charm which this design offers, but rather 

 to the harmonious variation of its colors, especially of red, blue, and black. 



SOME GENERAL RESULTS. If we cast a retrospective glance at the 

 decorative art of the Amur tribes, we are struck most forcibly by the 

 predominance of the cock and the fish, the manifold combinations in which 

 these two motives appear, and the strange mingling of the two. These two 

 inventions stamp the character of the whole ornamentation. If we ask for the 

 reason, no other explanation can be found than that these particular animals 

 have an extremely ornamental character because of the great permutations of 

 their graceful motions, and thus lend themselves admirably to the spirit which 

 strives after beauty of form. The reason, then, lies in their unquestionable 

 availability for the ornamental. It is to their gracefulness and beauty of form 

 that the cock and fish owe their popularity among artists, here as well as in the 

 Chinese and Japanese pictorial arts. The part which the cock plays in the 

 mythology and household economy of the Chinese is not so important as to 

 justify so abundant a use of it in ornature. Since, besides, in the life of the 

 Amur tribes it plays no part whatever, the mere artistic reason of its adaptability 

 has decided its use. That such is exclusively the case is seen from all the various 

 positions of fish and cock which are suggested solely by the tendency to create 

 new and aesthetically effective forms. This strongly developed form-perception 

 prevents the production of realistic representations, which exist without 

 doubt in embryo, and in early times existed perhaps to a much greater extent, 



