78 LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 



the people to observe its motions, formed the reason for its adoption in ornamenta 

 tion. The same remark holds good for the cock. Here we have, perhaps, not a 

 primitive form from which all others have genetically originated ; rather, a long 

 series of fundamental forms exists, based on the observation of the various 

 natural attitudes and motions of this ever-moving bird. We have distinguished 

 a series of types ; we have found standing, reclining, perching, and perfectly erect 

 cocks, some with beaks turned downward, others with heads looking backward, 

 all types which exist side by side, without having developed one from another. 

 The conventionalizations proper have arisen only through the influence of the 

 fish-ornament on the cock-type. This is the same process which was above 

 designated, in a more general style, as an assimilation to existing forms. Thus 

 the cock, for instance, assumes a fish-body to get a spiral form more suitable for 

 the entire ornament ; or its tail is represented as a fish-tail, its pinion as a spiral. 

 Finally, forms are even found in which the whole cock is composed of geometri 

 cal constituents. These have not been evolved from the form of the cock, but 

 they are the primary element, the material from which it is constructed. This 

 ensues and here we touch another important theoretical point regarding our 

 ornaments from the diversity of function of the geometrical components. The 

 spiral, for instance, may symbolically express all possible things. It may serve 

 to indicate the cock s body, its pinion, its tail-feather. It may even perform two 

 or more functions. In Fig. i, Plate xi, the large curve of a spiral is, first, a 

 geometrical element ; secondly, part of a wave-line serving to distinguish orna 

 mental subdivisions ; thirdly, it forms the upper outline for the body of a fish 

 below, naturalistically drawn ; fourthly, it outlines the body of a cock, the other 

 parts of which are drawn above it. It would be absurd to infer from this that 

 the spiral is the final result of the gradual conventionalization of such realistic 

 images : it is rather a given prius, the origin of which is of no consequence 

 here, which is employed for the symbolical expression of the most varied things, 

 since its forms are so convenient for this particular purpose. Another example 

 is offered in the brace, signifying the cock-spur ; this symbol indicates also the 

 feet of the musk-deer (Fig. 5, Plate xiv), the feet of the dragon (Fig. 133, 

 Plate xvi), and even the scales on the dragon s body (Fig. 5, Plate xn). If a 

 conventionalized fish appears in place of the body of a cock or even of a musk- 

 deer, or if it even serves to indicate the horn of a dragon, no one, perhaps, will 

 conclude from this fact that the conventionalized fish has resulted from the cock 

 or deer body, but only that this particular form is used as the means to an end, 

 as an easy expedient for ornamental symbolism of the parts of the bodies of other 

 animals. 



From this proof proceeds another very important and far-reaching conclusion 

 as regards the triskeles. This also is a given factum used as a foundation upon 

 which to build other ornaments. The supposition that the triskeles has devel 

 oped from the outlines of the cock does not prove true at all for the tribes of the 

 Amur. In no case is the cock represented as a purely geometrical triskeles. In 



