165 



FIGURINES. 



The majority of objects in clay that may be classed primarily as figurines rep- 

 resent man. On the other hand, plastic life forms as ornaments or supports for 

 vases rarely have human attributes. The primitive artist everywhere has familiarized 

 himself with the animal forms about him more than with that of his own kind. 

 This is somewhat unexpected, as the human model would seem to be the most 

 available from every point of view. The cave-dwellers of Europe have left many 

 and excellent engravings and frescoes of species now extinct. They took little 

 pains however to leave portraits of their own race. The early human figurines 

 of Greece were extremely primitive, particularly as regards the physiognomy. The 

 faces were more birdlike than human. The heads of the human figurines from 

 Chiriqui are perhaps more rodentlike than avian. The Chiriquian artist seems 



Fig. 265. Human figurine representing mother and 

 infant. Alligator ware. '/> 



Fig. 266. Human figurine. Alligator 

 ware. '! 



to have treated the human form as a joke, the result being generally grotesque 

 if not even ludicrous. When it came to modeling an owl or a peccary however 

 his work was more faithful to life. 



Figurines that are first of all musical instruments are placed under the latter head. 

 On the contrary, those that contain pellets are retained here, since the typical 

 gourd-shaped rattles make a class by themselves. Every figurine in the series 

 as constituted belongs to the so-called alligator ware with its characteristic paste, 

 slip, delineating colors and decorative motives. All are perforated transversely 

 through the neck, evidently for suspension. As has been said, a majority are 

 represented as human, or perhaps more accurately, as divine. Figure 265, for 

 example, reminds one of Isis and Horus ; a mother seated, her right hand resting 

 on the knee and her left holding an infant to her breast. The nose, the most 

 prominent feature, is fused with the forehead by means of a high bridge ; the 



