350 ■ Philip Ainsworth Means, 



Fine Arts, Boston. The second shows a border from an lea 

 shawl in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. 

 We will begin with an examination of Plate IV, Figure 3. In 

 it we discover a number of striking analogies with Proto-Nasca 

 pottery designs. Like the vase-paintings of the ''Centipede- 

 God" type, this design has : ( i ) A mouth-mask which combines 

 wing-like side ornaments of the same type as those on Plate III, 

 Figures i and 3, with a pair of feather-like ornaments reminis- 

 cent of those in Plate III, Figure 3. (2) The hands of the figure 

 (as far as one can tell) and its feet have less than the true 

 number of fingers and toes. (3) The tongue is run far out 

 and is highly decorated, a tendency already shown in the pottery. 

 (4) The headdress is broad and flat ; it has a brim made up of 

 two layers and there is a conventionalized human face in the 

 center. Compare it with the headdresses on Plate II, Figure 3 ; 

 on Plate III, Figure i, and on many other Proto-Nasca vase- 

 paintings of the "Centipede God" type. Also remark that in 

 this textile design, as in some examples of the "Centipede God" 

 pots, the centipede element is preserved by the girdle-like append- 

 age. The tongue of the figure likewise reminds one of the centi- 

 pede motif. In other words, of the five criteria that we found 

 to be distinctive of the very important "Centipede God" motif 

 Proto-Nasca vessels, four are present in the textile design which 

 we have been studying. Does not this suggest that the textile 

 and the vase-paintings in question have a common source which 

 accounts for their similarities in subject-matter? Again, Plates 

 V and VI seem to have several points in common with Proto- 

 Nasca pottery, although, on account of the comparative complex- 

 ity of their embroidered designs, it is hard to know whether to 

 compare the personages they portray with "Centipede God" or 

 with the "Multiple-headed God." For this reason, therefore, 

 it will be best for us to content ourselves with comparing these 

 textile designs with Proto-Nasca vase-paintings in general. The 

 following features, then, may be observed in both the textiles 

 in question and in various specimens of Proto-Nasca pottery: 

 (i) The mouth-mask with wing-like side ornaments; (2) The 

 protruding tongue, highly decorated and endowed with centi- 

 pede-like attributes ; (3) The broad flat headdress decorated with 

 a conventionalized human face; (4) The color-scheme is very 

 suggestive of Proto-Nasca pottery. 



