100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



istic of the Cuipo variety. A few vessels (Finds 372-4, 372-5, 

 372-18) were decorated with claw scrolls and closed arcs in black 

 line alone on a white to cream ground. Since the area to be decorated 

 varies with the vessel form, the characteristic panel shapes are often 

 distorted to fit the particular space selected, although a balance and 

 sense of proportion are almost always retained. 



In the case of pedestal plates, the upper surface may be divided 

 into two, three, or four black banded panels, generally of the basic 

 closed arc form (fig. 36, a). Often the base line or band closing the 

 arc is curved outward giving the panel a lozenge shape. Occasionally, 

 triangular panels with opposing concave sides joined by a convex one 

 will be opposed between two lozenge-shaped panels (fig. 36, a-c). 

 Nested within a number of narrow black lines within these panels 

 occur two characteristic motifs: (a) a red-filled claw or claw and eye 

 element (fig. 37 a, h), and (6) a claw scroll, again often with eye, and 

 normally with claws treated alternately in red and purple (fig, 37, c, d). 

 A final type of layout is the cruciform arrangement in which the 

 area between panels receives the decorative emphasis (figs. 36, d; 

 37,/, g). Fill elements here may be simple broad red areas bounded 

 by black lines or black zigzags (fig. 37, /), "monorails" (fig. 37, g) 

 or, occasionally, very delicately drawn "spindle" motifs with alter- 

 nating red and purple spines (fig. 38, a) . Rims are either plain red or 

 are often decorated with the "coral snake" motif (another use of 

 alternate color technique) so common in the Late Code styles at 

 Sitio Conte. A black band often encircles the upper surface design 

 area just inside the lip. 



The underside of plates of this variety are undecorated in all cases 

 in the collection. However, a number of the miniature plates have 

 a crisscross pattern of black, uneven lines across the under side of the 

 vessel and around the upper part of the pedestal base as if they had 

 been suspended by a tarred or blackened cord which then left a mark 

 on the surface (pi. 9, h, c). 



The ray or hammerhead shark motif, already familiar from the 

 discussion of the Yampi variety, also appears on pedestal plates in 

 combination with typical Pica-pica design elements and has been 

 discovered in a Veraguas site in association with typical Pica-pica 

 pedestal plates. There are two examples of this Pica-pica rendition 

 of the ray at the El Hatillo site: Find 8-1 (fig. 39) associated with 

 class "a" red-buff collared jars, and Find 373-1 associated with Pica- 

 pica and Cuipo variety vessels. Characteristic of this style of ray, 

 as represented by these two vessels and three from the V-5 site in 

 Veraguas, is the depiction of the body with a central channel which 

 may be either vacant or filled in with dots and dashes (this channel 



