ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XXXI 
only on other ceremonial objects but also on the industrial 
devices, and the degree of conventionism increases as the 
representations are reduced in size or distorted to fit forms 
determined by various conditions, so that an unbroken series 
of stages in the development of convention may be traced all 
the way from the essentially realistic representation of the 
animal head to the design carved on the arrowshaft or toma- 
hawk handle, which, at first sight, would seem to be decorative 
merely. The sequence displayed in these esthetic designs is, 
indeed, paralleled in other collections; but the remarkably 
rich assemblage of aboriginal handiwork from the Floridian 
salt marshes, in which such perishable materials as wood, bone, 
plant fiber, feather work, paint, and even leathern thongs are 
preserved, is especially noteworthy for the completeness of 
the sequence and the large number of links represented. 
Accordingly the series of objects would seem to establish the 
view already advocated by different collaborators of the 
Bureau that higher esthetic decoration originates in symbol- 
ism, which may gradually be transformed through conven- 
tionizing, either in the interests of economy or to meet other 
industrial conditions. 
During the previous year Dr J. Walter Fewkes made a col- 
lection of fictile ware and other aboriginal material among the 
ruins of Arizona and New Mexico, which was regarded as rich 
beyond precedent. During the year just closed he made explo- 
rations yielding astill larger body of material, which has been 
subjected to preliminary study, and has already been arranged 
in the Museum. As during the preceding year, fictile ware 
was the predominant material. This ware is characterized by 
symbolic and decorative designs, represented sometimes by 
modeling or by inscribed figures, but more commonly by colors; 
and for the first time material has been obtained in sufficient 
quantity to afford presumptively complete series of designs for 
certain groups of aborigines at certain periods antedating 
Caucasian invasion, so that various stages in the development 
of esthetic designs may be traced nearly as definitely as in the 
Florida collection. In general, the course of development 
traced in this way is parallel to that made out on the Florida 
