86 ANCIENT AKT OF THE PROVI>'CE OF CHIRIQL'I. 



suggesting differences in people or in environment. White may have 

 been fl-eely used, but it is jiresei'ved in a few cq,ses only, in which it was 

 used in the production of simple decorative patterns, and appears to 

 have been a somewhat thick or pasty color. Black was extensively 

 used and was of two distinct kinds: a thick permanent pigment, em- 

 ployed in the delineation of iltsi-iis. aii<l a thin color, uiit sd pcrnuiuent 

 and employed exclusively :is a -rnund u^jon which to fMciiic designs 

 in other mediums. The lattn- may possibly be of vegetal derivation. 

 Its use was confined to a single variety of ware, the lost color group. 

 The former was employed in all the other groups, with one exception, 

 the red line gi'oup. 



The light i)urple tint is but sparingly used and only in the poly- 

 chrome grouj). It is very effective in combination with the reds and 

 blacks upon the orange ground of this ware. It is probably of a 

 mineral nature. 



What I have denominated the lost color Avas a pigment, or ' ' taking 

 out " solution, extensively and exclusively employed in the decoration 

 of one of the principal groiips of ware. Its former existence is made 

 known by its action upon the groirnd colors and upon the paste or slip 

 within the areas covered by it. Where superimposed upon black, that 

 color has in all cases been removed, exposing the underlying tints of 

 the slip in which the designs are now manifested, the interspaces being 

 still black. In some cases the lost color has not only removed the 

 black ground, but has affected the slip beneath, removing it also, and 

 to such a degree that the polished surface is destroyed and shallow 

 intaglio lines occur, leaving the interspaces in relief. This circum- 

 .stance enforces the idea that possibly the "lost color"' was really 

 not a color at all, b\it an acid which acted upon the ground colors at 

 once, destroying the black entirely and leaving the effect now seen. 

 This point must remain for the present undetermined. 



The figures in all cases appear to have been delineated with ordi- 

 nary brushes and by purely free hand methods. The degree of skill 

 varies greatly. The execxition in the great body of the work is rather 

 inferior and indicates a lack of skill and care, but in a limited num- 

 l)er of pieces the manipulation is masterly. 



The designs are confined to the show s})aces. being exterior in 

 narrow necked vessels and generally interior in shallow forms. 



In arrangement upon the surfaces this decoration presents some 

 novel features. The slight degree of uniformity in arrangement in- 

 dicates the absence of any mechanical aid, such as the wheel, which 

 device would tend to reduce all decoration to a series of horizontal 

 zones. We observe indeed the occurrence of horizontal arianeinients. 

 but not to a degree greater than would naturally arise as a I'esult of 

 the conformation of the vessel. Upright, oblique, and an lied a rrange- 

 ments are frequently met with, and all are safely attributable to the 

 domination of spaces to be covered or to the influence of antecedent 



