VASES DECORATED WITH LIFE FORMS. 



121 



1 will now pass over the many hundreds of pieces with designs too 

 conventional to furnish a clew to the original animal forms, yet 

 still suggesting their existence, to those in which the life forms can 

 be traced with ease or in which they are delineated with a much 

 nearer approach to nature. The manner of introducing life forms 

 into the panels of the encircling zones is illustrated in the following 

 figures. In the vase shown in Fig. 176 there are four panels, two 



Portions of decorated zones illustrating treatment of life forms. 



short and two long, separated by vertical bands. The short panels 

 are black, but the long ones are occupied by rudely drawn figures of 

 alligators, some of which are very curiously abbreviated. At the 

 right hand in the cut we have simply the head with its strong re- 

 curved jaws and notched crest. The principal figure at the left is a 

 two headed alligator, the body being straight and supplied with two 

 feet. The ground finish of the decorated band is in the light gray 

 tint and the alligator figures and vertical septa now appear in that 



Fig. ira. Vase decorated with highly conventional life forms — .J. 



color. The ground of the remainder of the surface is red. It will 

 be seen that in this case the panel outlines are rather elaborate and 

 that the neck and base are striped in a way to enhance considerably 

 the beauty of the vessel. Additional examples of animal devices are 

 given in Figs. 177 and 17S. The significance of the curious figure 



