13() ANCIENT AHT (JF THE PIMIVINC'E OF CHIHTQUI. 



eral color of tlie vessel is a dark brown. Tliis X'it>ce shoiild !)(> mni- 

 pared with the alligator whistle shown in Fig. 250. 



A somewhat different treatment is shown in Fig. ','(10. lijTc thf 

 animal form has undergone considerable modificatii m. 'I'licic aii but 

 three legs — a concession to the conventional triiMid — .-ind tlic body 

 exhibits, instead of the nodes and the markings of the creature's skin, 

 two conventional drawings of the whole animal. Now, by higher and 

 higher degrees of convention, we come to a long series of modified 

 results which must be omitted for want of room. We find that the 

 plastic features are gradually redixced until mere nodes appear whei'e 

 the head and the tail should be, and finally in the lower forms there 

 remains but a blank panel or a painted device, as already shown in a 

 preceding section. The i^ainted devices are also reduced by degrees 

 until all resemblance to naiure is lust and geometric devices alone 



remain. I observe in this association of plastic and painted features 

 a lack of the perfect consistency I had learned to expect in the woi'k 

 of lu'imitive peoples. It is easy to see how, from i^ainting the mark- 

 ings of the creature's skin upon the body of the vessel, the painter 

 should come gradually to delineate parts of the creature or even the 

 whole creature, but we should not expect him to paint a creature 

 distinct in kind from that modeled, thus confusing or entirely sepa- 

 rating the conceptions; this has been done, apparently, in the vase 

 illustrated in Fig. 202, whei-e the plastic form represents a puma and 

 the painting upon the sides seems intended for an alligator. It will 

 be seen from the figures given that the devices of the jjanels or sides 

 do not necessarily represent the markings of the animal's body, as in 

 Fig. 201. but that they may refer to the entire creature (Fig. 200) or 

 even to what appear.s to be a totally distinct creature (Fig. 202). 



If rcalistir (ir scinirealistic delineations arc ronfused in this way 

 it is to In. .■x|M.rt.Ml tliat hi-'ldy rDuvcnt iciial derivative figures, so 

 nunici-niis ;iih1 \;u-it'd. should be mucli k-ss clearly distinguished; that 

 indeed lliere slionld be no certainty whatever in the reference to orig- 

 inals. It is ditTicult to say of any particular conventional device 



