250 TEXTILE ART IN RELATION TO FORM AND ORNAMENT. 



huiidles are elaborately carved, and the suggesti(ms of figures given 

 by the interlaced cords are carried out in such detail that at a little 

 distance it is impossible to say where the real textile surface ceases 

 and the sriil])tured portion begins. 



All tliiiii;s iniisidered, I regaid it as highly probable that mucli of 

 the geuiiii-tric cliaracter exhibited in PoUiiesian decoration is due to 

 textile dominance. That thesi pcoph-^.iM in the habit of employing 



Fio. nsfi. Ceremonial ariz, with ce 



textile designs in non-textile arts is shown in articles of costume, such 

 as the tapa cloths, made from the bark of the mulberry tree, which 

 are painted or stamped in elaborate geometric patterns. This trans- 

 fer is also a perfectly natural one, as the ornament is applied to arti- 

 cles having functions identical with the woven stuffs in which the 

 patterns originate, and, besides, the transfer is accomplished by means 

 of stamps themselves textile. Fig. 357 illustrates the construction of 

 these stamps and indicates just how the textile character is acquired. 

 Textile materials are very generally associated with the human 

 figure in art, and thus sculpture, which deals chiefly with the human 

 form, becomes familiar with geometric motives and acquires them. 

 Through sculpture these motives enter architecture. But textile 



