152 



ORNAMENT 



[b. a. 



geometric character in the first of these 

 instances is in a measure due to copyism 

 from textile designs and, in the second, 

 to the use of rigid coloring implements 

 instead of brushes. The mound-builders, 

 skilful with the graver's point, seem to 

 have had slight mastery of the brush, 

 although some good examples of their 

 work in this branch have been obtained 

 from the ancient key settlements of the 

 Florida coast. In painting, as in engrav- 

 ing, symbolic designs seem to originate 

 largely with the men and the nonsymbolic 

 with the women, although the distinctions 

 between the work of the sexes probably 

 vary with the social organization and 

 state of culture. A peculiar method of 

 color decoration practised by some of the 

 tribes consisted in the cutting or scrap- 

 ing away of portions of the surface col- 

 oring of an object, 

 developing the 

 design in the con- 

 trasting color be- 

 neath. It has 

 often been as- 

 sumed that native 

 taste in the use of 

 <olors was in- 

 stinctive and that 

 liarmonious re- 

 sults were a mat- 

 ter of course; but 

 there is appar- 

 ently little evi- 

 dence on this 

 point, and it is 

 probable that the 

 pleasing combina- 

 tions ob- 

 served are 

 in large 

 measure 

 due to the 

 fact that 

 the colors 

 a v a i 1 a - 



PAtNTED DESIGNS OF THE HAIDA l)le tO the 



tribes are 

 generally quiet in tone rather than bril- 

 liant. Colors were often symbolic, being 

 associated with particular concepts: as, for 

 example, green with summer; white with 

 winter; blue with death; yellow with the 

 east, and red with the west (see Color 

 xymholism ) . 



(5) Textile ornament (see Weming), 

 elaborated in the constructive features or 

 units of the art and in colors associated 

 with these, is displayed to good ad- 

 vantage in the weaving of the ancient 

 and modern Pueblos and the Navaho of 

 to-day, and also among some of the tribes 

 of the N. W., the Shoshoni, Shahaptin, 

 and Chilkat, for example. It is usually 

 highly geometric in style as a result of 

 the peculiar technic. In this art even 

 life forms take on characteristics. of the 



construction or combination of parts, and 

 geometric characters necessarily prevail. 

 The same is true in general of the decora- 

 tions in the allied arts of basketry, 

 featherwork, beadwork, quillwork, net- 

 ting, and embroidery (q. v.). The last 

 named, although assuming some of the 

 characteristics of the textile foundation 



ceremonial chilkat garment with designs in gobelin style, 

 (niblack) 



on which it is superposed, frequently ex- 

 presses its designs in flowing graphic 

 forms, and the same is true to a lesser 

 degree in the Gobelin style of weaving 

 practised by the N. W. coast tribes. As 

 already stated, the decorative motives of 

 the last-mentioned tribes are in the main 

 representative of life forms, but, with the 

 exception of the Nootka and other of 

 the more southern tribes, their basketry 

 decoration is almost exclusively geo- 

 metric. Featherwork had a prominent 

 place in native art and is still common in 

 the W., the feather-decked baskets of 

 some of the Pacific coast tribes being mar- 

 vels of tasteful and brilliant ornament. 

 The basketry designs of the western 

 tribes furnish striking illustrations of the 

 native genius for 

 decoration. So far 

 as known the 

 mound-building 

 tribes had made 

 no considerable 

 progress in this 

 branch. Textile 

 art of all forms 

 is largely the work 

 of the women. 



(6) Inlaying 

 (see Mosaic) was 

 employed by the more advanced tribes in 

 the decoration of objects of wood, stone, 

 and bone, but these decorations were usu- 

 ally of a very simple nature and are of no 

 particular importance in the discussion 

 of the native ornament of the N.; the 

 ancient Mexicans, however, executed 

 many superb works by this method. 



IN TULARENO BAS- 

 (POWERS) 



