THE ARMADILLO GROUP. 



67 



the vessels. Shoulder ornaments are always in the round. The frog is a favorite 

 subject with the potters, a number of species being represented. A rather long- 

 nosed variety, with eyes placed far back and a number of cup-shaped markings 

 scattered over the back, is given in figure 98. It is probably the Surinam Toad 

 (Pip a americana) and the markings may represent the eggs that are placed on the 

 back of the female by the male, each egg sinking into a little pouch of skin 

 covered by a gelatinous film. The embryos develop in these little pouches. Or 

 it may be the " very minute species, beautifully spotted with black and red," 1 

 that is said to be used by the Indians to poison arrows. The most logical way 

 to suggest spots would be by markings of this sort, as paint was not used in this 

 group of ware. A short-bodied species is represented in a vase from Divala (fig. 99). 

 The eyes are indicated by indentations instead of by the usual incised nodes. 



Fig. 99- — Vase with frog shoulder ornaments ; 

 from Divala. Armadillo ware. V J 



Fig. ioo.— Frog illustrating the ce- 

 ramic type of technique. Armadillo 

 ware. V» 



Other varieties are brought together in Plate XIV. Figure a shows a charac- 

 teristic example of the adaptation of ornament to form. The noses of the frogs 

 project above the level of the rim. This gracefully turned vase is from Jacu. 

 Mention has already been made of the influence of technique in one medium over 

 that in another. A good illustration of this is to be found in figure b, where the 

 unduly flattened and attenuated hindfeet are exactly analogous in treatment to 

 the hindfoot that is characteristic of the frog in metal. Evidently the potter has 

 here taken his cue from the goldsmith (see fig. 344). In addition to the shoulder 

 ornaments in the round, the collar bears a neatly incised pattern. 



Another example of metal technique executed in clay is to be seen in figure c, 

 where the hindfeet of each pair of frogs are represented by a long flat band of 

 clay. One has but to compare this with its prototype in metal (see fig. 345). 

 In the latter case, however, only the median legs of the pair are actually united. 



As a rule, figures in the round used as ornaments are attached to the finished 

 surface of the vessels. But in figure d, a perfectly modeled vase, each frog covers 

 an oval horizontally flattened opening on the shoulder of the vase. The margins 

 of the holes are neatly finished and, in connection with the mouth openings of 

 the frogs, may have served as spouts. The feet of the frogs are of the flattened 

 metallic type. This attenuated type may have originated in an effort to represent 



1 B. Seemann. Op. cit., I., 265. 



