THE TRIPOD OR FISH GROUP. 



87 



Fig. 142 



is worthy of note. The legs, handles and neck are not painted, neither is the 

 interior below the orifice. 



There is also a fusion or confusion of forms in figure 143. The mouth and the 

 pectoral and caudal fins are faithfully rendered. On the nose, however, and pro- 

 jecting some distance farther forward than its tip, is built up the head of an owl 

 with prominent eyes made of coiled fillets. 

 In a median line, just below the eyes, 

 is a projecting cone, which from its position 

 and shape might answer to the require- 

 ments of a dorsal fin as well as of the 

 owl's beak. It is probably intended for 

 the beak only, because of the single in- 

 cision on either side. The owl's feet 

 appear a little lower down. Each handle 

 of the vase is marked by a median in- 

 cision, to meet which, parallel incised lines 

 are carried down from either side. On 

 each side, also, and reaching from handle 

 to handle, a broad fillet is attached to the 

 neck and cut by a median incised line 

 running horizontally. But before the 

 horizontal incision was made, the fillet 

 was incised with numerous parallel slant- 

 ing lines. A series of eye symbols, six 

 in all, is applied just above the fillet, three 

 on either side. None of the relief embel- 

 lishments are painted, the color being 

 applied only to smooth surfaces. The 

 interior, as usual, is flecked with paint 

 and more highly polished than the ex- 

 terior. 



A vase (fig. 144) that may not be of 

 native Chiriquian workmanship is intro- 

 duced here because the legs combine fish 

 characters with those of some carnivorous 

 animal. For the fish, there are two pairs 

 of lateral fins and one dorsal fin, but no 

 eyes nor mouth. The other life form is 

 represented by the head and forelegs. This 

 piece resembles a class of pottery in the 

 Keith collection recently found at Paso Fig' H3-— Tripod in which the supports combine the 



_ , „ _. r r .1 /~ii • • fish with the head and feet of the owl Fish ware. I a 



Real, Costa Kica, not far from the Chiri- 

 quian frontier. 



The supports are of uniform diameter throughout the greater part of their length. 

 They are not curved, neither are they spreading. The three rows of slits in each 

 look as if they might have been made after the paste had hardened. There are 



Fig. 143- 



Fig 142. — Tripod in which the supports embody a 

 fusion of the fish and the human form. Fish ware. '/> 



