108 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



of the vessel relative to the workman had not been changed throughout the 

 process. It is worth while to note also that the polishing seems to have been 

 done after the application of the final coat of paint (black), as the paint has 

 disappeared along the lines of the striae. Such, however, was not the sequence 

 of events. On closer observation the black paint is found to have been removed 

 from the ridges of the strise and not from the intervening grooves ; while the 

 underlying red paint has not been worn even from the ridges. The wearing of 

 the black paint from the ridges is therefore due to its exposed position and the 

 non-adhesive character of the coloring matter employed. 



With but slight variations, what has been said of the preceding is also true 

 of figure d, except that, in place of the series of elongated dotted panels on the 

 lower zone, there is a horizontal band of triangles with apices pointing upward, 

 alternating, of course, with triangular black interspaces. The upper zone is rather 

 sharply depressed, giving to the vase angular outlines. 



An especially pleasing arrangement of groups of parallel bands, meeting each 

 other at various angles with a variety of intervening triangles, quadrangles and 

 pentagons, is given in figure e. One band never cuts another. When two groups 

 meet, one disappears beneath the other. At one place four groups of bands meet 

 and there is the same orderly overlapping. Three narrow bands are carried round 

 the shoulder just below the neck. The latter is short, with vertical sides, while 

 flaring necks are usual for this group of ware. The entire lower zone is left in 

 the original red ground tint. Here again one might easily take the black bands 

 to be the pattern against a background of angular fields in red. This vase is 

 from Divala. 



The upper zone in figure / is traversed by a meandering group of narrow 

 parallel bands, the four lower corners of the meander being cut by a group of 

 narrow horizontal peripheral bands. With the exception of a single horizontal 

 band near its upper margin, the lower zone is left in the original ground color. 

 The lip is flaring and rectangular in outline, there being but two other examples 

 of this type of lip in the lost color group. 



In Plate XXIX are shown some specimens with handles and some with orna- 

 ments in relief. The original ground color is red. The handles in figure a are 

 small vertical loops, with black and red cross bands. The collar from which 

 they spring to meet the prolonged lip on either side is decorated with groups of 

 narrow parallel bands, forming a broken meander. The remainder of the upper 

 zone of the body is marked by horizontal bands and panels, each panel with a 

 row of spots in a rectangular field. The lower zone is left in red. 



The type of neck is somewhat different in figure 6, and the lip is recurved, 

 but the cross-banded handles are practically the same as in the preceding. The 

 pattern is confined to the upper half of the body and consists of four triangles 

 with the rather large intervening black spaces relieved by groups of lines forming 

 compound and simple curves. The hollow of each curve in the sigmoid scroll 

 as well as the simple curve is marked by a spot. This spot represents the body- 

 markings of the alligator. The sigmoid scroll is therefore composed of two 

 alligator bodies linked together, while the simple scroll on the right is the body- 

 line of a single alligator. This is one of the two predominant alligator motives 



