THE LOST COLOR GROUP. 117 



While the lost color group differs from all others in respect to form as well as 

 method of ornamentation, the decorative motives employed are often akin to those 

 that characterize other groups. For example, one of the distinguishing motives 

 of the alligator ware consists of a series of parallel lines or bands, the outer ones 

 being serrated along their distal margins. These lines represent the longitudinal 

 markings on the back of the alligator, while the marginal serrations are added in 

 order to emphasize the dorsal tuberosities or spines. The serrations sometimes 

 assume the form of triangles that are filled with dots to indicate the scales. In 

 other words, this motive is a conventionalized rendering of the alligator's dorsal 

 aspect. I have called it, therefore, the dorsal-view motive. This dorsal-view motive 

 is not confined to the alligator group alone. Fine examples of it occur on at 

 least five of the six lost color vases reproduced in Plate XXXI. Both types of 

 lateral serrations are seen in figure a : the triangle type on the cream ground of 

 the shoulder zone, and the spine type on the red ground of the neck. The pat- 

 terns on the latter are marred, however, the black color of the field having dis- 

 appeared in part. 



The original ground of the shoulder zone of the vase reproduced in figure b 

 is also a light cream color. But the light zone is traversed by three red bands 

 tangent to the neck, the red being the same as that covering the bottom and 

 the neck, respectively. The arched panels and the field surrounding the neck are 

 completely covered by a series of dorsal-view motives. Here the lateral serrations 

 are plain spines. The use of three arched panels, instead of two, is typical of a 

 series of vases belonging to the alligator ware (see PI. XXXVI.) 



The vase, in shape like a tea-caddy (fig. c), is from twenty-one miles northwest of 

 David. The bottom is almost flat (in another specimen the bottom is perfectly 

 flat). In addition to the red lip and neck, red bands encircle the body at the 

 shoulder and at the margin of the bottom. From the upper band, other red bands, 

 three in number, are carried vertically downward, then horizontally, and finally 

 vertically again to meet the band at the bottom, thus forming three overlapping 

 panels. Each design consists of an enclosure in the shape of the panel, with a 

 series of sessile figures otherwise suggesting the quadruped form. The zone 

 between the angles at the neck and the shoulder is also divided into three panels, 

 not by red bands, but by a dorsal-view motive in the light color of the original 

 ground. A single sketchy quadruped figure occupies each of the shoulder panels. 



In a vase from Bugavita (fig. d), the pattern is confined to the shoulder zone 

 and is of a pronounced salmon color. It consists of the dorsal-view motive placed 

 vertically and repeated seven times. The colors are well preserved in the example 

 shown in figure e. It represents a vase in which all the original ground is red, 

 and the bands surrounding the panels are white. The coat of black, when first 

 applied, covered the entire visible surface except the recurved lip and inner surface 

 of the orifice. The two arched panels are relatively small, the pattern being alike 

 in both — two dorsal- view motives placed obliquely. 



The original ground in figure / consists of two colors, the lip and the bottom 

 being red and the shoulder cream. The lip looks as if it had been cut out of 

 the base of a globular bowl. As it was built upward and outward, it was also 

 slightly incurved. The orifice is oval. The margin being four- sided, quite 



