122 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



together, their interiors communicating by means of a foramen large enough to 

 admit the little finger. 



A comparatively small number of vessels belonging to the lost color group are 

 mounted as tripods. A selection from these to show the variations in form and 

 ornamentation as well as the character of the tripod legs, is seen in Plate XXXII. 

 The body of a tripod vase from Divala (fig. a) is so altered in the equatorial 

 region as to resemble the crab. The mouth is indicated by a node with one 

 horizontal and three vertical incisions. Next to the mouth is the first pair of 

 legs, flexed, with incisions to indicate claws. Back of the legs and making the 

 complete circuit of the body are six pairs of spines. The third pair, being much 

 larger than the others, gives to the cephalothorax the appearance of being broader 

 than long. The crablike shape is thus rendered without lengthening the equatorial 

 diameter of the interior in the direction of the large spines. The proportionately 

 great breadth of the cephalothorax is similarly indicated in several crablike tripods 

 of the armadillo group, with this exception — that in some cases the greatest 

 horizontal diameter of the interior is in line with the pair of great lateral spines, 

 thus further emphasizing the breadth of the cephalothorax. The neck of the 

 vase in question is red ; the shoulder, i. e., the dorsal part of the crab's body, is 

 light cream ; the ventral surface or portion below the spines is red, with the ex- 

 ception of a modified trefoil or trilobed pattern on the bottom and between the 

 the tripod supports, which is light cream. The solid tripod supports are deeply 

 incised, painted red, and cross-banded by the usual lost color process. The most 

 interesting part of the painted decoration is reserved for the back of the crab or, 

 in other words, the shoulder of the vessel, which is divided into four panels by 

 labret- or spool-shaped ornaments, each one being accompanied by two eyes. This 

 particular combination of the two motives evidently represents the animal head. 

 One of these is therefore very appropriately placed directly over the crab's mouth. 

 The same design unaccompanied by eye ornaments was noted in Plate XXX 

 (fig. /) and in figure 190. Each panel is decorated with a row of monkeys sitting 

 upright, with long recurved tail and extended legs. All are facing in the same 

 direction, i. e., to the right, just as in the vase from Bugavita (see Plate XXVII, 

 fig. b). In both examples the monkey figures are so nearly alike that they might 

 be considered the work of one school of artists, if not, indeed, of the same artist. 



Figure 6, reproducing a shallow tripod bowl, is an interesting example of con- 

 verting the body of the vessel into the the body of the animal without essentially 

 altering the simplicity of the original phytomorphic outlines. In the region of 

 greatest horizontal diameter of the body, the walls are suddenly drawn in for a 

 short distance and then turned upward and slightly outward at the margin. This 

 mere suggestion of a neck is excuse enough for the artist to leave the interior 

 unpainted. The life elements are in relief and applied to the exterior in the plane 

 of the angle between the narrow shoulder and the body proper. Three flattened 

 nodes in a horizontal plane represent the tail and wings. The neck rises almost 

 vertically, the head which is turned to one side being that of the turkey-buzzard 

 (Cathartes aura). Its baldness is emphasized by an incised fillet about the neck, 

 separating the feathered from the unfeathered portion ; by eyes in high relief, 

 nodes with annular indentations, and by absence of paint. On the other hand, 



