THE POLYCHROME GROUP. 151 



in small interspaces. The red was employed for a like purpose in addition to its 

 use as a ground color, pure and simple. The order of application was evidently 

 white, black and red. 



The shoulder zone is divided into two panels by means of alternating, vertical 

 black and white bands. The design in each panel is reptilian and presumably 

 represents one and the same animal, although to one is given four legs, each 

 terminating in three toes, while the other is legless (fig. 250 b). The body is 

 serpentine in both, and the head more or less sharply defined. 



The second of these vases (fig. 251) is in every respect more characteristic 

 of the alligator ware. The design is executed in black and red on a pale yellow 

 slip. Its meaning is problematical. The lines of the drawing are somewhat 

 similar to those on the preceding vase. The neck and lower half of the body 

 are finished in red. 



The last vase (fig. 252) combines certain features of the alligator- and lost color- 

 groups, respectively. It may be recalled that in the lost color ware an oft-repeated 

 scheme of decoration was the division of the body into two zones by a horizontal 

 peripheral band and a subdivision of the upper zone into panels by means of 

 bands tangent to the neck on either side. The same scheme is followed here, 

 but the colors and their method of application are those of the alligator ware. 

 The bands are pale yellow (slip) slightly tinged with red, while the lower zone 

 and the panels of the upper are red. The bands are everywhere outlined in 

 black and are crossed by parallel slanting black lines in groups of three, rep- 

 resenting the body of the alligator, with spines projecting on either side — in 

 other words, the dorsal-view motive. This specimen is from Corredor. 



THE POLYCHROME GROUP. 



To the Yale collection belong six specimens of the polychrome group, called 

 by Holmes " the most artistic of the wares of Chiriqui." This ware is remarkable 

 for its rarity as well as its refinement and beauty of ornamentation. The National 

 Museum possesses only three examples and from one of these the purple color, 

 the distinguishing character of the group, has been left out. In the Peabody 

 Museum of Harvard University, there is a single specimen of what might be called 

 polychrome ware, but here also the purple color is lacking. On the other hand, 

 purple is one of the delineating colors in all six of the Yale specimens. 



While perfectly distinct as a group, the polychrome ware is more closely akin 

 to the alligator ware than to any other. It may be recalled that in the alligator 

 group the delineating colors were black and red, black being used for contours 

 and red more especially for filling in. This is also true of the polychrome ware. 

 The slip in both is practically the same, except that it has a more distinctly 

 salmon tint in some polychrome pieces. In the latter, the paste is a dark red, 

 similar to that in the bird forms of the alligator group already noted (pp. 145-49) 

 and also to that in a class of whistles and figurines to be described later, though 

 belonging to the alligator ware. Certain decorative motives are also common to 

 both. In point of form however there is a distinct divergence from the tripods 



