152 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



and round-bottomed vases, especially the latter, so common in the alligator group. 

 With two exceptions, these are entirely wanting, and in their stead appear highly 

 differentiated forms with annular bases that are sometimes developed into tall 

 hollow stands. 



The series begins with a pitcher-shaped vase from Gualaca (PI. XLIV, fig. a). 

 The body, which is flattened uniformly above and below, is supported by a low 

 annular base and surmounted by a neck that is gently flaring and not provided 

 with a spout. The pronounced and horizontally flattened lip is damaged by 

 weathering and chipping. The handle, which was attached to it and to the shoulder 

 below, is entirely gone. The ascending ramus of the handle was pegged to the 

 shoulder, as indicated by an empty hole. To be in harmony with the main out- 

 lines of the vessel, the horizontal ramus of the handle must have met the ascend- 

 ing branch at an angle of less than 90°. This is true of the handle of a pitcher 

 (cat. no. ^g) in the Peabody Museum of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, that belongs evidently to the polycrome group, 

 although no purple was used in the decoration of the 

 vessel. Neither is the form of the latter so pleasing. 



The Yale specimen is somewhat damaged from weather- 

 ing. The paste is much lighter in color than that of 

 the other specimens, a fact due partly to bleaching. The 

 entire surface was coated with a pale yellow slip, over 

 which the designs were executed in black, red and 

 purple. A broad red band encircles the annular base 

 and the neck constriction. These are joined by four 

 broad longitudinal bands, alternating in purple and red, 

 Fig. 253.— Sigmoid scroll in one being in line with the handle. A narrow purple 



which the alligator motive d smTOUnds th base of thg hand l e . In the four 



appears as simply cut out ot 



the black band where it is panels thus formed and on the neck, black alone is 

 broadest ^(see Plate xliv, employe d. Three bands, two black and one red, dec- 

 orate the lip. The orifice is unpainted. 

 The attention is at once fixed upon the ornate scrolls of the panels (fig. 253), 

 all of which are approximately the same, except that of the two facing the handle ; 

 one is of necessity left-handed and both are slightly modified to make room for 

 the base of the handle. The ingenuity displayed in adapting the motive to the 

 space at hand, the training of the eye and the delicacy of touch are all 

 marvelous. The scroll ornament is carried horizontally about the neck, one and 

 one-half units of the motive being required to fill the space to be decorated 

 (fig. 254). The oval notches cut from the body of the scroll at intervals where 

 the black band would be broadest evidently mean something more than a mere 

 effort to relieve the pattern of broad black areas. They are highly conventionalized 

 alligator motives of the profile variety, with the dermal markings not represented. 

 In the last illustration (fig. 254), two of the motives are not completely fused with 

 the mass of the scroll; the body-line is visibile for a short distance near its 

 center. The specimen in the Harvard University collection is decorated with 

 a similar branching scroll that completely encircles the body of the vessel. 

 Beginning at a point beneath the handle, it is developed in both directions until 



