ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 135 



ornamental design, much openwork being used, and rise in 

 tiers, irregularly, one row above the other. Thus the entire 

 surface of the tusk is carved, the tip above the niches being 

 worked out in a purely ornamental pattern. In an illus- 

 tration showing five of the most striking examples of this 

 art the graceful grouping of the tusks was striking, and the 

 element of asymmetry skilfully introduced by placing one 

 twisted and distorted tusk in the foreground. 



Among the Tibetans ivory is but rarely used. Some of 

 the Nomads wear decorative bracelets or rings of ivory on 

 their cues, these ornaments, uncarved and of the simplest 

 design, being made in India for exportation to Tibet. Ex- 

 amples of them may be seen in the Field Museum of Natural 

 History, Chicago.* 



Small, portable altars made of ivory and having a semi- 

 spherical form are used by priests in Mexico in their cere- 

 monials, on their journeys through the country either to 

 confer baptism, listen to confession, or administer extreme 

 unction. These portable altars measure only ^J or 3 in. 

 across, and as the carvings are on the inside of the hollow 

 hemisphere, their position effectively protects them from in- 

 jury by abrasion, and the little "altars" can be safely carried 

 about in the pocket or in any other receptacle. 



Some specimens of Mexican ivory carving done in the 

 sixteenth century, and taken from a Catholic in 1860 by 

 an officer of Benito Juarez, were later acquired by Dr. 

 Edward H. Thompson. While the art standard of a great 

 part of these ecclesiastical carvings was not especially high, 

 there was among them a Christ figure exceptionally well 

 executed, t 



*Cominiinicated by Dr. Berthold Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. 

 tCommunicated by Dr. Edward H. Thompson. 



