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INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



A VISIT to the ethnological halls of the Museum shows that the 

 primitive tribes whose manufactures are exhibited in the cases 

 delight in ornamenting all the objects which are used in ordinary- 

 life, in festivals and in sacred ceremonials. Many of the orna- 

 ments may seem crude to our taste, but undoubtedly they are 

 applied to the objects for the same purpose as that for which we 

 apply decorative ornamentation. 



Studies of the forms of primitive decoration, which have been 

 carried on by many students, demonstrate the fact that almost 

 everywhere decorative designs, no matter how simple their forms 

 may be, are significant. In many cases we find animal forms and 

 plant forms used for decorative purposes, and in these the sig- 

 nificance is at once given by the design. In other cases the 

 ornament consists of nothing but geometrical elements, such as- 

 straight lines, triangles and rectangles, or curves and spirals. 

 These designs also are interpreted by primitive man as represent- 

 ing certain natural forms, and thus they express definite ideas. 



It may therefore be said that most primitive decoration is^ 

 symbolic. The style of decoration by means of which ideas are 

 expressed differs very much in various parts of the world. The 

 groups of ideas that are expressed by ornamental designs are also 

 different, according to the characteristic culture of each tribe. 



The collections to which this Leaflet refers may be found in 

 Halls io8, I02 and 202. Their location in the halls is marked on 

 the accompanying plans. 



