ON GROV SOAR ONO 
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 108, 102 and 202. Their location in the halls is marked on 
the accompanying plans. 
