
4 
PERUVIAN ART 
Figs. 5-6. Fig. 5 is a tracing of the upper fish head in Fig. 4. Fig. 
6 was made from the same tracing, but in inking it, straight lines down 
from the mouth were substituted for the step-formy ones of Fig. 5, and 
this gives us exactly the same head as seen in the fish form at Fig. 2. 
These step-form lines, caused by the technique of weaving, often dis- 
guise a form that would be obvious if the lines were straight. 
Fig. 7 shows the interlocked fish design, a form of decoration very 
common over most of the coast region, where it is found on borders of 
ponchos, belts, ete. In the poncho border from which this figure was 
taken the decoration is in diagonal bands, each band having two colors. 
The black fish shown is interlocked with one in red. The bands on either 
side are in different colors. A repetition of the same figure, but in 
different colors, arranged either in rows or, as in this illustration, in 
diagonal bands, is a prominent characteristic of Peruvian art. If we 
examine any one of these fish we find that such parts of it as can be | 
seen when another is interlocked with it are like the typical one shown 
in Fig. 2. 
THE FISH 
PuaTeE II 
Fig. 1 gives us another form of the interlocked fish design. We see 
here attached to the tail of each fish a form bounded on one side by a 
straight line and on the other by a zigzag forming four chevrons or points. 
This added figure plays quite a part in Peruvian art, as we shall see 
when we come to discuss their bird forms. 
Fig. 2 was traced from the black fish above. If two forms like this 
are cut from paper, and one of them colored black, they will, on being 
put together, give the design shown. This form is often found and 
sometimes a bird head takes the place of the half of a fish head shown 
here. On turning back to Plate I and looking at the typical fish in Fig. 
2 we find that one is but a skeleton or part of the other. 
Fig. 3 is also a part of the design above, and is frequently used in 
decoration just as it is shown here. 
Fig. 4 is an example of their work in pyrography. This design was 
burned into the side of a gourd bowl. The figure spoken of before: one 
bounded on one side by a straight line and on the other by a zigzag, 
forms all but the head of this highly conventionalized fish. It varies 
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