292 



AX ANALYSIS OF THE 



Fig. Ki. 



destriictiveness in the gi-iffin, and that its several parts were representative 

 of aerial with terrestrial rapacity. After the same manner the hippichthys, 

 was held to be a union in the flesh of the earth and the sea — an amphibious 

 art-form denoting a soul in a state of transition. However much the spirit of 

 speculation may enter into our attempts to interpi-et such symbols, of this, there 

 can be no doubt, that many of them in their purer forms clearly expressed complex 

 ideas.* Ferguson in speaking of the Turanians (i. e., the central western Asian 

 races), remarks: "With them it is not sufRcient that a God should be colossal, 

 he must be symbolical ; he must have more arms and legs, more heads, than 

 common man ; he must have wings and attributes of power, or must combine the 

 strength of a lion or a bull with the intellect of humanity." " We cannot," says 

 Montaigne, " couple conmion faculties, such as our own, with the other faculties that 

 astonish us, and are so far out of our sight. Therefore it is, that we give such savage 

 form to demons; and who does not give Tamerlane great eyebrows, wide nostrils, 

 a dreadful face, and a prodigious stature, according to the imagination he has con- 

 ceived in us, by the report of his name?" Here is the motive which accounts for 

 much apparent extravagance. As closely allied to the foregoing, may we not find in 

 the wild and otherwise almost expressionless combinations of the Aztec paintings a 

 faint meaning suggested by clearer methods ? The curious composition of a death's- 

 head and insect might resolve itself into a symbol of the leaf-devouring locust.f 



(Fig. 17). 



Fig. 17. 



ComiJosite of Aztec design. 



* Hist, of Arcliitecture, Ferguson, I, 51. 



\ Codex Viennensis, Kingsborough Coll., jl. 1. 



