558 Proceedings of Roy al Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
the chevron pattern in Group 1 ; for, if we trace the boundary line 
of one limb, it forms a zigzag with that of each of the limbs continu- 
ous with its base, and the radiated pattern of the one group may he 
regarded as an extension and amplification of the chevron design. 
Mr Holmes, in his joint memoir with Mr Dorsey, figures several 
radiated designs on the crania in the Field Columbia Museum in 
Chicago, in some of which there were four limbs, in others three. 
As a rule the radiations proceeded from a centre marked by one or 
two incised circles. Whilst the patterns included within the 
limbs in most instances did not represent any definite natural 
objects, in a few, especially those reproduced in figs. 7 and 8 of his 
paper, they were without doubt animal forms conventionally por- 
trayed. Mr Holmes considers that even the simplest designs are 
significant, “being totems, or having their origin in the crude 
mythologic conceptions of the people.” 
It is possible that the designer of these radiating patterns had 
in his mind to delineate some natural object in a more or less 
conventional way. Professor Haddon has drawn a number of 
patterns, carved on wooden belts from the Gulf of Papua, in which 
figures having two, three, four, or even a greater number of 
radiations from a common centre have been sculptured. He 
regards these as degenerate reproductions of the human face, and 
speaks of the circle carved in the centre of each of the so-called 
faces in his fig. 27 (p. 115) as an eye inserted by the artist by 
mistake in the mouth. It is difficult to put this interpretation on 
the radiated figures on the two skulls described in this group, 
in both of which circles corresponding to the so-called eye were 
sculptured in the common centre, which, according to Professor 
Haddon’s view, would have to be regarded as representing the 
mouth with the contained eye. We can scarcely suppose that in 
each of these skulls the artist had committed the error of inserting 
an eye into the middle of the mouth, for the circles which he has 
interpreted as representing it are obviously a part of the design, 
and not an accident.* We must look, therefore, for some other 
interpretation of the radiated figure. If it is to be regarded as a 
* It should also be kept in mind that the incised circles are not limited to 
the above skulls, but are found in others where the general design shows a 
different pattern. Possibly the circles may be intended, as in the hierogly- 
phical writings of the ancient Egyptians, to represent the sun. 
