ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES 
97 
The interlocking branched (cymose) key pattern (PL VIII, 
No. 12) seems to be derived from plaited basketwork. Plate 
VIII, No. 16, shows it drawn flat, with the border lines 
partially omitted for clearness. Ornament of the same general 
type occurs on fabrics and basketware from Indonesia, and 
occasionally on early Chinese bronzes. A pattern which may 
be actually related to it is found on rattan mats from South 
Sumatra (4) and from Borneo (5). 
The closest parallel, however, to the Watom motif, occurs on 
an embroidered gauze fabric from a grave at Nasca, Peru, 
dating from the period 200 B.C.-200 a.d., now in the British 
Museum (Pig. 5) . It is not suggested that there is necessarily 
any connection between the two, although the patterns are 
almost identical, and the writer does not know of this particu- 
lar design occurring elsewhere. 
References. 
1. Seligman and Joyce. Anthro. Essays Presented to E. B. Tvlor, p. 333. 
Oxford, 1907. 
2. Neuhauss. Deutch Neu Guinea, vol. i, p. 146. Berlin, 1911. 
3. Anthropos, iv, pp. 251 and 1,903; v, p. 1,160. 
4. Reichs Ethno. Museum, Leiden, xii, 886/12, 1918. 
5. Kraemer. West Indonesien, pi. xli, fig. 9. Stuttgart, 1927. 
