June, 1890 . 
THE ORIGIN OF DECORATIVE ART. 
135 
illustrating the lesser importance of the face portion of the 
design. This is further exemplified in some other specimens, 
in which the face has been entirely suppressed, leaving 
nothing but a huge tongue, whose meaning would be by no 
means apparent without comparison with the other specimens. 
In spite of the tendency to vary, and the reasons for 
varying designs, one of the prominent characteristics of 
savage art is the persistent manner in which certain types of 
design are adhered to. The savage has always been described 
as obstinately conservative, and evidences this propensity in 
his customs, implements, and general mode of living. In the 
treatment accordingly of decorative art certain types are 
established in certain regions, and, however numerous may 
be the variations, all these will be referable to a few “ root” 
designs, so to speak, which are characteristic of the particular 
region. 
In this way each savage nation develops its own special 
style, or what we may call its “ school.” The same kind of 
object will be ornamented with the same kind of ornament, 
which, though varying slightly in detail in nearly every 
example, will continue to be fundamentally the same in idea 
from generation to generation. On this account it is generally 
possible to decide the locality whence an object has come 
with no other data to direct one than the character of its 
ornamentation. 
In the decoration of useful objects, weapons, tools, and 
the like, as the ornamentation has, in its earlier stages at 
least, been influenced by, if not directly suggested by, the 
shape or function of the object, it is usually admirably 
adapted to the latter, and we find a true balance of ornament 
with form. This applies equally well to the beautiful designs 
employed by savages in “ tattooing ” their bodies. It is a 
fundamental principle which is too often lost sight of even in 
the most finished works of periods of decline, or false art, as 
in countless instances of modern pottery and porcelain, etc. 
Per contra , it must be said that frequently associated with 
veiy elaborate decoration is the degeneration of the utility of 
an implement. By this I mean that among those savage 
peoples, who are much addicted to the use of elaborate 
fanciful decoration, the application of such ornamentation to 
useful implements is often carried to such an extent as to 
render these unfit for use, and they thus become reduced to, 
or “glorified ” into, mere ceremonial or processional emblems. 
The natives of the Hervey group, who till recently used stone 
bladed adzes for their woodwork, have applied carved orna¬ 
mentation to the handles of many of these, and frequently the 
