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115 
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No. XIX.—NATURAL FORMS. 
In the infancy of the arts mankind must have availed 
themselves of the natural forms of the objects met with ; 
and as the process of adapting and modifying them to their 
wants has been slow and continuous, traces of the forms of 
nature have been preserved in those arts which are indigenous 
and have remained isolated. When, on the other hand, they 
have been derived from civilized races, or have degenerated 
from a more advanced state, the more complex forms of the 
higher civilization become conventionalized, and are fre¬ 
quently retained in an altered condition after the knowledge 
of their original uses has been lost. It is desirable, there¬ 
fore, to pay attention to the forms of the objects constructed 
by savages, with the view of ascertaining to what extent they 
approximate to the natural forms of the materials employed, 
and to note those objects in which the natural forms have 
been little or not at all changed. 
1. Do the clubs and other weapons approximate to the na¬ 
tural forms of the stems, roots, or branches of trees ? 2. Are 
the curves the natural curves of the branches ? and do they 
follow the grain of the wood ? 3. Are the natural forms of 
stones employed as hammers, mace-heads, or for other pur¬ 
poses % 4. Are gourds, shell-fruit, sea-shells, human or other 
skulls employed as drinking-vessels ? 5. Are the forms of 
these closely imitated in pottery ? 6. Are gourds, reeds, 
bones, skulls, sinews, and root fibres employed in musical 
instruments ? 7. Are the skins of animals or bark of trees 
much altered in clothing ] 8. Are the skins of animals 
flayed off the body with only one incision employed as water- 
vessels, bagpipes, pouches, or bellows ? 9. Are the head- 
skins of animals, with the ears and mane, employed as head¬ 
dresses, or the skins of horned or prickled fish ? 10. Are 
any of them copied in artificial head-dresses ? 11. For what 
purposes is the bamboo used—tubes, drinking-vessels, baskets, 
rings, &c. ? 12. Are shells, teeth, claws, seeds, bones, beetles 5 
wings, vertebrae of snakes, and other natural objects 
i 2 
