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THE CONTEMPORAR V SCIENCE SERIES.

Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

EVOLUTION IN ARi

AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE

LIFE-HISTORIES OF DESIGNS.

ALFRED C. HADDON,

P/ofessor of Zoology, Royal Collegt of ^ience, Dublin, Corresponding
Member of the Italian Society of Aiithropology, etc.

tTNlVEHSlTY) -
With 8 Plates, and 130 Figures in tlie Text.

LONDON:

WALTER SCOTT, LTD., PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,

153-157 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORIC

1895.

4r<>2.7

TUE WALTER SCOTT PRESS, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNB.

PREFACE.

I w<i)ULD like to take the opportunity which a Preface
affords to thank those friends who have helped me in
the preparation of this little book. Most of them will
find their names mentioned somewhere in the text.
It is also my pleasant duty to heartily acknowledge
the kindness I have everywhere experienced when
collecting the materials on which these studies are
based. On many occasions I have entered a museum
in Britain or abroad, not knowing any one on the staff
On explaining my object every facility was at once
offered, cases were opened, specimens were handed to
me, and various conveniences arranged; often, too,
help was rendered me at the time, not only by
curators and assistants, but also by museum porters
and gendarmes. It is particularly gratifying for a
stranger to be received as a colleague, and to find
that museum authorities everywhere recognise that
the collections put under their charge serve their end
best when they are utilised by students.

A word of apology may be needed for the copious
extracts which have been made from the works of

PREFACE.

Other writers. My object in this has been to show
that there has been quite a considerable number of
investigators who have approached the subject of
decorative art from a similar point of view to that
elaborated in the present essay. A quotation brings
one more face to face with the author than does a
mere abstract, and personally I like to feel the
comradeship of similar studies. We all contribute
our mites, and the only pity is we cannot all be
personally known to one another.

It would afford me great pleasure if this book leads
to new students entering upon this important and
intensely interesting field of inquiry, and I shall
always be pleased to correspond with those who
are or who desire to be fellow-workers.

ALFRED C. HADDON.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction ...... i

The Decorative Art of British New Guinea:

AS AN Example of the Method of Study . ii

I. Torres Straits and Daudai . . -13
II. The Fly River 26

III. The Papuan Gulf ..... 29

IV. The Central District . - . .42
V. The Massim District' . -47

VI. Relation of the Decorative Art to the Ethnology

of British New Guinea . . . -59

VII. Note on the Scroll Designs of British New

Guinea ...... 67

The Material of which Patterns are mad^^ . 74

I. The Decorative Transformation and Transference
of Artificial Objects (Skeuomorphs)

1. Transfor7naiio7i of a Solitary Object

2. Transference of Fastejiings .

3. Skeuomorphs of Textiles

4. Skeuo7norphic Pottery

5. Stotte Skeuotnorphs of Wooden Buildings

6. Skeuomorphic Inappropriateness

76
84
89
97
114
116

VIU CONTENTS.

II. The Decorative Transformation of Natural Ob-
jects ......

1. Physicomo7-p]is ....

2. Biomorphsj A. Representation oj Abstract

Ideas of Life; B. Phyllomorphs : The
Lotus and its Wanderi7igs ; C. Zoo-
morphsj D.' Anthropomorphs ; E. Bio-
morphic Pottery . . . .

3. Ifeteromorphs ....

The Reasons for which Objects are Decorated

I. Art .
II. Information .

III. Wealth

IV. Magic and Rehgion

r. Sympathetic Magi

2. Totemism

3. Religion

4. Religious Symbolism j A. The Meaning

and Distribution of the Fylfot; B. The
Psychology of Symbolism . . ,

The Scientific Method of Studying Decorative
Art .......

I. Application of Biological Deductions to Designs .
II. The Geographical Distribution of Animals and
of Designs . . . . .

HI. General Remarks on the Method of Study

page

118
118

126
192

2#»

200
203

222

235
250
267

275

306
308

331

Index

357

LIST •? ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGS.

1. Bamboo tobacco-pipes; one-tenth natural size. Torres Straits.

Drawn by the author from specimens in the British Museum.

2. Rubbing of the handle of a wooden comb; one-half natural size.

Torres Straits. In the author's possession. (Original.)

3. Drawings of animals by the natives of Torres Straits; about one-

quarter natural size. (Original.)

A. Jelly-fish ; B. Star-fish ; c. Hammer headed shark {Zyg^ena) ; d.
Group of two sharks {Charcarodon) and a turtle; E. Eagle-ray
{Aetobatis)\ F. Sucker-fish ^Echineis naucra/es); G. Tree-frog
{Ify/a ccerulea); H. Two snakes on a tobacco-pipe, between
them is the hole in which the bowl is inserted; i. Crocodile
(Crocodilus porosus), with footprints ; K. Cassowary (Ca5«am<j)
pecking at a seed, and footprints, cf Fig. 4 ; L. Dolphin
(Delphinus) ; M. Dugong {Halicore aiistralis) spouting, and
indications of waves; N. Native dog {Cam's dingo); o. Man
with a large mackerel-like fish.

A, B, G, H, L, occur on bamboo tobacco-pipes ; c, E, i, k, m, n, o, on
drums ; D, F, on pearl shells.

A, B, H, I, L, N, o, British Museum ; c, E, k, Cambridge; G. Oxford;
D, F, Berlin.

4. Drum from Daudai; yj\ inches long. Sketched by the author

from a specimen in the Cambridge Museum. (Original.)

5. Rubbing o^ part of the decoration of a bamboo tobacco-pipe,

probably from the mouth of the Fly River; one-third natural
size, in the Liverpool Museum. In the original the lines show
dark on a light ground.

6. Series of arrows from Torres Straits, collected and sketched by the

author, and presented by him to the Cambridge Museum; one^
third natural size. (Original.)

X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGS.

7. Snake arrow from Torres Straits (cf. Fig. 6). (Original.)

8. Rubbing of one side of the decoration of a drum from the Fly River,

in the museum at Rome ; one-fourth natural size. (Original. )

9. Rubbing of part of the carved border along a canoe from near Cape

Blackwood. Taken by R. Bruce, 1894. One-sixth natural size.

10-19. Rubbings of carved wooden belts from the Papuan Gulf; one-
fourth natural size — 10. Cambridge Museum; ii. Glasgow
Museum; 12. Kerrama, Berlin Museum; 13. British Museum ;
14. British Museum; 15. Toaripi (Author's Collection); 16.
Berlin Museum ; 17. Maiva, Berlin Museum ; 18. Edinburgh
Museum; 19, Museum of the London Missionary Society.

20. A. Drawing of Tabuta, a Motu girl, by Rev. W. Y. Turner, M.D.

(from Journ. Anth. Inst., vii., 1878, Fig. 4, p. 480). B. Back
view of the same. (The hair of this girl is incorrectly drawn, it
should be frizzly and not wavy. )

21. A. Design on a lime gourd from Kerepunu; B. Part of the decora-

tion of a pipe from Maiva ; c. Detail on a pipe from Kupele,
in the Berlin Museum; D-i. Designs on pipes — g. from
Kupele (Berlin); H, i. from Koiari (Berlin). All the Figs,
are to different scales. (Original.)

22. Part of the decoration of a pipe m the Cambridge Museum ; one-

sixth natural size. (Original.)

23. Clay pot, with an incised pattern from Wari (Teste Island), after a

sketch by Dr. II. O. Forbes.

24. Rubbing of the half of one side of the handle of a spatula in the

author's collection; one-third natural size.

25. Rubbings of both sides of a float for a fishing-net ; one-half natural

size.

26. Rubbmg of upper two-thirds of the decoration of a club in the

Glasgow Museum ; one-third natural size.
27-30. Rubbings of part of the decoration of clubs ; one-third natural
size. 27, 28, D'Entrecasteaux, Edinburgh Museum; 29, 30,
Cambridge Museum.

31. Rubbing of the pattern round the upper margin of a betel-pestle in

the Cambridge Museum ; one-third natural size.

32. Rubbing of part of the carved rim of a wooden bowl from the

D'Entrecasteaux Islands ; one-third natural size.

33. Rubbing of the handle of a turtle-shell spatula from the Louisiades,

in the British Museum ; one-half natural size.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XI

FIGS.

34. Rubbing of the decoration of one side of a club; one-third natural

size. The block is turned round to show the pattern more
clearly, the zigzag bands in reality run across the club.

35. Rubbing of the handle of a spatula in the British Museum ;' one-

third natural size.

36. Rubbings of the three sides of the handle of a spatula from the

d'Entrecasteaux, in the Dublin Museum; one-half natural
size.

37. A. B. Sketches of two stages of the "bird bracket" of two

spatulas, probably from the Woodlarks, in the author's col-
lection ; c, D, analogous details from canoe carvings — c.
from a photograph ; D. from a specimen in the Edinburgh
Museum. (Original.)

38. Rubbing of the decoration of a club in the Dublin Museum ; one-

third natural size.

39. Rubbing of the decoration of a club in the Dublin Museum ; one-

third natural size.

40. Rubbing of the central longitudinal band of a club from the

d'Entrecasteaux in the Edinburgh Museum ; one-third natural
size.

41. Rubbing of part of the decoration of a club from the d'Entrecas-

teaux in the Edinburgh Museum ; one-third natural size.

42. Bird and crocodile designs, Massim Archipelago. a. Canoe

carving from Wari (Teste Island), about two-ninths natural
size ; B. Handle of a paddle in the Cambridge Museum, one-
half natural size; C. Handle of a spatula in the Leiden Museum,
three-sevenths natural size; D. Handle of a spatula from Tubutubu
(Engineer Group) in the Cambridge Museum, three-sevenths
natural size ; e. Handle of a paddle in the Cambridge Museum,
three-sevenths natural size. (Original.)

43. Rubbing of the decoration of a Maori flute in the Natural History

Museum, Belfast ; one-half natural size. (Original. )

44. Turtle-shell ornaments worn in Torres Straits. The ratio of size of the

illustrations to the originals is as 4 : 15 ; A. Ordinary fish-hook,
made of turtle-shell ; b-l. Series of ornaments, probably derived
from fish-hooks, made of turtle-shell. All in the British Museum,
from a photograph by Mr. H. Oldland, of the British Museum.

45. Sketches of two axes frorn the South-east Peninsula of New

Guinea, in the possession of the author ; about one-tenth natural
size. (Original.)

Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGS.

46. Mangaian symbolic adze in the Copenhagen Museum ; from Dr.

C. March.

47. An erect drum, Kaara^ surmounted by the head of a god from

Java, in the Copenhagen Museum ; from Dr. C. March.

48. Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Tongan cKib in the

Norwich Museum ; one-third natural size. (Original. )

49 Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Tongan club in the
Norwich Museum ; one-half natural size. (Original.)

50. Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Tongan club in the

Norwich Museum ; one-half natural size. (Original. )

51. Sketches of tapa belts from Kerepunu, British New Guinea; about
# three-quarters natural size. (Original. )

52. Designs derived from uluri (women's covering) ; a, B, C, Bakairi

tribe, Central Brazil ; D, Aueto tribe, Central Brazil. After
Von den Steinen ; greatly reduced.

53. Iroquois bark vessel ; after Cushing,

54. Rectangular or Iroquois type of earthen vessel ; after Cushing.

55. Clay nucleus in base mould, with beginning of spiral building; a

stage in the formation of a Zuiii vessel; after Cushing.

56. 57. Variations in a motive through the influence of form. Pueblo

pottery ; after Holmes.

58. A. Freehand form; B. Form imposed by fabric. Forms of the

same motive expressed in different arts; after Holmes.

59. Design of Fig. 60 ; after Holmes, from Mason.

60. Ancient Pueblo vase, Province of Tusayan. The height and width

of the vase are fourteen inches; after Holmes, from Mason.

61. " Unit of the Design " of Fig. 60 ; after Holmes, from Mason.

62. Modern Moki rain symbol ; after Holmes.

63. Decorative detail from an ancient Pueblo medicine-jar ; after

Holmes.

64. Rain-cloud tile of the South House in a Tusayan ceremony ; after

Fewkes.

65. Zuni prayer-meal-bowl ; after Cushing.

66. Tracing of a landscape etched on a bamboo tobacco-pipe in Berlin;

three-eighths natural size. (Original.)
(>T. Sketch of Mer (Murray Island) by the author, from the south-west-

by-west, showing the hill Gelam.
68. Pueblo water-jar ; after Cushing.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii

FIGS.

69. Design based on a palmiio leaf, Bakairi tribe, Central Brazil ; after

Von den Steinen.

70. Rough sketch of the Egyptian lotus {Nymphcea lotus) ; after original

drawings by Professor Goodyear.

71. Sketch of the Indian lotus (Nehcmbium speciosum) ; after Descrip-

tion de r Egypt: Histoire Naturelle^ from Goodyear.

72. Lotus flowers and bud painted on the coffin of a mummy from

the Necropolis of Thebes, Twentieth Dynasty; after Prisse
d'Avennes.

73. Lotus flower with two leaves, on a vase, from the Necropolis of

Memphis, Fourth to Fifth Dynasties; after Prisse d'Avennes.

74. Lotus border ; from Goodyear, after Prisse d'Avennes.

75. Lotus scroll detail on a Melian vase ; from Goodyear, after Conze.

76. Pattern from the ceiling of a tomb, Necropolis of Thebes.

Eighteenth Dynasty ; from Coffey, after Prisse d'Avennes.

77. Pattern from the ceiling of a tomb, Necropolis of Thebes,

Eighteenth to Nineteenth Dynasties ; from Coffey, after
Prisse d'Avennes.

78. Pattern from the ceiling of tomb No. 33, Abd-el-Kourneh, Thebes ;

Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties ; from Coffey, after Prisse
d'Avennes and Goodyear.

79. Pattern from the ceiling of a tomb from Thebes, Seventeenth to

Twentieth Dynasties ; from Coffey, after Prisse d'Avennes.

80. Anthemion and astragal moulding from the Lat at Allahabad ; from

Birdwood, after Fergusson.

81. Saracenic Algerian detail ; from Goodyear, after Ravoisie.

82. Ionic capital of the eastern portico of the Erechtheium.

83. Early form of Ionic capital from Neandreia ; after Clarke.

84. Lotus design from a " geometric " vase from Cyprus ; after Goodyear.

85. Lotus derivative on a vase of the seventh century B.C., from Melos;

from Goodyear, after Conze.

86. Compound flower based on the lotus, Thebes, Eighteenth to

Twentieth Dynasties ; from Goodyear, after Prisse d'Avennes.
^T. Lotus pendant from an Egyptian necklace of the Nineteenth
Dynasty; from Goodyear.

88. Anthemion from the Parthenon.

89. Hypothetical derivation of the " egg-and-dart" moulding, from a

lotus pattern according to Goodyear. A. Lotus anthemion on a
vessel from Rhodes, after Salzmann ; B, c. Lotus anthemia on

XIV IJST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGS.

pottery from Naukratis, after Flinders Petrie ; D. Egg-and-dart
moulding from the Erechtheium ; E. Degraded egg-and-dart
pattern painted on a Grecian vase.

90. Horses etched on an antler from La Madelaine ; from Taylor.

91. Conventional alligator from the "lost colour" ware of Chiriqui ;

after Holmes.

92. Simplified figure of an alligator from the "alligator" ware of

Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

93. Alligator design, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

94. Alligator delineation, greatly modified, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

95. Highly conventionalised alligator derivative, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

96. Series of derivatives of the alligator, showing stages of simplification,

Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

97. Series of alligator derivatives showing modification through use in

narrow zones, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

98. Scroll derived from the body-line of the alligator, Chiriqui ; after

Holmes.

99. Fret derived from the body-line of the alligator, Chiriqui ; after

Holmes.

100. Series of alligator derivatives showing modification through use

within a circular area, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

lOi. Pattern composed of alligator derivatives from a clay drum painted
in the style of the '* lost colour group," Chiriqui; after Holmes.

102. Patterns of the Karaya, Central Brazil ; after Ehrenreich. a.

Lizards ; B. Flying bats ; c. A rattlesnake ; D. A snake, a.
Incised on a grave-post ; B, c, D. Plaited on the handles of
combs.

103. Patterns from Central Brazil; after Von den Steinen. A. Bakairi

paddle ; B-E. Mereschu (fish) patterns of the Aueto ; F. Locust
design, Bakairi ; g. Fish-shaped bull-roarer, Nahuqua ; H.
Stiktiri (snake) and ray patterns ; i. Jiboya (snake) ; K. Agau
(snake); H-i. Bakairi tribe.

104. Patterns derived from bats ; after Von den Steinen. a. Bakairi ;

B, c. Aueto.

105. Bird design, Bakairi, Central Brazil; after Von den Steinen.

106. Rubbing of part of the carved rim of a wooden bowl in the author's

collection. Probably from the Woodlarks or Trobriands, British
New Guinea. One-third natural size.

107. Gourd ; after Holmes.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV

FIGS.

io8. Clay vessel made in imitation of a gourd, from a mound in South-
eastern Missouri ; after Holmes.

109. Clay vessels imitated from shells, from the mounds and graves of
the Mississippi Valley j after Holmes.

no, III. Modified human figures on the shaft of a cross at Ham, near
Ashbourne; after Browne.

112. Pictograph of a lasso, Dakota Winter Count, 1812-13; after

Mallery.

1 13. Alaskan notice of a hunt ; from Mallery, after Hoffman.

114. Pictograph of starving hunters, Alaska; after Mallery.

115. Lean-Wolf 's Map, Hidatsa ; after Mallery.

116. Ivory carving with records, Alaska; after Mallery.

117. Blossom of an Ixora; from Stevens.

118. 119. Magic combs of the Orang S^mang ; from Stevens.

120. Diagram of the uppermost pattern of Fig. 119, with rectification

of that pattern ; from Stevens.

121. Magical pictograph of the Orang-hutan against the slings of

scorpions and centipedes; size of original, 9I inches; from
Stevens.

1 22. Magical device of the Orang Belendas against a skin disease ; size

of original, 19 inches; from Stevens.

123. Rain-charm of the Orang Belendas ; size of the original, io| inches ;

from Stevens.

124. Stretching-cleat of a drum from Mangaia, in the Berlin Museum;

from March, after Stolpe : two-thirds natural size.

125. Rubbings from the handles of symbolic adzes from the Hervey

Islands. A. Free Library Museum, Belfast ; B, c. Belfast Natural
History Museum ; one-third natural size. (Original.)

126. Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Mangaian symbolic paddle,

Norwich Museum ; natural size. (Original)

127. Rubbing of part of the carving of the handle of a symbolic paddle

from the Hervey Islands in the Natural History Museum,
Belfast; one-hilf natural size. (Original.)

128. Rubbing of *' part of the terminal of a paddle-shaped implement

in the Vienna Museum " ; from March, after Stolpe ; two-thirds
natural size.

129. Hut-shaped ossuary; from I. Taylor, Origin of the Aryans.

XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGS.

130. Various forms of Fylfot or Svastika. A. Whorl from Hissarlik
(1987), 7 m., third city, The Burnt City or Ilios; B. Do. (1861),
3^ m., fifth city; c. Do. (1990), 4 m., fifth city; D. Do. (1873);
E. Detail from whorl (1993), 5 ^-y fourth city; F. Lotus
derivative on a large amphora, with * ' geometric " decora-
tion, Cyprus; G. Solar goose and lotus design on a
Rhodian vase, from Salzmann, Nicropole de Caniire; H. Coin
from Selge, Pamphylia ; I. Symbols on Lycian coins ; K.
Triskelion on a Celtiberian coin ; L. On a silver bowl, Etruria ;
also on Chinese ware ; M. Coin from Cnossus, Crete ; N. Ancient
Indian coin ; O. On coin from Ujjan, Central India ; P. Foot-
print of Buddha (so-called), Amaravati Tope, India; R. Thibetian
syn'ibol; s. Roman altar at High Rochester, dedicated to Minerva,
by Lucius Caecilius Optatus ; T. Roman altar at High Rochester,
dedicated to the standards of the faithful of the Varduli by Titus
Licinius Valerianus ; U. Celto-Roman altar at Birdoswald, dedi-
cated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus (lOM), apparently by Dacians
garrisoned in Ambloganna ; the four-rayed wheels were solar
symbols among the Gauls ; w. Ogham stone, Aglish, County
Kerry ; x. Ancient Scandinavian symbols ; Y. Legend on church
bell, Hathersage, Derbyshire, 1617. a-e, p. H. Schliemann,
Ilios; F, G. Goodyear, Gravimar of the LoHts ; H, L, o, x. R.
P.Greg; Arckao/o£ia,x\vni,,i88S; I, K, M, N, R. Count Goblet
d'Alviella, The Aligraiions and Symbols ; s, T, U, w, y. H.
Colley March, Trans. Lane, and Cheshire Anl. Soc, 1886. For
further details the reader is referred to these authors.

SOURCES OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS

Figs. 9-19, 24-30, 33-36, 38-41, 67 were generously placed at my dis-
posal by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy.

All the Plgures from i to 41 (except Figs. 3, 21, 37), and Figs. 42, 44,
51, 66, 67, 106, are either the originals or copies of illustrations
which have appeared in the author's "The Decorative Art of
British New Guinea," Ctmningham Memoir, x., Royal Irish
Acadefuy, i894-

20, 46, 47, 124, 128 were kindly lent by the Council of the Anthropo-
logical Institute. (Fig. 20 is from ih^Journ. Anth. Inst.y vii.,
1878, p. 480, and the others from loc. cit. xxii., 1893, Plate
XXIIL)

52. 69, 103-105 are copied by the kind permission of the author and
publisher from Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens, by
Professor Dr. Karl von den Steinen. Berlin, 1894, Dietrich
Reimer.

53-63, 65, 68, 107-109, 112-116 are copied by permission from the
Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1882-83,
Washington, 1886, and Figs. 91-101 from the Sixth Annual
Report, 1884-85 (1888).

59-61 are from Otis T. Mason, The Origins of Inventions, 1895;
after Holmes.

64 is from the Journal of American Ethnol. and Arch., ii., 1892,
p. 112.

70, 71, 74, 75, 81, 85-87 are copied from Professor Goodyear's The
Grammar of the lotus. Special permission was kindly granted
by Messrs. Gilbert and Rivington to copy Figs. 87, 130 F, which
are original illustrations in the Gravunar.

72, 73 are traced from Prisse d'Avennes, Histoire de VArt E;yptien
d^apres les Monuments, Paris, 1878.

XVIU SOURCES OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGS.

76-79 are from tracings kindly lent by Mr. G. Coffey [Join-n. Roy,
Soc. An/., Ireland, Dec. 1894; after Prisse d'Avennes).

80 is from Sir G. Birdwood's Industrial Arts of India, ii., Fig. 20,
p. 167.

82 is from Ryley's Antiquities of Athens, 1837; after Stuart.

84 is from The Architectural Record, iii., 1894. "The Lotiform
Origin of the Greek Anthemion," p. 274.

90, 129 are from Canon Isaac Taylor's Origin of the Aryans.
102 is copied by permission from Dr. P. Ehrenrcich.
no, III are from some plates specially prepared to illustrate the
Disney Lectures of Professor C. R. Browne, Lent Term,
Cambridge, 1889.
117, 120-123 ^re from the original drawings which illustrated Professor
Griinwedel's account of H. Vaughan Steven's investigations.
Zeitschr. fiir Ethnol.,' \xv., 1893, xxvi., 1894. These were
courteously lent to me by Professor Grlinwedel and the
Redactions Commission. Figs. 118, 119 are from Plate XL,

vol. XXV.

Count Goblet d'Alviella was good enough to permit me to copy the
table on p. 299, from the English edition of The Migration of
Symbols, 1894, A. Constable & Co., Westminster.

All the figures not mentioned above are original.

Plates I. -VIII. were very generously placed at my service by my
friend Dr. H. CoUey March; they previously illustrated "The
Meaning of Ornament, or its Archaeology and its Psychology,"
Trans. Lancashire and Cheshire Ant. Soc.j 1889.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

INTRODUCTION.

Notwithstanding the immense number of books, disserta-
tions, and papers which have been written on pictorial and
decorative art, I venture to add one more to their number.
I profess to be neither an artist nor an art critic, but simply
a biologist who has had his attention turned to the subject
of decorative art. One of my objects is to show that de-\
lineations have an individuality and a life-history which canj
be studied quite irrespectively of their artistic merit.
"7 We are not now concerned with the aesthetic aspect of
the arts of design, nor with those theories of art which
artists and art critics like to discuss, and concerning which
John Collier, in his masterly little Primer of Art, has
expressed himself in no uncertain terms. According to
this author, art_may, speaking broadly, be defined as "a
creative operationjifLthe_^i n^U i ge n ce, the making of some-
thing eitlier with a view to utiUty or pleasure." As a matter
of fact the term " art " now has a tendency to be confined
to designate the Fine Arts as opposed to the Useful Arts;
not only so, but instead of including personal decora-
tion, ornamentation, painting, sculpture, dancing, poetry,
music, and the drama, the term is very often limited to
ornamentation, painting, and sculpture. It is with these
three that we are now more immediately concerned, and

2 EVOLUTION IN ART.

more particularly with the first of them, or decorative art.'
" In this narrower sense art may.be defined as the making
of something to please the eye. ... As to what is pleasing,
that each person must decide for himself."

Art has also a physical and a physiological aspect, such
as " the questions of harmony of line and colour, which lie
at the root of all art." With Dr. Collier, we may leave these
"untouched, not because they are unimportant, but because,
not enough is known about them to make their discussion
in the least profitable."

' I The scope, then, of the following pages is to deal with
/the arts of design from a biological or natural history point
\pf view.\

XlWhen difficult problems have to be investigated the most
satisfactory method of procedure is to reduce them to their
simplest elements, and to deal with the latter before study-
ing their more complex aspects, f The physiology of the
highest animals is being elucidated largely by investigations
upon the physiology of lower forms, and that of the latter
in their turn by a knowledge of the activities of the lowest
organisi^. It is among these that the phenomena of life
are displaced in their least complex manifestations.; and
* they, so to speak, give the key" to a right apprehension of
^the others.

So, too, in studying the arts of design. The artistic
expression of a highly civilised community is a very complex
matter, and its complete unravelment would be an exceed-
ingly difficult and perhaps impossible task. I In order to
gain some insight into the principles which underlie the
evolution of decorative art, it is necessary to confine one's
attention to less specialised conditions; the less the Gem-
's^ plication, the greater the facility for a comprehensive survey.]
.(v! iJin order, therefore, to understand civilised art we must
^ /study barbaric art, and to elucidate this savage art must be
I investigated. iDf course it must be understood that no hard
and fast line can be drawn between any two of these stages

EVOLUTION IN ART. 3

of culture; I employ tljjm merely as convenient general
terms. These are the reasons why I shall confine myself
very largely to the decorative art of savage peoples.

'There are two methods of studying the art of savages; the
one is to take a comparative view of the art of diverse back-
ward peoples; the other is to hmit the attention to a
particular district or people. The former is extremely
suggestive; but one is very liable at times to be led astray C.//.
by resemblances, as I shall have frequent occasion to point
out in the following pages. The latter is in some respects
much more certain in its conclusions, and is the only way
by which certain problems can be solved. In the first part
ofj^t^j^-book I shall adopt the latter plan in order to indicate
Its paimular value, and to afford data for subsequent
discussion. In the remaining parts of the book I shall draw
my illustrations from the most convenient sources, irrespec-
tive of race or locality. I

In my first section the decorative art of a particular
region has been studied much in the same way as a
zoologist would study a group of its fauna, say the birds or
butterflies, i Naturally, the methods of the purely systematic
zoologist neither can nor should be entirely followed, for the
aim in life of the analytical zoologist is to record the fauna of
a district and to classify the specimens in an orderly manner. I
To the more synthetically-minded zoologist the problems of
the geographical distribution of animals have a peculiar
fascination, and he takes pleasure in mapping out the
geographical variations of a particular species and in
endeavouring to account for the diversity of form and
colour which obtains, as well as to ascertain the place of
its evolution and the migrations which have subsequently
taken place. The philosophical student also studies the
development of animals and so learns something of the way
in which they have come to be what they are, and at the
same time light is shed upon genealogies and relationships.

I The beautifying of any object is due to impulses which 0.;»

4 EVOLUTION IN ART.

. are common to all men, and have^xisted as far back as the
period when men inhabited caves and hunted the reindeer
and mammoth in Western Europe.^ The craving for
decorative art having been common to mankind for many

#> thousand years, it would be a very difficult task to deter-
mine its actual origin. \ All we can do is to study the art of
the most bj^kHard.^'eoples, in the hope of gaining sufficient
c.<^* light to cast a glimmer down the gloomy perspective of the
past. I

There are certain needs of man which appear to have
constrained him to artistic effort; these may be con-
veniently grouped under the four terms of Art, Information,
Wealth, and Religion.

jg /. Arf. — ^Esthetics is the study or practice of art for art's
sake, for the sensuous pleasure of form, line, and colour.

* X Information. — It is not easy to find a term which will
express all that should be dealt with in this section. In
order to convey information from one man to another,
when oral or gesture language is impossible, recourse
must be had to pictorial signs of one form or another. It
is the history of some of these that will be dealt with under
this term

y Wealth. — It is difficult to distinguish among savages
between the love of wealth or power. In more organised
societies, power, irrespective of wealth, may dominate men's
minds; and it is probable that, whereas money is at first
sought after in order to feel the power which wealth can
command, later it often degenerates into the miser's greed
for gain. >w

The desire for personal property, and later for enhancing
its value, has led to the production of personal ornaments
apart from the purely aesthetic tendency in the same
direction. There are also emblems of wealth, and besides
these, others of power or authority. The practice of barter
has led to the fixation of a unit of value, and this in time
became represented by symbols — />., money.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 5

'('Religion. — The need of man to put himself into sym-
pathetic relation with unseen powers has always expressed
itself in visual form, and it has gathered unto it the fore-
going secular triad.

Representation and symbolism convey information or
suggest ideas.

Esthetics brings her trained eye and skilled hand.

Fear, custom, or devotion have caused individual or
secular wealth to be directed into other channels, and have
thereby entirely altered its character. The spiritual and
temporal power and authority of religion has also had
immense and direct influence on art.

In a very large number of cases what I have termed the
four needs of man act and react upon one another, so that
it is often difficult or impossible to distinguish between
them, nor do I profess to do so in every case. It is
sufficient for our present purpose to acknowledge their
existence and to see how they may affect the form, decora-
tion, or representation of objects.

Having stated the objects for which these representations
are made, we must pass to a few other general considera-
tions.

It is probable that suggestion in some cases first turned ^
the human mind towards representation. A chance form
or contour suggested a resemblance to something else.
From what we know of the working of the mind of savages,
a mere resemblance is sufficient to indicate an actual
affinity. These chance resemblances have occupied a very
important place in what has been termed sympathetic
magic, and natural objects which suggest other objects are
frequently slightly carved, engraved, or painted in order
to increase the fancied resemblance. A large number of
examples of this can be culled from the writings of mission-
aries and others, or seen in large ethnographical collections.
Mr. H. Balfour 1 has also given one or two interesting
^ H. Balfour, Th^ Evolution of Decorative Arty 1893.

b EVOLUTION IN ART.

illustrations of this process. For example, a stone which
suggests a human face is noted by a native and the
features are slightly emphasised, and ultimately the object
may become a fetich or a charm. The mandrake {Man-
dragora) is very important in sympathetic magic,^ and its
human attributes have been suggested by the two roots
which diverge from a common underground portion, and
which recallthe body and legs of a man; a slight amount
of carving will considerably assist nature and a vegetable
man results.

Suggestion does not operate only at the inception of
a representation or design, but it acts continuously,
and may at various times cause strange modifications to
occur.

ExJ}ecij,incy, as Dr. Colley March has pointed out, has
been a very important factor in the history of art. This is
intimately connected with the association of ideas. If a
particular form or marking was. natural to a^manufactured
object, the same form and analogous marking would be given
to a similar object made in a different manner, and which
w^as not conditioned by the limitations of the formef. For
beautiful and convincing illustrations of the operation of this
mental attitude of expectancy the reader is referred to the
section on skeuomorphic pottery (p. 97). ^

We may regard suggestion and expectancy as the dynamic
and static forces operating on the arts of design; the former
initiates and modifies, the latter tends to conserve w^hat
already exists. ds.-ff)

\ It is the play between these two operations^ which gives

/rise to what may be termed a distinctive ''life-history"

' of artistic representations.

^- A life-history consists of three periods: birth, growth,

^ ; death. The middle period is one w^hich is usually marked

by modifications which may conveniently be grouped under

' P. J. Veth, "De Mandragora," Tnternat. Arch, fiir Ethnogr ^
vol. vii., 1894, p. 199 (with references to the literature).

EVOLUTION IN ART. 7

the term of evolution, as they imply a gradual change or
metamorphosis, or even a series of metamorphoses, i

I For our present purpose we may recognise three stages of , (p
artistic development — origin, evolution, and decay. ^

The vast bulk of artistic expression owes its birth to
realism; the representations were meant to be life-like, or to
suggest real objects; that^ they may not have been so was
owing to the apathy or incapacity of the artist or to the
unsuitability of his materials.

t Once born, the design was acted upon by constraining ' iC'
and restraining forces which gave it, so to speak, an in- 1
dividuality of its own. In the great majority of repre-
sentations the hfe-history ran its course through various
stages until it settled down to uneventful senility; in
some cases the representation ceased to be — in fact it
died. I

\ In the following pages I shall endeavour to trace
the life-history of a few artistic ideas as moulded by q.
sugge^ion and expectancy along the lines of the four
needs, and I have attempted in the accompanying diagram-
to visualise this method of studying art. *

It will be found that the decorative art of primitive folk
is directly conditioned by the environment of the artists;
and in order to understand th^designs of a district, the o.
physical conditions, climate, flora, fauna, and anthropology,
all have to be taken into account ;• thus furnishing another
example of the fact that it is impossible to study any
one subject comprehensively without touching many other
branches of knowledge.

I AH human handiwork is subject to the same operation of ^
external forces, but the material on which these forces act
is also infinitely varied. I The diverse races and people of
mankind have different ideas and ideals, unequal skill,
varied material to work upon, and dissimilar tools to work
with. Everywhere the environment is different. So we get
that bewildering confusion of ideas which crowd upon us

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Auspicious

and

Magical

Signs.

Symboh'sm
and
Conven-
tionalism.

Money.

More or

less
Conven-
tionalised
Models of
Useful
Orna-
ments.

Personal

Orna-
ments and
Objects
emblem-
atic of
Power

or
Status.

Orna-
mented
Usefnl
Objects.

Personal

and

Tribal

Signs or

Symbols.

Conven-
tionalised

or
Abbrevi-
ated
Picto-
graphs.

Alpha-
betical
Signs.

6 »;

a a

Degrada-
tion
resulting
from the
Monstrous
in Art.

Combina-
tions
or
Hetero-
morphs.

1
1

8
«

1
1

Simplifica-
tion
through
repeated
Copying.

Conven-
tional
Treatment

for
Decorative
Purposes.

i.
1

Degenera-
tion of
Pictorial

Art
through
incom-
petent
Copying.

•Avaaa

•MOixaiOAa

•KIOIHQ

UNawdoiaAaa do saovxs

EVOLUTION IN ART. 9

when inspecting a large ethnographical collection or a
museum of the decorative arts.

The conclusion that forced itself upon me is that the
decorative art of a people does, to a certain extent, reflect
their character. A poor, miserable people have poor and
miserable art. Even among savages leisure from th£ cares
of life is essential for the rnlfnre nf nrt. It is too oftep
supposed that all savages are lazy, and have an abundance
of spare time, but this is by no means always the case.
Savages do all that is necessary for life ; anything extra is
for excitement, aesthetics, or religion ; and even if there is
abundance of time for these latter, it does not follow that
there is an equivalent superfluity of energy. The white
man, who has trained faculties and overflows with energy,
is apt to brand as lazy those who are not so endowed. In
the case of British New Guinea it appears pretty evident
that art flourishes where food is abundant. One is perhaps
justified in making t.he general statement that the finer the
man the better the art, and that the artistic skill of a people
is dependent upon the favourableness of their enviVonment.

The relation of art to ethnology is an important problem.
|So far as our information goes, it appears that the same
processes operate on the art of decoration whatever the
subject, wherever the country, whenever the age — another
illustration of the essential solidarity of mankind, i But
there are, at the same time, numerous and often striking
idiosyncrasies which have to be explained. iMany will be
found to be due to what may be termed the accidents of
locality./ Natural forms can only be intelligently repre-
sented where they occur, and the materials at the disposal
of the artist condition his art.

The ethnological aspect of decorative art is too complex a
problem to be solved at present, as sufficient data have not
yet been collected. So far as I am aware. Dr. H. Stolpe of
Stockholm was the first to seriously attack this subject.
It was not until I had definitely entered on the same fine

10 EVOLUTION IN ART.

of research that I found I was following in the footsteps of
the Swedish savant ; fortunately, our work did not really
overlap.

I have elsewhere 1 thrown out the following suggestion : —
" It will often be found that the more pure or the more
homogeneous a people are, the more uniformity will be found
in their art work, and that florescence of decorative art is a
frequent result of race mixture." For although prolific art
work may be dependent, to some extent, upon leisure due
to an abundance of food, this will not account for artistic
aptitude, though in process of time the latter may be a^ result
of the employment of the leisure ; still less will it account
for the artistic motives or for the technique.

The art of a people must also be judged by what they

need not do and yet accomplish. The resources at their

command, and the limitations of their materials, are very

important factors; but we must not, at the same time, ignore

what they would do if they could, nor should we project •ur

own sentiment too much into their work, i In this, as in

/all other branches of ethnographical inquiry, we should

'^' endeavour to learn all we can about them from their own

C' } point of view before it is too late. I At the present stage

knowledge will not be advanced much by looking at laggard

■peoples through the spectacles of old-world civilisation. f

^ Illustialed ArchiEologist^ vol. i , 1893, p. 108.

DECORATIVE ART OF BRITISH NEW GUINEA.

» As stated in the Introductory section, we will commence
our studies of the art of existing savages by a brief account
of the decorative art of a limited area rather than wander - ^
over the earth's surface in order to cull random examples of
ornamentation. • It is not sufficient t® collect patterns or
designs in illustration of a theory; in pursuing such a
course one is, so to speak, as likely to gather tares as
wheat, and they may become inextricably mixed. ' In my
studies I have preferred to limit myself for a time to one o.
particular district, and to gather together all the available
material from that locality, r The region selected was British
New Guinea. By putting together all the objects in our
possession known to come from any one locality, I found
that the technique of the decoration and the style of the
ornamentation were characteristic. It soon became ap-
parent that British New Guinea could be divided into
several artistic regions; and so it became possible to
allocate to a definite district objects in museums whose
exact locality was unrecorded. But this is not sufficient;
it . is one thing to allocate a particular pattern or group of
patterns and designs to their place of origin, but quite
a different matter to trace out the history or significance
of the ornamentation.

In some cases the origin of a design is obvious on the
face of it; in most it is easy to suggest an origin; in others
even the most fertile imagination is at fault. In studies

. 12 EVOLUTION IN ART.

such as these the investigator should restrain from theorising

as far as possible; it is a dangerous game, for more than

one can play at it, and the explanation is as likely to be

wrong as right. The most satisfactory plan is to gather

together as much material as possible, and it will generally

be found that the objects tell their own tale, and all that

has to be done is to record it. When the meaning is not

plain, the fault lies in the imperfection of the series, unless

very great conventionalisation has already occurred, and it is

wiser to wait for authoritative information than to theorise.

I lOne great advantage in the method of confining attention

to a limited area is that similar designs very probably have

, a genetic connection, whereas this is by no means the case

i if objects from different regions are compared togethet.

I have recently i published a somewhat detailed study of
the decorative art of British New Guinea, to which I may
refer the reader who desires to enter into more minute
details. In the following account I shall first sketch the
main characteristics of the art of each aesthetic region, and
finally I shall discuss the influences which act on Jhe
decorative art of these and other districts of New Guinea.

^ Tke Decorative Art of British New Guinea : A Study in Papuan
Ethnography^ Cunningham Memoir, No. x., Royal Irish Academy,
1S94.

I. — Torres Straits and Daudai.

The natives who inhabit the islands of Torres Straits are
a black, frizzly-haired, excitable people, and therefore belong
to the Papuan, as opposed to the Australian stock.

Daudai is the native name for the contiguous coast of
New Guinea, and it forms with the islands one ethno-
graphical province. Between their respective inhabitants
was a regular trade, chiefly in canoes, bows and arrows from
the mainland, and in turtle-shell, pearl shell, and other
marine shells from the islands.

Fig, I. — Bamboo tobacco-pipes ; one-tenlh natural size. Torres Straits.
Drawn by the author from specimens in the British Museum.

Unless otherwise stated, the following description applies
to objects from the Torres Straits islands, the natives of which
appear to be rather more artistic than those of Daudai.

There are two methods of decorating smooth surfaces — (i)
by carving the pattern, the intaglio portion of which is often
filled up with powdered lime (Fig. 2); or (2) the design is
engraved on the surface of the object by means of fine
punctate or minutely zigzag lines (Fig. 5). The former
method is alone applied to wooden objects, and also mainly
to those made of turtle-shell ("tortoise-shell"); the latter is

EVOLUTION IN ART.

\mm

m^^^^^

that employed on bamboo pipes and on many turtle-shell
objects. Unbroken lines are very rarely engraved.

It is characteristic of this district that the patterns are
inscribed within parallel lines, whether it be a comb (Fig. 2)
or a bamboo pipe (Fig. i) which is to be decorated. The
parallel lines are first drawn, and then the pattern is de-
lineated. A noticeable peculiarity is the preponderance of
straight or angled lines to the exclusion of curved lines.
Simple semicircular curves and circles are common, it is
true, but they are not combined into curved patterns;
reversed or looped coils and complex curved lines, such as
scrolls, are completely absent.

The most common pattern is the ubi-
quitous zigzag, and this is pre-eminently
characteristic of this region. The zig-
zag may appear as an angular wavy line,
or each alternate triangle may be left in
relief or emphasised by parallel lines, thus
forming a series of alternate light and
dark triangles, or what is sometimes
termed a tooth pattern. It is obvious
that when several rows of this pattern are
drawn, a triangle of one row will so coin-
cide with that of the contiguous row as to
form a diamond or lozenge. Strange as
it may seem, it appears that this is the
actual way in which even such a simple
form as the lozenge was discovered in
this district. Even now, after generations
upon generations of designers carving the
same simple patterns, the lozenge is very
frequently made by drawing a median
horizontal line parallel to the boundary lines and then
cutting a more or less symmetrical triangle on each side
of it (Fig. 2, third and fifth bands). A herring-bone pattern
(Fig. 2, fourth band) and a few simple combinations of

FrfrtTf

mnfffffr

Fig. 2. — Rubbing
of the handle of
a wooden comb ;
one - half natural
size. Torres
Straits. In the
author's posses-
sion.

EVOLUTION IN ART. I 5

straight or angled lines complete the decorative attempts of
these people.

We often find that a feeling for symmetry prompts the
artist to more or less design his patterns with regard to
the middle-line, although the latter may not be indicated
as such. The same comb offers examples of this.

It must not be imagined that these people do not employ
curved lines in their patterns because they cannot draw
them. On the contrary, when they wish to represent
animals, they can do so with spirit and truthfulness. The
accompanying illustration (Fig. 3) demonstrates a fair
amount of skill and a faculty for seizing upon the salient
features of the animal to be drawn. The diversity of
animals is also noteworthy. Nearly every great group of
animals is represented in native art, and often so faithfully
that it is possible for the naturalist to give the animals their
scientific names.

Fig. 3 illustrates some of the animals delineated by the
natives of Torres Straits. On looking over the rubbings
and tracings of animal drawings from this district which
I have collected, I find that over twenty different kinds of
animals are represented. Like the ancient Peruvians, they
have not disdained to copy jelly-fish (a) and star-fishes (b) ;
^le former appears to be a medusoid belonging to the
Leptomedusae. The remarkable hammer-headed shark (c)
is often represented by these people; the group of two
sharks and a turtle (d) occurs on one of a series of pearl
shells which are fastened to a band; (e) is probably an eagle-
ray; the strange sucker-fish, which is used in fishing, is
shown in (f), the mouth, however, is on the opposite side of
the body to the dorsal-sucker; (g) is a green tree-frog, the
sucker-bearing toes are indicated in a generalised manner;
this is one of two frogs which are placed in the same
position on a bamboo tobacco-pipe, as are the two snakes
(h) on another pipe (cf. Fig. i ) ; the black disc between
them indicates the hole in which the bowl is inserted. A

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 3.— Drawings of animals by the natives of Torres Straits •
one-quarter natural size. '

A^ Jelly-fish; B. Star-fish; c. Hammer-headed shark (Ztw«a) ;
D. Group of two sharks {Charcarodon) and a turtle; e. Eade-rav
[Aeiobahs] ; F Sucker-fish {Echineis naucraies) ; g. Tree-froc. (^W^
co^nka) ; 11. Two snakes on a tobacco-pipe, between them is the hole
in which the bowl is inserted; i. Crocodile {Crocodihis porosus), with
foot-prints; K Cassowary (Casuarim) pecking at a seed [the latter
is unfortunately omitted in the figure], and footprints, cf. Fig. 4 ;
L. Dolphin {Del^/unus) ; m. Dugong [Haluore austra/is) spouting
and indications of waves; n. -^^iive dog {Cams dingo) ; o. Man with
a large mackerel-like fi;h.

A, B, G, H, L, occur on bamboo tobacco-pipes ; c, E, i, K m n o
on drums ; D, F, on pearl shells. ''>»,,,

A, B, H I, L, N, o, British Museum ; c, E, k, Cambridge; g, Oxford ;
D, F, Berhn. & ^ > »

EVOLUTION IN ART. 17

crocodile is seen walking along the ground at (i), and a
ca-ssowary (k) is pecking at a seed; its three-rayed tracks are
also shown (cf. Fig. 4); (l) is a cleverly drawn dolphin, and
(m) is a dugong spouting, and below it the waves are
indicated. The native dog, or dingo, is shown at (n), and
(o) is a man who has caught a large mackerel-like fish; his
belt, arm- and leg-bands are indicated.

As is to be expected among an insular people who are
continually on the sea, there is a preponderance of marine
forms.

It is somewhat remarkable that no case is known of the
delineation of animals in a linear series, or grouped in any
way. They are all scattered about on the objects decorated
with them. The only exceptions to this rule are in the
cases of the drums, pipes, or in a few other objects; in these

Fig. 4. — Drum from Daudai ; 37^ inches long. Sketched by author
from a specimen in the Cambridge Museum.

two precisely similar animals are symmetrically disposed
with regard to the middle line. For example, in the lower
pipe of Fig. I a snake will be seen near the left-hand end,
immediately below the orifice, for the insertion of the bowl
of the pipe, and there is a corresponding snake on the
opposite side. I have also noticed a similar paired arrange-
ment on the backs of four old women. Two women had
scarified upon them a pair of dugong, one a pair of snakes,
and the fourth a pair of objects, which I believe indicated
the sting-ray; now these are three of their totem animals,
and the scars upon the women's backs indicated the clans
to which they severally belonged. As the paired animals
on the drums (Fig. 4) and pipes (Fig. i, b), etc. (Fig. 3), are
known to be totem animals,* it appears probable that the

1 8 EVOLUTION IN ART.

symmetrical disposition of two animals among these people
indicate that they are totem animals, and marks the
object, or rather its owner, as belonging to a particular
clan. This paired arrangement strangely recalls the
" supporters " of our armorial bearings, and there is reason
to believe that these perpetuate in some instances the totem
animals of our savage forefathers.

Another point is worth mentioning. Many of the drums
have engraved on each of their sides the representation of
a cassowary (Fig. 4). I understood that in Mer (Murray
Island) only certain people could beat the drum; thus it
would appear that throughout this district the men of
the cassowary clan, at all events, were the musicians.

Like many other savages, these people are more expert in
depicting animals than men, and the human form is rarely
copied. Human faces are, however, very frequently re-
presented in the wooden and turtle-shell masks for which the
Torres Straits natives are famous, and small wooden human
figures were carved on arrows from the mainland, or as
wooden or stone images to act as charms. For analogous
purposes models of dugong and turtle were carved in wood,
and many of these are really skilfully executed works of
art, while others are merely conventional renderings, with a
minimum amount of labour expended upon them.

The great dance-masks, to which mention has just been
made, are sometimes very elaborate objects, and the animal
forms, which are often used in combination with the human
face, are doubtless symbolic, but of their meaning we are
ignorant. Various sharks, such as the hammer-headed shark
and the saw-fish, the crocodile and a sea-bird, are very
commonly represented.

The association of a human being and crocodile is shown
in Fig. 5, which is taken from a rubbing of a bamboo
tobacco-pipe (the white spot in the centre indicates the
hole for the insertion of the bowl). Only the face and
arms of the man are represented. This design is repeated

EVOLUTION IN ART.

four times on the same
object. The figure also
illustrates a concentric
treatment of designs which
appears to be characteristic
of the mainland near the
mouth of the Fly River.

From about the same
district where the last
object came from are made
the carved wooden arrows,
which are traded by the
natives to the islanders
of Torres Straits, and
which may be found in
many of our ethnographical
museums. All the arrows
formerly used in Torres
Straits were imported from
the mainland of New
Guinea. Of these there
were many kinds : some
were quite plain, others
had simple wooden barbs,
while others again had
bone barbs; it is only with
these latter that I am now
dealing.

No two of these arrows
are precisely alike, but they
fall into four main groups —
(i) undecorated, or with an
occasional simple band pat-
tern below the barbs; (2)
those with the figure of a
man carved upon them;

Fig. 5. — Rubbing of part of the
decoration of a bamboo to-
bacco-pipe, probably from the
mouth of the Fly River; one-
third natural size, in the Liver-
pool Museum. In the original
the lines show dark on a light
ground.

20 EVOLUTION IN ART.

(3) those with a representation of a crocodile; and finally

(4) those with simple patterns, which usually have a longi-
tudinal direction.

I will confine myself to the third group, and will illustrate
only a few of the numerous variations which occur; these
will suffice to indicate what sort of modifications take place,
and will enable any one to interpret the carving on the
majority of arrows belonging to this class which may be
met with in a museum.

The Crocodile Arroiv aiid ils Derivatives. — This class of
arrows forms a very interesting series, as it becomes greatly
modified. At one end of the series we have an easily
recognisable crocodile; at the other we have a lizard, or a
well-marked snake; and possibly even this may degenerate
into the simplest patterns.

{a.) The Crocodile and its Dege?ierafe Forms. — In front of
the main design there are usually a few barbs, much as in
the "man-arrow," but these barbs may be considerably
increased in number in the more degenerate type, or they
may be altogether absent.

It is desirable to first describe a typical crocodile-arrow;
and it will be necessary to call attention to certain well-
marked divisions of the total representation : these are the
snout, the head and neck (from the eyes, inclusive, to the
fore-limbs), the fore-limbs, the trunk, the hind-limbs, and
the tail.

(i.) The snout is plain; above, at the anterior extremity,
are two elevations, which are meant for the prominent
valvular nostrils of the crocodile. Occasionally one is
placed behind the other (Fig. 6, a), instead of their being
side by side, or even but one may be present. Laterally
the jaws and teeth are usually characteristically rendered.
In one arrow (Fig. 6, b), the teeth of the upper jaw on one
side have, by an easy transition, been transformed into a
zigzag line. The underside of the snout and head is
ornamented with lines and dots which may have a longi-

EVOLUTION IN ART. 21

tudinal or transverse arrangement, or both may occur, as in
Fig. 6, B.

(2.) The head and neck, like the snout, are plain above,
except for an occasional representation of scales on the
neck (Fig. 6, c), and the ventral ornamentation is a continua-
tion of that of the underside of the snout. The eye is
triangular, with the apex behind, rarely oval, as in Fig. 6, c;
a band-pattern, usually a zigzag, which is always distinguish-
able from the ventral ornamentation, extends from the eye
to the fore-limb.

(3.) The region of the fore-limb has generally the greatest
thickness of the whole arrow. The limbs often arise from
an ornamental band (Fig. 6, a), which represents the
prominent scutes in this region of the real animal. The
fore-limbs first project backwardly, and then run forwards
towards the middle ventral line. The toes are usually
indicated by transverse lines.

(4.) The trunk has usually a row of chevrons or diamonds
running along the dorsal and ventral median lines; the
lateral ornamentation usually consists of transverse lines,
separated by rows of spots; sometimes these run longi-
tudinally.

(5.) The hind-limbs may be separated dorsally by a
triangular area (Fig. 6, a), or by a row of tubercles (Fig. 6, e).
The limbs invariably bend forwards, and then backwards.
The enclosed angle contains a row of spots or rarely a plain
ridge.

(6.) Typically the tail is ornamented with three, occasion-
ally two, dorsal rows of tubercles. The median row is a
continuation of the median series, or the triangular area
above noted; sometimes the median row is directly
continuous with the central series on the back of the
trunk. The lateral rows start from the insertions of the hind-
limbs (Fig. 6, A, E, d). Beneath there is a large quadrangular
plate, ornamented with concentric lines, the sides of which
often extend up to the dorso-lateral angle of the tail.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

E. D.

:N»Mi/
Si

• il

C. B. A.

Fig. 6. — Series of arrows from Torres Straits, collected and sketched
by the author, and presented by him to the Cambridge Museum j
one-third natural size.

EVOLUtiON IN AkT. 2j

On comparing a number of crocodile-arrows with the
animal itself, one is struck with the numerous reaHstic«^
details which have survived the decorative treatment of
the design. It must be remembered that one is dealing
with a work of decorative art, and not an attempt at
realistic carving. In one arrow several anatomical char-
acteristics of the crocodile will be suggestively rendered;
in a second other details will be more accurately carved;
but in the great majority of arrows belonging to this series,
variation has occurred to such an extent that the crocodile
becomes almost unrecognisable as such.

A very typical crocodile arrow is to be seen in Fig. 6, a;
the chief variation in this is the placing of one nostril
behind the other.

In Fig. 6, B, the nostrils are side by side, and the teeth of
the upper jaw are represented by a zigzag line. The hind-
limbs and the tail are entirely absent.

Fig. 6, c, is important in several respects. The nostril is
single, the mouth is partially closed; but the teeth have
not, as yet, entirely disappeared from the hinder closed
moiety. The eye is oval, a rare feature, and the dorsal
scales of the neck are represented; this is also rare. The
fore-limbs have been converted into a raised zigzag band,
which encircles the arrow. The hind-limbs do the same,
except that the pattern is interrupted in the median dorsal
line by a double row of tubercles, which represent the
prominent dorsal scutes of this region in the living animal.
The thigh is carved with a curved upper border and a
straight lower border.

There is rather a gap in the series between Fig. 6, c and D;
but it is easy to see that the hinder part of the mouth is
closed, and the teeth, of both jaws are represented by
different patterns; the front part of the mouth is widely
open, but edentulous. The nostril is single. The eye has
become enormously enlarged, and constitutes what I pro-
pose to term an eye-panel; it extends backwardly to the

24 EVOLUTION IN ART.

lore-limb. The plain upper surface of the head and neck
has become much reduced, owing to the encroachment of
a double row of spots on each side. The artist mistook
the upper for the lower surface when he carved the fore-
limbs, for it will be seen that the toes are above and
the dorsal scutes are placed below. Another point of
interest is the replacing of the central row of caudal
scutes by a plain ridge; so far as I am aware this is *
^ unique.

Fig. 6, E, is a type of a large number of arrows. The
front open part of the mouth is quite small, and the
surfaces of the jaws are scored by oblique lines. The
median dorsal plain band of the snout is no wider than the
lateral bands which indicate the closed hinder part of the
mouth. In the gape of the mouth an elongated triangle is
very generally present; this is doubtless intended to repre-
sent a tongue. Sometimes it is notched. The eye-panels
are elongated and narrow, and the dorsal median band of
the head and neck extremely reduced. The rest of the
body in this arrow calls for no special mention. Sometimes
eyes are carved on the dorsal surface of the gaping end of
the upper jaw.

In the last arrow (Fig. 6, f) of the series which I figure,
the front part of the mouth has disappeared; but the
hinder part of the head is much the same as in the last
arrow. The fore-limbs and body are absent. The hind-
limbs are narrow, but retain their characteristic forward
bend; the dorsal caudal scutes are replaced by numerous
parallel transverse lines. J

Two features of the innumerable modifications of this '
design are worthy of special allusion, the one is the remark-
able retention of the projecting nostril, which may often be
'' found as a slight prominence in very degraded arrows ; and
the other is the still greater persistence of the tail and hind- I
quarters of the crocodile. I suspect that the striking decora- '
tive effect of the concentrically marked cloacal plate has

EVOLUTION IN ART.

HHI

led not only to the retention of that part, but also to that
of the neighbouring organs.

{b.) The Snake Variety. — We now pass on to
a small group in which the open front part of
the mouth of such an arrow as Fig. 6, e, has
suggested a complete head, and so eyes are
aHSed (Fig. 7) ; the rest of the snout, the head
and fore-limbs are omitted; the body is much
elongated, but the hind legs and tail are usually
quite normal, or subject to merely minor varia-
tions; the patterns may run transversely as in
the figure, or longitudinally. Such a carving
irresistibly calls to mind a snake; the natives
themselves told me it was a snake.

The tail and hindquarters, however, proclaim
the crocodilian original. In this group of arrows
we have a very interesting example of the tran-
sition from one kind of animal into another; but
hitherto I have not seen a snake-arrow which
has lost all trace of its saurian ancestry.

{c.) The Lizard Variety. — A few arrows are
known to me which pretty closely resembleTig.
6, E, except that the hind-limbs are elongated
and slender, and the tail is not crocodilian.
The body is depressed and lozenge-shaped in
section. In other words, the body, hind legs,
and tail are lacertilian in character. In these
arrows, the crocodile has been confounded with
a lizard.

Other illustrations of the decorative art of
these people will be found in Figs. 44, 66; but as
these examples illustrate other aspects of the
subject, I have described them in the relating
sections of this book and refrain from repeating them here.

Fig. 7.

Snake - arrow
from Torres
Straits (cf.
FiV. 6).

IL— The Fly River.

The Fly River is the largest river in New Guinea. It rises
from about the area where the Dutch, German, and British
territories abut, and flows into the western side of the Gulf
of Papua. For a great part of its course it flows through
low-lying and often swampy country, which is but sparsely
inhabited, except in the delta region. For our present
purpose we need only consider the delta and the middle
region of the river. Owing to the carelessness of collectors,
it is very difficult to determine from what exact district many
objects labelled " Fly River " actually come.

The largest island in the delta of the Fly River is Kiwai,
and this contains several villages. Almost the only objects
which can be safely referred to Kiwai are the tubular drums
with " jaws " at one end. There can be but little doubt that
the carving represents the head of the crocodile, just as in
the large Torres Straits and Daudai drum the "jaws" prob-
ably are derived from the same reptile. The carving on
the Kiwai drums is boldly executed, and usually filled in
with red and white pigment.

So far as I can discover, the etching on the bamboo
tobacco-pipes is similar in many respects to that on those
from the previous district, but the zigzag lines are usually
much coarser, and the punctate line is either rare or
absent.

In some of the islands in the delta of the Fly River, at
Daumori for example, carved wooden slabs, more or less
ovoid in contour, are suspended on the front of a house for
good luck; some of these are also employed as figure-heads
for canoes to ensure successful voyages. They have carved

EVOLUTION IN ART. 2/

upon them conventional human faces, and occasionally
whole figures, accompanied by simple patterns. ^

Middle District of the Fly jRiver.— The most extensive
collection of objects at present in Europe from the interior

Fig. 8. — Rubbing of one side of the decoration of a drum from the Fly
River, in the Museum at Rome ; one-fourth natural size.

of New Guinea along the Fly River is that in the museum
in Rome. These were " collected " by Signor d'Albertis,

' I hope to publish shortly a paper in the Internationales Archiv fiit
Ethnographies on the designs which are incised on the skin of these
natives.

28 EVOLUTION IN ART.

mainly at what he named " Villaggio dei cocchi," which is
probably the same place reached by Sir William MacGregor
on January 7th, 1890; it is situated about 380 miles from
the mouth of the river.

The drums from this district differ in shape from those
from other parts of the Possession, and a somewhat elaborate
ornamentation is carved on them in low relief. The means
do not at present exist for elucidating the significance of
these designs (Fig. 8), which are compounded of crescentic
lines, leaf-like and triradiate elements and spirals. Some
of the figures certainly look as if they were intended to
represent leaves ; if this is the case, it may be due to some
influence from the north, for we find that leaf-designs are
employed in the north of Netherlands New Guinea. Dr.
M. Uhle 1 states that " the influence of the plant ornamenta-
tion of the East Indian Archipelago is also found in West
New Guinea. Although it is essentially characteristic of
the western portion of the East Indian Archipelago, isolated
examples are not wanting in the ornamentation of the
eastern." He thinks he can trace the plant motive in
South-West New Guinea as far as Wamuka River.

The bamboo pipes are also decorated in a characteristic
manner, the pattern being caused by a local removal of the
skin of the bamboo, so that it shows darker against a light
background. There is usually considerably more regularity
in the decoration than occurs on the drums.

^ " Holz- unci Bambus-Gerathe aus Nord West Neu Guinea," Ptib-
licaiionen aus dem Koniglichen Ethuographiscen Museum zu Dresdetiy
vi., 1886.

III.— The Papuan Gul7.

We have no information concerning the decorative art of
the greater portion of the Httoral of the Papuan Gulf, but
from two rubbings sent to me by my friend, Mr. Robert
Bruce, in 1894, it appears that the human face is largely
represented. In Fig. 9 we see that simplified faces con-
stitute a pattern which adorns a canoe.

At the eastern side of the bight of the Gulf of Papua
there is a very energetic, boisterous people of dark com-
plexion, who inhabit the vicinity of Freshwater Bay. Their

« Bf

J^frilUfci^ft il

Fig. 9. — Rubbing of part of a caived pattern, along a canoe from
near Cape Blackwood. Taken by R. Bruce, 1894. One-sixth
natural size.

best known village is Toaripi (Motu Motu) ; the term Elema
includes this and other tribes in the neighbourhood.

The district is fertile, wooded, and well-watered. Sago is
abundant, and fleets of trading canoes sail annually to and
from the Motu tribe of Port Moresby to exchange pottery
for sago.

The decorative art of this district is 5o characteristic that
it is impossible to mistake it. Objects of wood are cut in
flat relief, and those made of bamboo are similarly treated,
the design being emphasised by the colouring of the intaglio.
The vast majority of the designs are derived from the human
figure, and most particularly the face. There are very few
designs which cannot be traced to this origin; occasionally a
crocodile or a lizard may be introduced.

30 EVOLUTION IN ART.

The employment of masks during sacred ceremonies,
which was such a notable feature of Torres Straits, recurs
here also to an equal degree, but instead of the masks being
made in wood or turtle-shell, they are constructed of a light
framework on which is stitched the inner bark of a tree.
The device is outlined by cloissons of the midrib of a leaf,
and the figures are picked out in red and black, and the
background is usually painted white. This cloissonee tech-
nique is peculiar to this district, and it appears to have
affected also the method of carving patterns in wood.

The form and decoration of these masks is so varied that
it would be tedious to describe them. In the majority
of them a human face is readily recognisable, but in some
of the larger examples it has practically become lost. In
nearly all, instead of a human mouth, the mask is provided
with a long snout, the jaws of which are usually numerously
toothed. There can be little doubt that this represents a
crocodile's snout. Almost wherever it occurs, the crocodile
or alligator, as the case may be, enters into the religion of
people, doubtless, primarily, on account of its size and
predatory habits. It is very frequently a totem, as, for
example, in Torres Straits, and it is very probable that here
also its presence in conjunction with the human form is
symbolic of a totemistic relation between the man and the
reptile. We know extremely little about the use, and
nothing of the significance, of the masks of this region, but
it appears that their use is in connection with the initiation
of the lads into manhood, and a common feature of initia-
tion is the associat^ion of the totem with the individual.
Some masks represent what appears to be intended for a
pig's head; a bird and other forms may also be introduced.
Occasionally a human head may be given to a grotesque
animal form.

The shields are oblong or ovoid in shape, and have a
central slit cut out at the top. Most of the former are
decorated with an easily recognisable human face ; some

EVOLUTION IN ART. 3 1

times the face is doubled, but in these cases it is only the
nose and mouth that are repeated, a single pair of eyes
having to do duty for the two faces. The faces are subject
to considerable modification, the two eyes, or even only a
single eye may alone be recognisable.

Characteristic of typical New Guinea villages are large
houses which men alone may enter. Here the lads who
are being initiated into manhood are lodged, here the masks
and other sacred objects are kept; they combine the offices
of clubs, guest-houses, and religious edifices. In this dis-
trict, as well as in the Fly River delta, they are usually
decorated with human and animal carvings, and in them are
suspended wooden slabs of an elongated oval shape, which
are carved in a similar manner to the shields. These tablets
appear to be employed as charms for good-luck, but we do
not know whether they are also used in the initiation cere-
monies; they are decorated with extremely conventional
representations of the human form, or may be only a face ;
sometimes monstrous combinations of a man and animal
may be carved.

When men have passed through all the stages of initiation,
they are entitled, so Mr. Chalmers informs us, to wear
broad, carved wooden belts. These belts encircle the body
thrice, and like many other symbols of distinction must be
extremely inconvenient to wear. I have made rubbings of
quite a considerable number of these belts, and have come
across only a few in which human faces could not be
distinguished.

The design is so engraved that the pattern is in flat relief;
this is kept dark in colour, and shows up against the
whitened background. Certain details of the design are
often picked out in red, the exposed uncarved portion of
the belt and most usually the narrow plain border above
and below the pattern are painted red. The design com-
mences at't)ne end of the belt, and terminates when one
circumference is nearly attained.

33 EVOLUTION IN ART.

There is a wonderful diversity of pattern in these belts,
yet, at the same time, there is a fundamental similarity in
the style of the designs which clearly indicates a community
of origin. A very considerable proportion of the belts
known to me exhibit a true decorative taste on the part of
artists, and in some cases pleasing and ingenious patterns
have been evolved. It may not be superfluous to point out
that, whereas "eye-spots" are usually intended for eyes,
they are sometimes employed as an appropriate decorative
device; similarly toothed lines may represent human
teeth, rarely hair, and not infrequently they are purely
ornamental.

I have made a selection of ten of these belts which
sufficiently illustrate their character and the sort of modi-
fication which occurs. Figs, ii to 19 are photographed
from rubbings of part of tlie decoration of wooden belts
from the Papuan Gulf. Fig. 10 represents the whole of the
ornamentation. All are one-fourth natural size.

Classification of Carved Patterns on Wooden Belts
FROM the Gulf of Papua.

Human Face Derivatives.

Series I. — Uniserial, Vertical.

1. Faces looking the same way.

2. Faces alternately looking up and down.

Series II. — Uniserial, Horizontal.

1. Faces looking the same way.

2. Faces alternately looking towards and away from

one another.
{a) All faces separate.
{b) Faces looking towards one another grouped

together.
{c) Faces looking away from one another grouped

together.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 33

Series III. — Biserial, Vertical.

1. Faces only looking towards one another.

2. Faces only looking away from one another.

3. Faces alternately looking towards and away from

one another.

(a) All faces of equal size.

(b) Faces looking towards one another most

prominent.

prominent.
Series IV. — Biserial, Horizontal.
Series V.— Triserial (ii. + iii.).

I. Vertical faces looking towards one another.

1. Horizontal faces looking the same way.

2. Horizontal faces alternately looking towards or

away from one another.

(a) All faces of equal size.

(b) Vertical faces monopolising pattern.

{a) Horizontal faces separate.

(b) Horizontal faces looking towards one

another grouped together.
{c) Horizontal faces looking away from one

another grouped together.

{a) Horizontal faces separate.

{b) Horizontal faces looking towards one

another grouped together.
(<r) Horizontal faces looking away from one
another grouped together.
II. Vertical faces lookijig away from one another.

I. Single row of faces disposed vertically^ the faces alternately
looking up and down.
Fig. 10 is a reduced rubbing of the whole of the
ornamentation of a belt; to the left will be seen a face

EVOLUTION IN ART.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 35

with two eyes, a nose, and a large red mouth beset with
teeth. The next face has only one eye, while the other
two faces are eyeless, and there is nothing distinctive
about their noses.

II. Sifigle row of faces disposed hor'izojiially.

(i.) The faces looking the same way. — The belt of Fig. ii
has four faces, which are as degenerate as those in the last
example ; three of these look one way, and the fourth,
which is at one end of the pattern, looks in the opposite
direction. It is not unusual for a face to be carved at each
end of the decorated portion of a belt, and as these faces
almost always look towards the pattern, the anomaly of one
face in this belt looking a different way from the remainder

Fio. 12 — Kerrama, Berlin Museum.

is apparent rather than real. But the most interesting
feature in this belt is the meander or fret pattern. The
extremely degenerate face appears to be, as in. Fig. lo, a
red mouth containing an eye-spot ; the central chevron
also occurs in Fig. 19, where it represents the nose.

(2.) The faces aliemaiely /ooki?ig towards and away from
one another. — I will omit examples in which {a) all the faces
are separate, and {b) the faces looking towards one another are
grouped together, and pass on to (c) the faces looking away from
one another afe grouped together. An elegant example of this
is seen in Fig. 1 2. The two pairs of eyes of the two faces
which are turned away from each other are represented
by a single eye from which a horizontal line extends on

36 EVOLUTION IN ART.

either side to the two mouths ; each line represents a nose,
the nostrils of which are placed quite close to the eye.
The eyes are surrounded by simple red areas. The spaces
between the mouths, above and below the eye (speaking
in terms of the belt, and not of the faces), are occupied
by additional mouths, which are evidently inserted from
a sense of symmetry; that they are supplemented, and not
essential, is proved by the absence of any nasal line con-
necting them with the eye. The spirals below each mouth
occur on several shields.

An interesting belt (Fig. 13) exhibits quite a different
modification of the same motive. The pattern consists of
a series of eight-rayed figures with bent arms, and a central

Fig.

Biiush Museum.

eye-spot. A comparison of these figures with the eyes on
masks, and other objects from this district, proves that the
six rays are but a symmetrical coalescence of two pairs
of eye-areas. 1 The angled double lines are clearly those
prolongations of the eye-area which in many cases tend to
enclose the mouth, and which probably represent the cheek-
folds; and thus they demonstrate the interpretation that
each star is derived from two horizontal faces which are
looking away from each other, and of which nothing
remains but a confluent eye-area, enclosing a single eye.
The terminal faces are sufficiently normal ; but if two such
faces were placed back to back, and the eye-areas were
1 I have adopted the term "eye-area" to denote the eye device,
which includes the eye, the eye-lashes, and often the cheek-fold of that
side.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 37

confluent, and the four eyes fused into one, and finally the
nose and mouth were eliminated, we should have star-like
figures resembling those which do occur. If a reflector
is placed across the eyes in the terminal face in Fig. 13
(at right angles to the plane of the paper, and across the
long axis of the belt) a star-like figure can be seen, which
is very similar to those in the rest of the belt. This is one
of the few belts that have no border pattern.

III. Double row of faces disposed vertically.

(i.) The faces only looking towards one another. — In
the belt represented in Fig. 14 there is a double row of

Fig. 14. — British Museum.

faces which are placed vis-a-vis. The figure illustrates
varying degrees of degeneracy in the faces ; each space
between a pair of faces is occupied by a large red star with
a central eye-spot. The representation of a lizard on this
.belt is noteworthy.

(2.) The faces only looking away front one another. — In
Fig. 15 it is evident that we have a double series of
faces which are placed back to back ; the two pairs of eyes
are represented by a central eye. The noses and mouths
of the different faces are joined together and constitute a
fairly regular pattern.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

(3) The faces alternalely looking toivards and away from
one another, — In this series the faces may all be equally
developed, or those facing one another may be most pro-
minent, or, on the other hand, those looking away from
one another may monopolise the design.

A simple modification of the subdivision in which the
faces are all equal is to be found in Fig. 16. In this case
the two eyes of each face have amalgamated, and a short

Fig. 15. — Toaripi (Author's Collection).

Berlin Museum.

line represents the nose ; but their disposition is still typical.
The oblique lines uniting the noses are evidently the remains
of the mouths of their respective faces ; a tooth-pattern may
be present or absent. The chevrons merely fill up the
vacant angles. The terminal face is represented by a red
three-rayed area, containing an eye-spot.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 39

IV. Double roiv of faces disposed honzontally.
No example of this arrangement is known to me.

V. Treble row of faces.

This is a composite series which is composed of Series II.
and III. It resolves itself into two main groups, the second
of which, so far as I am aware, is represented by only a
single specimen.

(I.) Vertical faces looking towards one another. — Owing
to the variety of their component elements the patterns in
this series of belts are liable to considerable variation, but
there is no need to enter into an analysis of the possible
modifications.

In Fig. 17 we have an exanaple of the preponderance of
the horizontal faces, while some of the vertical faces are
extremely degraded.

Fig. 17. — Maiva, Berlin Museum.

Fig. 18 represents a condition in which the vertical
faces are monocular; the line beneath the eye is evidently
the suggestion of a nose, and the angled dentate line indi-
cates the mouth with its teeth. All these faces are equally
developed. The horizontal series of faces belong to Series
IF,, 2, b^ as the faces looking towards 'one another are
grouped together. In the centre of each space between
a pair of vertical faces is a mouth which has to do

EVOLUTION IN ART.

l®<

l®i

duty for two horizontal faces; on each side of this is a hori-
zontal line which is a vestigial nose, the arrow-head figure
on which indicates the nostrils. The
eye between the mouths of the vertical
faces represents two pairs of eyes of the
horizontal series.

(II.) Vertical faces lookitig away from
one atiother. — The only belt with which
I am acquainted which probably belongs
to this subdivision of the series is that re-
produced in Fig. 1 9. The design is more
regular and sustained than is usually
. the case on these belts. The vertical
§ series of faces is represented by a median
3 series of fused mouths and eyes; the
^ chevron band indicates the nose, on
"^ which nostrils may be located close
2 to the mouth or close to the eye. The
S eyes of the vertical series of faces are
'. enclosed within confluent eye-areas;
"^ the median nose-line runs to the
^ border pattern of the belt, but there
is no trace of a mouth. The border
pattern is, I believe, unique on belts.

The bamboo tobacco-pipes are orna-
mented by scraping away some of the
rind of the bamboo and colouring the
intaglio portions with brown pigment ;
in these also the designs are based on
human faces and their derivatives ;
sometimes the human form is employed,
and occasionally zoomorphs are de-
picted.

It would be tedious to describe all the objects which are
decorated by these artistic people ; enough examples have
been given to illustrate the style of their art. We cannot

101

EVOLUTION IN ART.

at present say why anthropomorphs should predominate in
so marked a degree. I suspect it has something to do with
the importance of initiation ceremonies combined with the
ancestor cult, which is a marked feature of the true Papuans.

Fig. 19. — Museum of the London Missionary Society.

I would also hazard the conjecture that animal totemism is
not of such prominence amongst these people as it was
recently in Torres Straits, and still is on the neighbouring
coast of New Guinea and in Australia.

IV. — The Central District.

In Yule Island, and in the vicinity of Hall Sound, and
right away down the coast of New Guinea as far as Cloudy
Bay, we come across a fairly uniform and rather uninterest-
ing type of decorative art.

The designs are burnt into bamboo tobacco-pipes or
gourds, "with a glowing slice of the sheathing leaf of the
coco-nut kept almost at a white heat by the native artist
blowing upon it. The end of the glowing ember forms a
fine point, which on being slowly moved along the desired
lines leaves indelible tracks." (Lindt, Picturesque Neiv
Guinea^ 1888, p. 34.) In Cloudy Bay the natives scratch
the design on the rind of the bamboo before charring it;
this tends to limit the burning, and to give a hard edge to
the lines. Here also the designs run along the length of
the pipes in distinct bands ; in other parts of the Central
District longitudinal bands are broken by encircling bands,
and are often replaced by panels.

The employment of isolated, rectangular panels is very
characteristic of this district. On such objects as tobacco-
pipes the panels must from necessity follow one another
more or less serially, but they need not be co-ordinated into
a definite pattern. When larger surfaces are ornamented,
as, for example, the bodies of women (Fig. 20, a, b), the
panels may also be somewhat irregularly disposed ; but
^there is a tendency, at all events in some places (as in
the figure), for the designs to have an orderly and sym-

EVOLUTION IN ART.

metrical arrangement, but in no case is there absolute
symmetry.

A common form of panel is the Maltese cross (Fig.

Fig. 20, A. — Drawing of Tabula,

a Motu girl, by Rev. W.

• Y. Turner, M.D. (from

Joitrn. Anth. Inst., vii.,

1878, Fig. 4, p. 480).

B — Back view of the
same. (The hair of this
girl is incorrectly drawn,
it should be frizzly and
not wavy.)

21, H, i); perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as
a light St. Andrew's cross on a dark rectangular panel. A
combination of light St. George's and St. Andrew's crosses

4'4

EVOLUTION IN ART.

oh dark fields is very frequent ; the arras of the latter cross
often become leaf-like, and may monopolise the field. (Fig.
21, E, F.) Some travellers have suggested that these designs
are derived from the Union Jack, but this is not the case.
Another kind of panel is that shown in Fig. 2 1, G. Fig. 2 1, d,
illustrates one form of a common type of band pattern.

Fig. 21. — A. Design on a lime-gourd from Kerepimu ; B. Part of the
decoration of a pipe from Maiva ; c. Detail on a pipe from
Kupele, in the Berlin Museum ; D-l. Designs on pipes— G from
Kupele (Berlin), H, I, from Koiari (Berlin). All the Figs, are
to different scales.

One of the most widespread of the isolated designs is
that shown in Fig. 21, A, b, and Fig. 22, but it is subject to
many variations. Similar designs are tattooed on people
below the armpit or on the shoulder. Now that attention
has been called to this and other designs, we shall probably
learn what significance is attached to them. Occasionally

EVOLUTION IN ART.

we find what appear to be undoubted plant motives on
pipes and other objects from this district, as, for example,
on a pipe from Kupele in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 21, c),
and it is probable that the designs just
alluded to are also plant derivatives.

Throughout this district, especially
along the coast, the women are tat-
tooed, and in some localities they are
entirely covered with tattoo marks.
The men are much less tattooed than
the women.i The designs employed
are for the most part the same as
those used to decorate pipes and
gourds. The angled design tattooed
on the chests of women (Fig. 20, a, b)
is found on a pipe in the Cambridge
Museum. (Fig. 22.)

Noticeable features in the decorative
art of this district are the preponder-
ance of straight lines over curved lines;
as well as the occurrence of dotted
lines and of very short lines, which
form a kind of fringe to many of the
lines. (Figs. 21, 22, 51.)

Very remarkable also is the ab-
sence of the delineation of the human
or of animal forms. Bounded on the
north-west by a luxuriant art based
on human faces and forms, and limited ^^""K °^ }^'^. decoration

of a pipe in the Cam-

to the south-east by bird-scrolls and bridge Museum; one-
bird and crocodile derivatives, not sixth natural size.

^ According to Mr. A. C. English, Government Agent for the Rigo
District, among the Sinaugolo tribe, the design Fig. 21, D, is called
mulavapuli, and is tattooed on both sexes as a distinction for taking
life; Fig. 21, H, i, biubiu, have a similar value; the angled chest-
marks (Fig. 20, A, b) are called boaroko. {Ann. Rep. British New
Guinea^ 1893-94, pp. 68, 69.)

'^^

Fig. 22.

46 EVOLUTION IN ART.

to mention human effigies and representations of various
animals, these central folk are unaffected by these two very
distinct forms of artistic activity. The only exceptions, so
far as my evidence goes, is in the transitional country north
of Hall Sound, and a few carvings of crocodiles in certain
tabu houses or duhus.

The rigid conservatism of the native mind is the sheet-
anchor of the ethnographer; no better example of this
mental rigidity is needed than is supplied by the Motu
people who live in the vicinity of Port Moresby. The
women mak^ large quantities of pottery, which the men
trade for sago up the Papuan Gulf even to a distance of
two hundred miles. Three or more canoes lashed together
and fitted with crates constitute a trading canoe or lakatoi.
A fleet of twenty lakatoi carrying about six hundred men,
each of whom would take about fifty pots, has been known
to sail from Port Moresby. The 20,000 or 30,000 exported
pots will bring in exchange a cargo of 150 tons, or more,
of sago. Notwithstanding this great annual trading, the
decorative art of the Motu is absolutely untouched by that
of the Gulf natives, or vice versa; the artistic motives,
scheme of decoration, and technique are entirely different.

It seems probable that many of the decorated objects
that are labelled in European museums as coming from
this district are the work of the hill tribes, or of that coast
population which does not belong solely to the Motu and
allied tribes.

(^OWj

REESE i,^

V. — The Massim District.

The country at the extreme south-east end of New Guinea
round Milne Gulf, together with the neighbouring groups of
islands, constitutes a natural province to which I have pro-
posed to extend the name Massim. For the history of this
term the reader is referred to Professor Hamy's paper,
"Etude sur les Papouas de la Mer d'Entrecasteaux "
{J^ev. d'Ethnogr.^ vii., 1888, p. 503). The various archi-
pelagoes which collectively constitute this district are —
(i) The Moresby Group, including all the islands between
Milne Gulf and Wari (Teste Island); (2) the Louisiade
Group, including Misima, Tagula (Sudest), and all neigh-
bouring islands ; (3) the D'Entrecasteaux Group, including
Duau (Normanby Island), Goodenough, and the other
islands; (4) the Trobriand Group, the largest island in
which is Kiriwina; and (5) the Woodlark Group (Murua,
etc.), and including Nada (the Laughlan Islands). There \
is a considerable amount of indigenous trade between these )
islands. For example, the Nada folk make annual trading
voyages to Murua to exchange coco-nuts for taro. Dr.
Finsch says {Samoafahr/en, 1888, pp. 207-209), "A great
many objects (such as the beautiful lime calabashes) are
bartered from the Woodlark Islands, the inhabitants of
which with their large sea-going canoes undertake extensive
trading voyages. ... At all events Trobriand is visited from
Normanby, Welle [a small island close by the latter] and Wood-
lark Islands, for the Trobrianders themselves probably do
not undertake trading voyages." In describing the manu-
facture of earthen pots at Wari (Teste Island), Finsch says
{Samoafahrten^ p. 281) the upper border of these pots

EVOLUTION IN ART.

" exhibits various simple band patterns which are scratched
with fork-Hke bamboo instruments, and which serve not for
ornament but as trade marks. Thus here also each woman
has her own mark with which she signs her fabrication.
The pottery has an extended sale as far as the D'Entre-
casteaux and to Chads Bay, South Cape, Woodlark Island,
and perhaps also to the Louisiades." In my Memoir (p. 223)
==^^1^=^ I have included a MS.
illIIuiiB description of the manu-
facture of pottery in the
same island, which was
kindly placed at my dis-
posal by Dr. H. O. Forbes,
Fig. 23.— Clay pot with an incised and I also copied Dr.
pattern, from Wari (Teste Island), Forbes' sketches. (Fiff.2^)
after a sketch by Dr. H. O. Forbes, t., ^ ,,. . 11/

^ 1 he Wan people have to

import w^ood for their houses, and also, like the natives of
the Engineer Group, who are great traders, they procure
canoes from Pannaet (Deboyne Island). Owing to the
trading which occurs amongst these islands and with the
mainland, it is very difficult to determine from specimens of
native work in European collections what style of work is
characteristic of each of these groups, especially as com-
paratively few specimens are properly labelled. I have,
however, but little doubt that each group has characteristic
designs and forms, and possibly in some cases these may be fl
peculiar to them. ■

Throughout the w^hole of this district one finds lime-
spatulas,^ wooden clubs, canoe carvings, and other objects

^ Southward of the Papuan Gulf, and in all the islands of the south-
eastern extremity of New Guinea, the natives chew the betel-nut, and
when chewing transfer quick-lime from gourds ("lime-gourds") to
their mouths by means of flat carved sticks (" lime-spatulas"). These
vary greatly in form and in the character of their carving. The intaglio
is filled in with lime, so that the design appears white on the polished
ebony handles. These objects are often called "chunam spoons," but
they are never spoon-shaped, and there is no need to introduce an

EVOLUTION IN ART.

ornamented with scrolls. Nowhere else in British New Guinea
do we find the continuous loop coil pattern, the guilloche,
or loop coils. The spiral is absent from the Torres Straits
and Daudai, but present up the Fly River and in the
Papuan Gulf. It is absent again in the Central District,
but reappears in the Massim Archipelagoes. It is only in
the last district that we meet with a wealth of curved lines.
What is the meaning of this ?

All over this district we find decorative art permeated
with the influence of the frigate bird. This beautiful bird
is the sacred bird of the West Pacific. I shall allude to
it again in a later section. The bird, or its head only, is
often carved more or less in the round, especially for the

decoration of canoes.

It must, however, be re- "

membered that such re-
presentations are con-
ventional and not strictly
realistic.

The same head is re-
peated on the handle of
a spatula (Fig. 24), the
curved tip of the beak
of one bird forming the
head of the bird im-
mediately in front of it.
From this simple origin
the varied and beauti'"ul
scroll patterns have been
developed. One impor-
tant factor in the evolu-
tion of this pattern has
been the confining of the design within narrow bands. When
a band happens to be exceptionally broad, one often finds
that the pattern becomes erratic. Queer contorted designs
also result from the attempt to cover a relatively broad

Fig. 24. — Rubbing of the half of one
side of the handle of a spatula in
the author's collection ; one-third
natural size.

Fig. 25. — Rubbings of both sides of
a float for a fishing-net ; one-half
natural size.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

area, as in Fig, 25. Here there is nothing to guide or
restrain the artist, except the boundary of the float; but
on canoe carvings and some other objects there are usually

riG. 26. — Rubbing of upper two-thirds of the decoration of a club, in
the Glasgow Museum ; one-third natural size.

Yic. 27.

Fio. 28.

Fig. 30.

Rul)bings of part of the decoration of chibs ; one-third natural size.
Figs. 27 and 28, D'Entrecasteaux, Edinburgh Museum; Figs.
29 and 30, Cambridge Museum.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 5 1

structural or vestigial features, round which the design may
be said to crystallise, and in these cases the pattern is
approximately or entirely symmetrical.

The triangular spaces left above and below the beaks in
the bird-scroll pattern are usually more or less filled up
with crescentic lines, as in Fig. 26. Sometimes they are
blank, and in this case the triangles may be coloured red
instead of the white lime which is rubbed into the carving.
The eyes of the birds are, as often as not, omitted alto-
gether. (Figs. 27-30.) Their presence seems to have a con-
servative effect on the design, for where absent the elements
of the design may slip upon or run into one another.

In Fig. 27 we have a good example of what I mean by
the slipping of the elements of the design, with the result
that a guilloche is arrived at. It will be noticed in this
figure that the ends of the curved lines are mostly joined
by an oblique bar. These oblique bars have become
emphasised in Fig. 28, and a degeneration of the curved
lines results in a simple pattern.

An example of the elements of the design running into
*one another is shown in Fig. 29, which, like the last two
figures, is a reduced rubbing of part of the decoration of a
sword-shaped wooden club. The band, shown in Fig. 30,
is on the handle of the same club; the central pattern is
clearly a simplification of that on the blade of the club,
and it passes naturally into the zigzag carved below it.

In a carved border round the top of a betel-pestle
(Fig. 31) the Ki-^'c v.^o.1 — ^^^^ ^

scroll has become simplified, B^jJSSBS^gjij^l^S^tijSiil '
and at the same time deve- ^^"^^""^■'■•■■■■■■'■•■■■""^
1 J • , , , Fig. 31. — Rubbing of the pattern

loped mto a more convolute , .. . r

'^ round the upper margin of a

scroll. A very degraded betel-pestle in the Cambridge
example is seen in the upper Museum ; one-third natural

band of Fig. 32. size.

It would be easy to multiply examples of simple and
complex derivatives of the bird's-head motive, but these

52 EVOLUTION IN ART.

few will serve to demonstrate the kind of modifications
which occur.

Instead of only the head with its beak, the neck of the
bird may be introduced. Fig. 33 is from a rubbing of a
beautiful spatula in the British Museum, carved in turtle-

FiG. 32. — Rubbing of part of the carved rim of a wooden bowl from
the D'Entrecasteaux Islands; one-third natural size.

Fig. 33. — Rubbing of the handle of a turtle-shell spatula, from the
Louisiades, in the British Museum ; one-half natural size.

shell (tortoise-shell) ; in it will be seen the interlocking of
birds' beaks and of birds' necks. If the interlocking beaks
were isolated we should get the band pattern which runs
along the concavity of the crescentic handle.

The birds' heads and necks are usually confined to bands,
and the design becomes subject to a new set of influences. J

EVOLUTION IN ART.

A careful inspection of Fig. 34 will give the key to many
details that may be found in carved objects from this
district. In the band im-
mediately below the central
band are seen the heads and
necks of three birds which
have already undergone a
slight transformation. In
the corresponding band
above the central band a
bird is readily recognisable,
but those on each side of
it have degenerated into
looped coils. The other de-
signs can easily be recog-
nised as bird derivatives.

The birds' heads and necks
may be so arranged in a
linear series that interlocking takes place. In some cases
one can distinguish between the beaks and the necks; in
others, as, for example, in the outer bands of Fi^. 35, this is

Fig. 34. — Rubbing of the decora-
tion of one side of a club ; one-
third natural size. The block
is turned round to show the
pattern more clearly, the zig-
zag bands in reality run across
the blade of the flat club.

Fig. 35. — Rubbing of the handle of a spatula in the British Museum ;
one-third natural size.

impossible. The interlocking of the beaks or necks, as the
case may be, and the isolation of the involved parts, has
given rise to the central pattern on this spatula. Simple or
complex coils like the last are of frequent occurrence in
decorated objects from these islands. Both kinds of coil
are found in Fig. 34, and by far the greater number of
them can be proved to be bird derivatives.

The eyes of the heads in such a pattern as the two outer

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 36. — Rubbings of the three
sides of the handle of a spatula
from the D'Entrecasteaux, in

bands of Fig. 35 may disappear, and here also the
elements of the design may fuse with each other. These

two phases of decadence have
overtaken the pattern shown
in Fig. 36, A, which is the
decoration of a spatula with
a three-sided handle ; on
another side (b) the de-
generation has advanced a
stage, and on the third side
(c) it has run its course, and
again the bird-motive has de-
generated into a zigzag.

Some spatulas have small

lateral adjuncts or "brackets,"

as I have elsewhere termed

them. In spatulas which

the Dublin Museum; one-half come, I believe, from theTro-

natural size. briands and Woodlarks, these

brackets are often carved to represent two birds' heads,

whose necks are united together over their heads (Fig. 37, a).

I have examples of these showing a degeneration into a

simple scroll (Fig. 37, b).
The same is taking place
on a club (Fig. 38), where
several phases of modi-
fication are illustrated,
one result of which is that
the beaks break away from
their respective heads;
the design in the left-
hand lower corner is clear-
ly an extreme stage, where
each beak is represented
two small marks.

Fig. 2,^. — a, b. Sketches of two stages
of the "bird bracket" of two
spatulas, probably from the Wood-
larks, in the author's collection.

C, D. Analogous details from canoe
carvings — c. From a photograjih ;

D. From a specimen in the Edin-
burgh Museum. Not drawn to the ^y
same scale. This can be compared

Evolution in ARf.

with the design in the right-hand lower corner of Fig. 39,
where further simpHfication has occurred. The mark in the
centre of the design is the relic of the four which occur in
the last figure, and these are the disrupted remains of the
beaks of the two birds. The other spirals in this figure
are serial repetitions of the involved bird's eye of the lower

Fig. 38. i-iG. 39.

Figs. 38 and 39. — Rubbings of the decorations of clubs in the Dublin
Museum ; one-third natural size.

design; the limitation of these within narrow bands causes
their elongation, and from these we are led to the con-
centric ovals. All the concentric ovals met with in this
district may not have been arrived at in this manner, but
those in Fig. 39 appear to have had this origin.

To return again to Fig. 37, in a and b we have two
phases of the bird-bracket on spatulas; c and d are

EVOLUTION IN ART.

analogous designs in which the birds' beaks are also united;
these are details from canoe carvings.

Fig, 40. — Rubbing of
D'Entrecasteaux, in

Fig. 41. — Rubbing of
part of the decora-
tion of a club from
the D'Entrecasteaux,
in the Edinburgh
Museum ; one-third
natural size.

the central longitudinal band of a club from the
the Edinburgh Museum ; one-third natural size.

A simplified type of bird's head and
neck is seen in Fig. 40. Probably, owing
to the narrow space at his disposal, the
artist omitted the typical curvature of
the beak. In the centre of the band a
looped arrangement is to be seen. It is
very tempting to imagine that the central
band of Fig. 41 has had a similar origin,
it is possible, however, that it may be
an aberrant modification of the serial
bird's head design. I have no doubt
that it is a bird derivative.

In this district, but principally, I
believe, on the mainland and in the
neighbouring islands, we find carvings
which represent a bird and a crocodile;
often this design forms the handles of
paddles, spatulas, and axes (Fig. 45, a).
I have not at present direct proof that
the animal is a crocodile, but I have
sufficient evidence to warrant the as-
sumption.

With but very few exceptions the
bird has a hooked beak ; often it is
provided with a crest. Normally it has
a body and wings, but never any legs.
Only the head with the eye, jaws, and
tongue of the crocodile are carved.
The bird is undoubtedly based on the

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 42. — Bird and Crocodile designs, Massim Archipelago.
A. Canoe carving from Wari (Teste Island); about two-ninths natural

B. Handle of a paddle in the Cambridge Museum ; one-half natural

size.

C. Handle of a spatula in the Leiden Museum ; three-sevenths natural

size.

D. Handle of a spatula from Tubutubu (Engineer Group), in the Cam-

bridge Museum ; three-sevenths natural size.

E. Handle of a paddle in the Cambridge Museum ; three-sevenths

natural size.

58 EVOLUTION IN ART.

frigate-bird, but the crest is a gratuitous addition; in a few
instances it seems as if the artist had a hornbill in his mind.

The body and wings of the bird are frequently omitted,
then the neck disappears; in some examples only the eye
and hooked beak persist (Fig. 42, b, d), and in one or
two examples known to me the eye alone remains of the
vanished bird.

The eye of the crocodile may develop into a grooved
sigmoid curve, or degenerate into a simple loop. One or
both jaws may terminate in a loop; the teeth are more
often absent than present; in one spatula they occur on the
tongue only (Fig. 42, c). The tongue usually reaches the
bird, but it may be quite short; though generally straight, it
may be carved and may terminate in a small bird's head ;
indeed, either jaw may occasionally have a similar termina-
tion. For a selection of characteristic modifications of this
motive I would refer the reader to Plate XII. of my Memoir^
from which I have borrowed the examples seen in Fig. 42.
Of these a is a conventional but readily recognisable
representation of both the bird and the crocodile ; b, c, d
are varieties which present no difficulty of interpretation ,
and E is a slightly carved handle of a paddle in which the
design is very greatly simplified.

The decorative art of the outlying Trobriands (Kiriwina)
and Woodlark (Murua) Groups appears to differ in many
respects from tha-, which is characteristic of the other
groups of this district; this is especially noticeable in the
lime-gourds, and on the oval-painted shields.

The north-east coast of British New Guinea is now
being opened up by the Administrator, Sir William Mac-
Gregor, but as yet no specimens of its decorative art have
found their way to British museums.

VI. — Relation of the Decorative Art to the
Ethnology of British New Guinea.

A' general survey of the decorative art of British New
Guinea clearly reveals the fact that there are distinct esthetic
schools, if the term may be permitted, in each of which
there is a characteristic set of motives and also of forms and
technique. The boundaries of these districts are not sharply
defined, but, although our knowledge is still imperfect, they
can in most cases be traced with sufficient exactitude. I
expect that the Papuan Gulf district will be found to extend
from the Fly River to Cape Possession (long. 146° 25' E.),
and that the Fly River district proper must be confined to
what I have termed its Middle Region, and perhaps the
upper reaches of that river as well.

We may then take these five districts for granted. The
question now presents itself: What is the meaning of their
distinctness ? I do not think we have at present sufficient
evidence to enable us to do more than make suggestions as
to possible causes, and naturally ethnology is first appealed
to. Are these differences due to ethnic diversity?

Many of those who have written on the natives of British
New Guinea have not sufficiently distinguished between the
numerous tribes in our Possession, and they speak in vague
terms of the Papuans as if they were all alike. Now this is
by no means the case, and before we can gain an adequate
comprehension of Papuan ethnography and ethnology we
must clearly distinguish between the characteristics of the
various tribes, their customs, languages, and handicrafts.

There is still much discussion concerning the limitation

6o EVOLUTION IN ART.

of the term Papuan as applied to people, and even whether
it should not be dropped altogether, as Professor Sergi
suggests. The Italian anthropologist extends the term
Melanesian not only to comprise the natives of all the
Western Oceanic islands, including New Guinea and the
adjacent islands, but also Australia. At present I adhere to
what Mr. Ray and myself^ have considered to be the most
convenient course, and to employ the term Papuan for
what appear to be the autocthones of New Guinea. By
Melanesians we understand the present inhabitants of the
great chain of islands off the east of New Guinea, and
extending down to New Caledonia. These terms are used
to designate peoples, not races ; neither are pure races, and
at present we are unable to gauge the amount of race
mixture in either, or even to state precisely what are their
components.

From the boundary of Netherlands New Guinea to Cape'^
Possession on the eastern coast of the Papuan Gulf, and
inland from these coasts, the natives are dark, frizzly-haired
Papuans; typically they are a dolichocephaHc people, and
rather short in stature.

The Papuans also occupy the greater part of the south-
east peninsula of New Guinea; but along the southern
coast-line, almost uninterruptedly from Cape Possession to
the farthest island of the Louisiades, is an immigrant
Melanesian population, about whom I shall have more to
say presently.

I will now enumerate a few facts which will clearly bring
out the essential distinction between these two peoples.

We have not at present a sufficient amount of data on the
physical characters of the two peoples by skilled observers
to enable us to formulate what differences there may be
between them. There is no doubt that the Papuans are
more uniformly dark than are the Melanesians (I am now

^ S. H. Ray and A. C. Iladdon, " A Study of the Languages o:
Torres Straits," Pioc, Koy. Irish Acad., 1893, p. 509.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 6f

referring solely to the Melanesians in British New Guinea),
and their hair is as constantly frizzly. Among the Melan-
esians light-coloured people are constantly met with, as are
also individuals with curly and occasionally straight hair.
Their skulls exhibit many variations, and are occasionally
brachycephalic. Judging from my experience of the Western
Papuans, the Papuan men usually sit with their legs
crossed under them like a tailor, whereas the Melanesians
squat, like a Malay, usually with their haunches just off the
ground. I do not know whether this rule holds good for
the Papuans of the south-east peninsula.

The Western Papuans may or may not scarify their skin,
as in Torres Straits, but they do not tattoo; the Melanesians
tattoo themselves, especially the women. Tattooing has,
however, spread to a certain extent among the Papuan hill
tribes of the peninsula ; the Koitapu women appear to have
thoroughly followed the fashion of their Motu neighbours ;
amongst the Koiari and other hill tribes it occurs only
occasionally. The V-shaped chest mark gado (Fig. 20) occurs
among the Motu and Loyalupu, but not east of Keppel
Bay. Among the two former the tattooing lacks symmetry,
but in Aroma curved lines become more frequent and
asymmetrical figures have a bilateral symmetry with regard
to the body.

The houses of the Gulf and Western Papuans are often
of great size and contain numerous families, and there
appears to be more club-life among the men. The houses
of the Melanesians are smaller, each family possessing one ;
those in the Trobriand Group are not built on piles. Very
characteristic of the Papuans are the houses which are con-
fined to the use of the men. These houses are the focus of
the social life of the men, and as religion among savages
is largely social usage, it is also in connection with these
structures that most of their religious observances are held.

The initiation of lads into manhood is accompanied with
sacred ceremonies in some of the Papuan tribes, but, so far

62' EVOLUTION IN ART.

as is known, by none of the Melanesians in New Guinea.
Masks are usually, perhaps invariably, worn at these cere-
monies, and the bull-roarer is swung and shown to the lads.
There is no record of a bull-roarer among the JNIelanesian
folk.

Masks are employed by many peoples during certain
ceremonies; their distribution in New Guinea is interesting,
as it will be found that in the British Possession they
characterise the Papuan as opposed to the Melanesian
elements. They were common in Torres Straits, have been
obtained in Daudai, and are very abundant in the Papuan
Gulf from Maclatchie Point to Cape Possession.

Dancing may be a secular amusement or a ceremonial
exercise ; in both aspects it is largely practised by the
Papuans proper. We have very few accounts of dances
among the Melanesians, and these do not appear to be of a
specially interesting character.

Of their weapons the stone-club is alone common to all
the tribes. The use of the bow and arrow is confined to
the Papuans, and is universally employed to the west and
in the Papuan Gulf. Heavy, sword-like, wooden clubs and
wooden spears are common among the Melanesians, and
the sling is employed in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands.

Only the Melanesians make pottery.

The Papuans earlier adopted tobacco, and grew their own
tobacco before the white man came, but they do not chew
the betel to any great extent ; quite the reverse is the case
with the Melanesians.

I have now enumerated a sufficient body of evidence to
demonstrate that two groups of people inhabit British New
Guinea. We have now to see whether a further analysis is
possible.

Our knowledge of the Western Papuans is too imperfect
for any definite generalisations to be made at present, but I
venture to present the following tentative suggestions: —

The most typical Papuans in the British Protectorate are

EVOLUTION IN ART. 63

probably the bush tribes from the Dutch boundary to the
back of the Gulf of Papua. They are gradually being
pushed inwards by the coast people. Macfarlane contrasts
the high and broad skull of the latter with the "long,
narrow skull, with its low forehead and prominent zygomatic
bones," of the former, whom he also states are "greatly
inferior, both mentally and physically." The observations
of d'Albertis of a racial mixture in this region are supported
by de Quatrefages and Hamy. The Torres Straits islanders
are also a mixed people. I do not think we have sufficient
evidence before us to decide what are the component races
of these Western Papuans. I suspect that the Fly River is
to a slight extent what may be termed a " culture route,"
and that the natives of the higher reaches have indirect
communication with those of the north coast of New Guinea;
for example, the rattan armour collected by d'Albertis high
up the river is similar to that obtained by Finsch from
Angriffs Havn, near Humboldt Bay, and recalls the coir
armour of Micronesia; it is probable that this was the route
by which tobacco found its way to Torres Straits and the
Gulf district, and thence to the south-east.

The Papuans also extend down the south-east peninsula
and into the adjacent island groups. On the mainland they
have been conquered in certain places by Melanesian immi-
grants, and a mixture of these two peoples has taken place
to a variable extent. In the islands the amalgamation has
been more complete.

The immigrant people are by the majority of writers
spoken of as Polynesians. This identification is apparently
based solely on the lighter colour of some of the former
than that of the Papuans proper, and on numerous words
common to them and the Polynesians.

The light colour of the skin and the occasional presence
of curly or even straight hair among some of the people
of British New Guinea certainly proves a racial mixture,
although Comrie and Finsch do not lay much stress on these

64 EVOLUTION IN ART.

points. The latter {Samoafahrteii, p. 234) writes: — "The
natives of Bentley Bay, as at East Cape, are of a tolerably
light skin colour and belong to what the ignorant would
explain as a Malay mixture. But wrongly, for they are true
Papuans, amongst whom the individual occurrence of curly,
even of smooth hair, is of no consequence." The craniology
of the natives of the south-eastern peninsula and neighbour-
ing islands has been studied by Comrie, Flower, Mikloucho-
Maclay, de Quatrefages, Hamy, and Sergi, most of whom
admit with Flower "a considerable mixture of races among
the inhabitants of this region of the world." As at present
anthropography cannot speak with precision concerning the
racial elements in this immigrant people, we must turn to
other branches of anthropology, and we will see what light
ethnography and linguistics can throw on this ethnological
problem.

A comparison of Papuan and Melanesian customs and
handicrafts will prove that there is little of real importance
in common, say, between the Motu or the South Cape
natives and the Samoans. I need only allude to the
almost total absence of a system of cosmogony or of a
pantheon with a definite mythology; associated with this
lack of a theology is the absence of an organised priestcraft.
The democratic Papuans and Melanesians have no here-
ditary chieftainship, and the power of tabu is much more
limited than in Polynesia. Strangely enough, these so-called
"Polynesians" in South-East New Guinea make pottery and
do not drink kava. There is also a well-marked distinction
between the weapons, implements, etc., and the decorative
art of the New Guinea people and those of the Polynesians.

For the linguistic evidence I have consulted my friend and
colleague, Mr. S. H. Ray, who is our great authority on the
languages of Western Oceania. In an essay in my Memoir^
he discusses this question, and as most is known
about the Motu language of the neighbourhood of Port
^ The Decorative Art of Bjitish Neiv Guinea, p. 263.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 6$

Moresby, he takes this as a basis for comparison ; what is
proved for this applies, in all probability, to the other
Melanesian languages of British New Guinea. " Much
could be written to show that it is with the Melanesian
tongues that the Motu of New Guinea should be included
and not with the Polynesian. The same method applied
to the Kerepunu, the Aroma, Suau, and other dialects akin
to the Motu, points to the same relationship. The Motu
grammar is entirely Melanesian and non-Polynesian. Such
words as are common to it and the Eastern Polynesian are
equally common to the whole of Melanesia. Melanesian
words which are non-Polynesian are also found in Motu
and the allied languages of New Guinea."

I had long been puzzled by certain differences between
the Motu and allied tribes on the coast of British New
Guinea and the natives round Milne Gulf and of the
neighbouring groups of islands, all of whom I speak of
collectively as the Massim.

There is a difference in their physiognomy. 'J'he Motu
and allied tribes are remarkably destitute of a religion, and
are (or were) at the mercy of the sorcerers of the indigenous
hill tribes, and, what is more remarkable, there is no trace
of the cult of the sacred frigate-bird or of that of any other
animal. They make their pottery by beating a lump of
clay into a pot, whereas, according to the only descriptions
we have, the Massim women build up their pots with bands
of clay laid in spirals. A study of my Memoir on the
decorative art of British New Guinea will clearly bring out
the enormous difference between the Motu and the Massim
in artistic feeling and execution.

My knowledge of Melanesia was too slight to enable me
to proceed further with this problem, but in a recently
published paper Mr. Ray says^:— " With regard to the
place of origin of the Melanesian population of New

' S. H. Ray, " The Languages of British New Guinea,"' /oitr.
Anth, Insts^ xxiv., 1894, p. 32.

C6 EVOLUTION IN ART.

(Guinea it does not seem possible to ascertain the exact
quarter from which it has come. There is at first sight
much dissimilarity between the languages west and east,
between the Motu and Kerepunu on the one side and the
Suau of South Cape on the other. Though this dissimi-
larity disappears on closer examination, it may be stated
that the language of Suau appears very similar to those of
San Cristoval in the Solomon Islands, which lies almost
due east of South Cape. The Motu and Kerepunu agree
more with the languages of the Efate district in the Central
New Hebrides."

Further evidence must be collected before Mr. Ray's
suggestion can be definitely accepted. The decorative
employment of the frigate-bird in the Massims and Solomon
Islands supports his first proposition; but, on the other
hand, inlaying with shell and nacre is very characteristic of
the Solomon Islands, and this is absent from the Massims;
there are besides many other points of difference. So far
as I am acquainted with photographs of natives from the
New Hebrides I do not see any resemblance between them
and the Motu, but it must be borne in mind that there can
be culture-drift without appreciable actual mixture, though
amongst savage peoples the latter must to a certain extent
be concurrent.

To return to the Papuan peoples of British New Guinea.
It is probable that these are also a mixed people, and not
a race in the ethnological sense of the term. Owing to con-
tinual inter-tribal warfare, or at least mutual distrust, there
has not been much intercourse between the inhabitants of
different districts; this may partly account for such distinct
styles of art as occur in Daudai and the Papuan Gulf I
have already hinted that influences from North-Western
New Guinea may have penetrated down the Fly River, but
a discussion of the latter question opens up complicated
problems of Malaysian ethnography into which I cannot
now enter.

€>7

VI r. — Note on the Scroll Designs of British
New Guinea.

The occurrence of scrolls and spirals in South-East New
Guinea, and their general resemblance to certain Maori
patterns, have led several observers to believe that there
may have been intercourse between New Guinea and New
Zealand. As this problem raises some interestnig questions
I have thought it desirable to discuss it, but to do so
adequately would take far more room than can here be
spared.

Mr. Goodyear makes out a good case for the view that
some, at least, of the spiral scroll motives in Malaysia are due
to Mohammedan influence; but he probably goes too far in
ascribing all the scrolls of the decorative art of the Malay
Archipelago to that source. "The ornamental system of India
was in the first instance, as known to us, Buddhist, under Greek
influences; second, Arab-Mohammedan. The spiral scroll
ornament of modern India is a mixture and survival of the
two. (The more formal classic* style of old Buddhist orna-
ment has disappeared in India.) This is. the ornamental
system of the Malay Archipelago. . . . The present orna-
mental system of Malaysia is mainly the Mohammedan-
Arab, which is derived from Byzantine Greek. The Malay
alphabet, the Malay ornament, the Malay religion, and
the Malay culture are all derived from India. . . . The
spiral scroll is absolutely foreign to the ornamental systems
of Polynesia.

68 EVOLUTION IN ART.

"There only remains the case of New Guinea and New
Zealand. Not only does New Guinea border directly on
the Malay Islands, but it is geographically part of Malaysia.
[Mr. Goodyear is wrong in this statement, as in its geology,^
fauna, and flora New Guinea is essentially Australian.]
The princes of the Island of Tidore have actually been the
potentates of the Northern Coast of New Guinea. The
New Guinea ornamental system shows degraded and barbaric
forms of the Mohammedan spiral scrolls of Malaysia. From
these once more are derived the spiral scroll ornaments of
New Zealand." 2

The problem is by no means so simple as the reader
might infer from Mr. Goodyear's remarks. It does not
appear that he sufficiently allows for ethnic influence in
decorative art. My contention is that we must first try to
obtain a definite conception of the racial elements in a
given people before we can expect to thoroughly com-
prehend their art. According to my experience, the more
backward the people, the less they borrow artistic motives.
Why should they? Their ornament has to them a sig-
nificance and associations which foreign decoration lacks;
the latter appeals to them no more than does Mexican
or Mangaian ornament to us. From their mental attitude
they are far less likely to copy foreign designs than are
we. I have already (p 65) adduced an interesting example
of this when I compared the art of the Motu folk with that
of the Gulf Papuans.

Malaysia is peopled by various races, of which the Malay
stock is undoubtedly predominant, but the latter is regarded
as having been, comparatively speaking, a late wave of
migration, and probably the advent of the Malay was the
disturbing cause which initiated the wanderings of the Poly-
nesians (or Sawaiori, as Mr. A. H. Keane terms them).

^ Haddon, Sollas, and Cole, "On the Geology of Torres Straits,"
Trans. Royal Irish Acad., vol. xxx., 1 894, p. 419.
2 Archifecttiral Record, ii., 1893, P- 412.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 69

Even in Oceania the problem is complicated by the now
generally received fact of an earlier population of many of
the islands by Melanesians. Personally, I believe we can
find distinct traces of their artistic skill in the decorative art
which we are accustomed to put down as "Polynesian";
indeed, I suspect that most of the Oceanic wood-carving
is due to Melanesian influence, although it now illustrates
Sawaiori mythology.

I have not yet studied the decorative art of the Malay
Archipelago ; but as my friend, Professor Hickson, has, I will
quote what he has said on the subject : — " From collections
in museums it might be supposed that the Malays are very
artistic; this is perhaps due to the fact that collectors
frequently will only obtain implements and the like that are
ornamented with curious coloured designs and figures, and
leave behind all the spears, shields, and the like that are
not so ornamented ; the result being that an unfair propor-
tion of ornamented things appear in the cabinets of the
museum. I am inclined to believe that the Malays are not
artistic, and that the few ornamented designs of their own
are very poor and primitive."^ After alluding to the ruined
temples in Sumatra and Java, and the complicated patterns
on the people's costumes, he continues, " but this is not
Malay art. It is the art that was brought by Buddhist
priests in the third century, according to Fa-hien, the
Chinese pilgrim from Further India.

" Nor should we judge of Malay art from the specimens
obtained in Timor, Aru, Timor Laut, and Ceram, for in
these islands there is undoubtedly a very great influence
from the mixture of the race with the Papuans. In Celebes,
South Borneo, and the Moluccas, there is very little art ; and
this is due, I believe, to the fact that there has been very
little Buddhist influence and very little Papuan influence.

" The chief character of Malay art, if it can be so called,

^ The Academy^ 30th May 1891, No. 995, p. 519; ■A'-.o Journal of
the Cambridge Ant. Soc. , vii. , p. 29J.

70 EVOLUTION IN ART.

is the absence of any good curves. Nearly all their designs
are angular, and those that they have copied from other
races have a tendency to become angular." The imple-
ments, weapons, cloths, etc., "of the people are frequently,
if not usually, unornamented, in striking contrast to similar
things among the Papuans. Nothing could be more im-
pressive than the contrast in this respect between a Malay
and a Papuan village."

There can be no doubt that the decorative art of North-
west New Guinea has been affected by influences from
Malaysia; but it is very doubtful whether this has pene-
trated very far inland, or even very far down the coast.

It must be remembered that the Papuans, and Melanesians
generally, are a fierce people, and there is, as a rule, very
little intercourse indeed between various tribes, in fact
there is an almost continual condition of inter-tribal war.
In a country containing great mountain ranges, dense
jungles, or extensive swamps, with no roads, and innumer-
able tribes speaking different languages, and at enmity with
one another, it is difficult to see how artistic motives could
readily travel. There are only two possible routes, rivers
and the coast-line.

I have elsewhere^ stated that the Fly River "has been
to a certain extent what maybe termed a * culture route,'
and that the natives of the higher reaches have indirect
communication with those of the north coast of New
Guinea."

If any one will take the trouble to study the evidence I
have collected, it will, I think, be incontestable that the
scroll designs of the extreme south-east point of New Guinea
and of the adjacent islands could not have come overland.
With the possible exception of the central region of the Fly
River, about which we at present know very little, I can sec
no traces of "Malayan" culture in the decorative art of
British New Guinea.

^ llie Decorative Art of British A^cw Guinea, 1S94, p. 256.

EVOLUTION IN ART. fi

The evidence at our disposal certainly points to the con-
clusion that the bulk, at all events, of the natives of the
Louisiades, D'Entrecasteaux, and neighbouring islands and
mainland are sea-borne immigrants. And if their scroll
designs have not been developed in the district where they
now reside, we must seek for their origin in the ancestral
home of these travellers. I have discussed this question in
my Memoir (pp. 258-269), and have stated it in a more con-
cise form in Science Progress^ vol. ii. (1894), pp. 91-9S, and
have come to the conclusion, which is shared by Mr.
S. H. Ray, on hnguistic grounds, that no Malay influence
can be shown, but that the people came from the great
chain of Melanesian islands which stretches from the
Admiralty Islands to New Caledonia, and possibly from the
Solomon group. Nowhere in the Melanesian Archipelago
do we find scroll designs comparable with those of the dis-
trict of New Guinea now under consideration. The con-
clusion, then, seems inevitable, that until further evidence is
adduced we must regard these scroll designs as having !
originated in this district, and in the manner I have demon-
strated— i.e.^ from birds' heads.

To pass on to New Zealand. Although we have innumer-
able specimens of the beautiful and very characteristic
wood-carving of New Zealand in our museums and in
private collections, yet no one has seriously studied the
art, or has offered a satisfactory explanation of it.

It is generally admitted that there was a Melanesian
population on the group before the Maoris arrived some
six hundred years ago. The latter probably came from
some of the islands between Samoa and Tahiti, probably
mainly from Rarotonga.

The scroll designs have no resemblance to the patterns
from the Rarotongan region of Oceania. The only examples
of this particular technique occur in one or two weapons
from Fiji; these are of typical Fijian shapes, but the
carving is in the New Zealand manner. One of these is in

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Baron von Hiigel's collection in Cambridge, and another is
in the British Museum. I have no explanation to offer for
these facts that is satisfactory to myself. Apart from one
or two isolated Fijian specimens, the wood-carving of New

Zealand is unique.
_ Some of the New

Zealand patterns (Fig. 43,
and Plate VI., Fig. 12)
certainly have a super-
ficial resemblance to the
more typical scroll pat-
terns from the South
Eastern Archipelago of
New Guinea, but there
is no ground for compar-
ing them except for this
casual resemblance. The
bird element is entirely
lacking, and there is far
less interlocking in the
Maori than in the
Papuan scrolls; there are
also noticeable technical
differences. My impres-
sion is that the carved
designs have been derived
and possibly also partly from the

Fig. 43. — Rubbing of the decoration
of a Maori flute, in the Natural
History Museum, Belfast ; one-
half natural size.

mainly from tattooin:
dismemberment which so often befalls the conventionalised
carvings of their ancestral figures. (Plate VI., Fig. 11.)
When one looks at tattooed Maori heads or carvings of
human figures one finds that rounded surfaces, such as the
wings of the nose, the cheeks, the shoulders and thighs are
usually decorated with spiral designs; this is in such places
an appropriate device, as it accentuates the features which
are ornamented, and personally I am inclined to believe
that artistic fitness is the explanation of this employment of

EVOLUTION IN ART. Jl

the spiral, and that it has been transferred to other objects
as being a pleasing design, and that connecting lines have
been made to give coherence to the decoration. It is
worth noting that in early European art the shoulders and
haunches of animals are often decorated with spirals.^

^ See, for example, Plate VII., Figs. 2, 5.

THE MATERIAL OF WHICH PATTERNS ARE
MADE.

Having sketched the main features of the decorative art
of a definite locality, I now pass on to a different field, and
will select examples from every age and clime, in order to
illustrate the life-histories of a number of designs. In this
I have a twofold object. First, I wish to indicate in this
section the material out of which designs and patterns are
formed — the objective originals which become gradually
transformed into aesthetic conceptions; and, secondly, I
also wish to illustrate the fact that this process of trans-
formation is confined to no one people.

We shall see that the originals ol[ decorative art are mainly
either natural or artificial object^and the latter will first
claim our attention. 1^

I. — The Decorative Transformation and Trans-
ference OF Artificial Objects.

Dr. H. Colley March has introduced the term " Skeuo-
morph " 1 for the forms of ornament demonstrably due to
structure. Professor G. Semper ^ " was the first to show that
the basket-maker, the weaver, and the potter originated
those combinations of line and colour which the ornamentist
turned to his own use when he had to decorate walls,
cornices, and ceilings." So write MM. Perrot and Chipiez;^
but this statement is too sweeping. A considerable amount
of ornamentation is doubtless due to technique, but in
Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa plant forms have
had a great influence in the origin of designs, some of
which have been modified by passing through a textile
technique.

Given any object, two forces, so to speak, attack it — the
utilitarian and the aesthetic. The resultant may be an imple-
ment which is solely useful and has little or no beauty to
recommend it; or while retaining a full measure of utility, it
may be beautified in form or in surface decoration; or, lastly,
the object may become so glorified by the artist as to be
translated from earthly use into the realm of aesthetics.

^ From TO, aKeije, implements, utensils, tools, baggage, tackle, dresses.

2 G. Semper, Der Stil in den technischen uiui tekionischen Kiinsten

Oder praktische Aesthetik. Munich, 1860-63, 2 vols. (Second Edition,

1878-79-)

^ G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, ii.
p. 356, 1883.

^6 , EVOLUTION IN ART.

T. Transformation of a Solitary Object.

f There are numerous examples of the annihilation of the use-
} ful by the beautiful. One instance came under my notice
at the Murray Islands, in Torres Straits. Formerly when a
girl was engaged to be married, in addition to numerous _
petticoats she wore a number of ornaments suspended from M
her neck and hanging down her back. The more important
of these were white triangular pieces of shell, o, cut out of
Conus millepictictatus ; turtle-shell (" tortoise-shell") bodkins
(Z^/-), used for shredding the leaves of which their petti-
coats were made, and for piercing the septum of the nose
of infants; turtle-shell fish-hooks, and curious turtle-shell
ornaments which are called sabagorar. These latter
vary considerably in size, form, and amount of decoration ;
but by placing a number of them together a sequence
can be obtained which illustrates the evolution of the
sabagorar from the fish-hook (Fig. 44). Some hool4-like
objects are slightly ornamented with incised lines, and they
might very well serve as fish-hooks; others are clearly totally
unfitted for practical use, and may be quite plain or decor-
ated. Fish-hooks (Fig. 44, a) are used in pairs, being
fastened at each end of a piece of fine string, which, in its
turn, is tied at its middle to the fishing-line proper.
When the piece of twine with its hooks was thrown
round a girl's neck, the two hooks would often hang down
her back shank to shank. Two sabagorar similarly
arranged occur in the British Museum collections. What
more natural than that this should be noticed, and to save
the trouble of making two sabagorar a double one should be-
cut out of one piece of turtle-shell. The more remotel)M
from the fish-hook did the sabagorar vary, the larger it
became, and in some instances the double form became of
considerable size, and the hook portion acquired a slight
spiral curvature (Fig. 44, k). In one modified specimen the*
hooks are actually fused with the shank (Fig. 44, l). It

[t wid

EVOLUTION IN ART.

F.VOLUTION IN ART.

be also seen that divergent /y-like processes often occur on
the sabagorar^ but are never found on the fish-hook.

The betrothal equipment of a girl thus consisted in the
main of objects of utility which had reference to her future
condition. The turtle-shell objects being easily cut, afforded
a convenient field for ornamentation, and most of the ier
implements exhibit a little decoration. The comparatively
slender fish-hooks provided insufficient surface for orna-

FlG. 45. — Sketches of two axes from the South-east Peninsula of
New Guinea in the possession of the author ; about one-tenth
natural size. '

mentation; the broadening of them for decorative pur-
poses reduced their efficiency, so that in time the latter was
sacrificed and a mere ornament resulted.

In the chain of islands which stretch away from the
south-eastern end of New Guinea, one finds an interesting
metamorphosis of the stone axe. The stone axe was very
precious among these people, to whom the art of working in
metals is still unknown. A large fine axe would have very
considerable value, and the exhibition of it would be a

EVOLUTION IN ART. 79

symbol of wealth, and consequently of power. The desire
to be recognised as wealthy has resulted in the development
of a stone axe of which the stone is very large, often remark-
ably thin and beautifully polished, and is hafted to an un-
wieldy handle which may be carved and decorated with
shell-money and other ornaments. The value of such an
object seems to depend upon the amount of work required
to produce it; its inutility enhances the reputation of- the
wealth of its possessor ; thus we appear to arrive at certain
primitive conceptions. Work done gives ownership or pro-
perty. One form of wealth is the possession of unnecessary
or useless property; the exhibition of this gives power to the
owner.

I have made sketches (Fig. 45) of two axes in my posses-
sion. The first (a) is decorated with characteristic orna-
mentation, consisting in the upper part of birds' heads and
at the handle of the bird and crocodile design ; but it is
still a useful implement. The second axe (b) has a large thin
stone, and is an unwieldy and probably quite useless object.

The late Mr. H. H. Romilly^ tells us that at Utian
(Brooker Island), in the Louisiades, "The stone implements
made here are very fine. I got some axes of enormous size,
which I am sure could not be intended for use. They seemed
rather to be a common possession ; perhaps two or three
belonged to the village, and were exhibited on state occa-
sions." The Rev. Dr. W. Wyatt Gill,^ at South Cape, saw
" two axes solemnly carried by the chiefs as a preliminary
to peace ... a glance at the slight artistic hafting will
convince any one that they are not intended for cleaving
timber." This is all the information we have concerning
these axes. It appears that they have come to be recognised
as symbols of authority, but it is extremely doubtful whether
they are anywhere held as a common possession.

^ The Western Pacific and New Guinea ^ 1886, p 138.
2 Chalmers and Gill, Work and Adventure in New Guinea, 1885.
p. 334-

b'o

EVOLUTION IN ART.

A still more wonderful change has affected certain adzes
in the Hervey Islands. (Fig. 46.) The stone blade is a
carefully cut and polished piece of
basalt, and it has every appearance
of being perfectly serviceable; but
the elaborately carved handles pre-
clude the idea that in their present
state they could be used for prac-
tical purposes. In form the handles
may be quadrangular, gradually
diminishing from the base to the
blade, or conical, or polygonal or
cylindrical. When short the handles
are thick, even to the extent that
they can scarcely be grasped by
the two hands; these forms too
are often perforated by quad-
rangular holes. One specimen in
the Archaeological and Ethnological
Museum at Cambridge is six feet
three inches in length.

Later on (p. 83) I shall describe
the ornamentation on these adzes;
at present we are merely concerned
with the fact that for some reason
or another they have become func-
tionless through increase in the

r^,^ r AT 11- size of the handle, and by reason

r IG. 46 — Mangaian symbolic ' -^

adze in the Copcn- of the weakness caused by deep

hagen Museum ; from carving. We have now to trace <

Dr C. March. ^iig meaning of this vagary.

Dr. W. Wyatt Gill, who resided for twenty-two years

in the Hervey Islands, and who has been a very careful

observer and recorder of Polynesian customs and beliefs,

informs us that "The adzes of the Hervey Islanders are

frequently hafted with carved 'pua' Wood. The carving,

EVOLUTION IN ART. Si

which is often admirable, was formerly executed with
sharks' teeth, and was primarily intended for the adorning
of their gods. The fine-pointed pattern is known as ^ the
sharks' teeth pattern' ('nio mango'). Other figures are
each supposed, by a stretch of the imagination, to represent
a man squatting down ('tikitiki tangata'). Some patterns
are of recent introduction, and being mere imitations of
European designs, are destitute of the significations which
invariably are attached to ancient Polynesian carving.
The large square holes are known as 'eel-borings' ('ai
tuna'); the lateral openings are naturally enough called
'clefts' ('kavava'). To carve was the employment of
sacred men." Dr. Hjalmar Stolpe, of Stockholm, who
has made a special study ^ of the ornamental art of these
people, found in the museum in Chamb^ry an adze of this
kind; according to the account on the label the stone had
belonged to a chief, and it was after the owner's death
shafted in this manner that it might be preserved by his
family as a remembrance. Dr. Stolpe continues, "The
internal probability of the story confirms the truth of the
account. Ancestor worship is a characteristic feature
of Polynesian religion. The souls of the departed become
the guardian spirits of the survivors. Their worship de-
manded a visible form, under which offerings could be
enjoyed by them, and this was found sometimes in the
skull itself of the deceased, which was preserved in the
house, sometimes in some article of his property. In the
latter case scarcely anything could be more suitable than
the stone adze, which was the deceased's most important
implement, and which it required so much toil to make.
On the Hervey Islands the transition was easier, as there
the stone adze itself is considered as a god. Even the fine

^ H. Stolpe, " Utvecklingsforeteelser i Naturfolkens Ornamentik "
( Ymer iSgo), translated by Mrs. II. C. March, "Evolution in the
Ornamental Art of Savage Peoples," Trans. Rochdale Lit. and Sci.
Soc, 1S91.

82 EVOLUTION IN ART.

plait of coco-nut fibre with wliich the adze is fastened to the
shaft was a god, and the method of binding it had, in
Mangaia, been taught by the gods. Both during the
operation of plaiting and during the decoration of the
adze-shaft songs were sung in a low voice to the gods,
that they might further the work. The 'pua' wood
{FagrcBa Berieriana) of which the carved adze-shafts are
made may also have a religious significance, for Gill speaks
of ' its long branches being regarded as the road by which
the spirits of the dead descended to Hades.' "

The following conclusions of Dr. Stolpe's appear to be
warranted: — "From these researches it appears to me to
follow that the peculiarly shafted stone adzes of the Hervey
Islands have a religious signification, that they are especially
connected with ancestor worship, and that they were prob-
ably the very symbols under which this worship was
performed."

Dr. H. Colley March ^ has gone a step further, and tries
to account for the very remarkable form of the handle of
the sacred adze. He says, " It is remarkable that the
typical Mangaian axe [adze] was exclusively associated
with * Tane, the royal-visaged.' This god was widely
venerated over the Pacific; in Mangaia he was especially
the drum-god and the axe-god; he presided over the erotic
dance as well as over the war dance ... it is evident that
the drum was not only associated with a Tane cult in the
erotic dance, but was regarded as Tane's embodiment;
when the drum was beaten, it was Tane that was struck,
and from the fissure in the drum it was Tane's voice that
issued." Dr. March quotes a number of extracts from early
voyagers, etc., descriptive of various Polynesian drums, and
he comes to the conclusion that the upright drums, which
were hollowed out of a single piece of wood, were originally
derived from bamboo instruments. He figures a drum

1 "Polynesian Ornament a Mythography; or a Symbolism of Origin
and Descent, "y(3//;-«. Anth. Inst., xxii., j8q^, p. 307.

drumi

EVOLUTION IN ART.

(Fig. 47) said to have come from Java, which, with the excep-
tion of the terminal head, corresponds closely with the drum
called naffa w^hich Captain Cook describes at Tonga. He
concludes that after the drum "had passed
from bamboo to wood, the horizontal
instrument assumed the erect form, more
appropriate to the god, and was then
surmounted, as in the so-called Javan
example, by Tane's head, which sub-
sequently gave place to Tane's adze. As
the cult differentiated, the symbolism
differentiated too." Without going into
further detail, in the short thick form of
the Mangaian adze, such as Fig. 46, the
upper portion of the handle is usually
cylindrical. The lower portion is usually
quadrangular, or may be polygonal, and
looks as if it might be a pedestal for the
former. According to Dr. March's inter-
pretation, the stone implement represents
the head of Tane; the upper cylindrical
part of the handle is his neck. The lower
part of the handle is an artistic analogue
of the sacred drum; "the useless trans-
verse closings represent the original bam-
boo joints, as well as the solid ends of the
wooden drum. In spite of the fact that
their presence increased the difficulty of
hollowing out the shaft, they were repro-
duced in obedience to a well-recognised
law. The square and oblong rectangular fig. 47.— An erect
openings have an analogous explanation, drum {Kaara), sur-
They indicate the original aperture,
whether the slit in the bamboo, or the
single or double chink in the wooden
drum which was excavated through the

mounted by the head
of a god from Java,
in the Copenhagen
Museum ; from Dr.
C. March.

84 EVOLUTION IN ART. ^^^^«

drum in order to secure its resonance. The great increase
in the number of apertures, helped by rectangular designs on
horizontal instruments, took place as an evolution of orna-
ment that largely consists in a multiplication of functionless
details."

It is possible that the adzes from the Hervey Islands,
with long, unper-forated carved handles, may have a different
history from the form illustrated in Fig. 46; they may
merely be decorated but useless adze handles. In any
case, the above-quoted conclusions of Dr. Stolpe may be
accepted.

In the three examples of the metamorphosis of a practical
object into an unpractical one just recorded, we have an
y illustration of the effects of three dominant human forces
• on these several implements, art, display or wealth, and
religion. The result is practically the same in all cases, but
the motive leading to it is different. Analogous modifica-
tions are everywhere to be met with.

2. Transference of Fast enings.

One of the earliest handicrafts was to fasten two
things together. To quote from Dr. H. Colley March,'
"As soon as man began to make things, to fasten
a handle to a stone implement, to construct a wattled roof,
to weave a mat, skeuomorphs became an inseparable part of
his brain, and ultimately occasioned a mental craving or
expectancy."

In order to securely fasten two objects together, such as
splicing wood or fastening a handle to a stone implement, a
lashing is necessary, and the nature of the latter varies more
or less according to the conditions under which the artificers
live. Where mammals are abundant, their sinews afford a
readily procured and very strong, fine lashing, but it occurs
only in short lengths. The hide of a newly-killed animal is

' H. Colley March, "The Meaning of Ornament, or its Archeology
and its Psychology," Tians. Lane, and Cheshire Ant. Soc, 1889

EVOLUTION IN .^T^^^ 0/^ ^-^"^8^)

pliant, strong, and can be so cut as to produce long thongs.
Owing to the rarity of mammals in New Guinea, and their
absence from the Great Ocean, the Papuans, Melanesians,
and Polynesians make no use of skins or thongs; sinews
may be employed, but the great bulk of all fastening is
accomplished by the employment of vegetable fibres. The
inner bark of various trees supplies bast and tapa, several
vegetables have long fibres which are utilised, but the most
widespread and important of all lashings in Oceania is the
twisted or plaited string made from the fibres of the husk
coco-nut. The latter is known as sinnet, and there are
many degrees of excellence in its manufacture ; for rough
work it is coarsely plaited, but nothing can exceed the deli-
cacy and beauty of the finest sinnet work, such, for example,
as occurs on the symbolic adzes of the Hervey Islands,
where it was even regarded as a god.

Most of the stone implements of primitive man were
fastened in various ways into handles, and an inspection of
almost any ethnological collection will demonstrate the
diverse methods of lashing employed by even the most
backward peoples. For example, we have in Plate I.,
Fig. I, an illustration of the fastening of the stone axe of
Montezuma II., now in the Ambras Museum at Vienna,^
but analogous figures will be found in numerous books of
travel, or in ethnographical journals and treatises.

The even serving of the lashing gives rise to geometrical
figures. One mi^hHn some cases describe them as patterns,
whose symmetrical disposition gives a pleasing effect.

In process of time the stone spear points of our ancestors
were replaced by bronze, and during the evolution of the
palstave, or socketed bronze celt (Plate I., Figs. 4, 10, 11),
from the flat bronze celt, the method of fastening also
changed. But by this time the old style of binding had
become so associated in men's mind with the implement, that
it was engraved on the socket of the bronze head as a pattern.
^ Copied from J. Evans, Bronze Implements ^ p. 148.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Hence most of the ornamentation of bronze implements.
(Plate I., Figs. 2-4.) On socketed bronze celts one frequently
finds (Plate I., Figs. 10, 11) two, three, or more ridges run-
ning from the base to some distance towards the end , three
is the most common number of these ridges. They may fade
away at their ends, or terminate in slight knobs or annular

Fig. 48.

Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Tongan club in the
Norwich Museum : one-third natural size.

prominences. The meaning of these characteristic markings
is at present obscure, but they appear to be skeuomorphs of
lashing.

What are known as " beads " have frequently the same
origin ; that is, they are reminiscences of fastenitigs. This
is especially evident when the bead is decorated with a

EVOLUTION IN ART.

twisted design, as occurs in the zonal decoration of a bronze
vessel from a Swiss lake-dwelling. (Plate I., Fig. 5.) There
is no reason to believe that lashing was actually employed
on older forms of Assyrian combs, or prehistoric bone
needles or bronze knives, nevertheless the patterns shown
in Plate I , Figs. 6, 8, and 9, have doubtless been derived

Fig. 49.— Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Tongan club in the
Norwich Museum ; one-half natural size.

from ligatures; more from the fact that such patterns were
familiar, and a feeling for a need of decoration, than for any
special appropriateness.

One frequently finds designs in the ornamentation of
objects from Oceania which are evidently based upon sinnet
lashings. To take a few out of many examples now before
me, in Fig, 48 we have a reduced rubbing of a carved

EVOLUTION IN ART.

cylindrical club, said to come from the Friendly Islands
(Tonga) ; the same kind of club also occurs in Fiji. The
decoration of this club irresistibly suggests bands of
plaited sinnet irregularly bound round the club.

In these two groups of islands sinnet is often worked
into a design that is also copied on the upper part of a
carved wooden club. (Fig. 49.) The same kind of lashing
is seen in Plate I., Fig. t. Occasionally, instead of being
angular, this pattern is carved in curved lines, and so gives

Fig. 53. — Rubbing of part of the decoration of a Tongan club in the
Norwich Museum ; one-half natural size.

rise to an imbricate pattern, which might be mistaken for a
scale pattern.

Other sinnet patterns perhaps occur in the lower part
of the decoration of a Tongan club. (Fig. 50.) The
design on the upper left-hand corner is evidently copied
from matting, and it frequently occurs on these clubs.
This figure also illustrates the Tongan peculiarity of
inserting little figures into designs, in this case a man
and probably a frigate-bird.

I do not wish to suggest that all zigzags included within

EVOLUTION IN ART. 89

parallel lines, as in Fig. 48, or such simple designs as those
of Fig. 50, are everywhere sinnet derivatives, or otherwise
skeuomorphic ; some, at least, in the Pacific certainly are.
We have seen that birds' head designs may degenerate into
zigzags (Figs. 30, 36), and we shall see that frogs' legs
(Fig. 122, b), snakes (Fig. 103, G, h, k), alligators (Fig.
97, E, f), and even the human form (Fig. 125, a) may pass
into zigzags. There are many other possible origins of
the zigzag, but in many cases it is probably only a purely
decorative motive of no further significance. The simple
zigzag can be traced in ancient Egyptian art as far
back as 4000 B.C., and, according to Professor Flinders
Petrie, it continued popular with a few modifications for
about 2 coo years, when spots were associated with it, but
these were adopted from foreign art. About the eighteenth
dynasty the use of the zigzag was discarded in favour of
the wavy line and various scroll designs. In all cases it
is necessary to study each pattern locally.

3. Skeuomorphs of Textiles.

In >Europe, a very early form of fabric was wattle-work,
formed by the interlacing of flexible boughs and wands.
The most ancient huts were doubtless made of wattle-work>.
daubed over with clay. Only very exceptionally are traces
of these structures found, as, for example at Ebersberg, where
Dr. Keller 1 found, among the debris of a lake-village which
had been destroyed by fire, fragments of the clay daubing,
" smooth on one side, and marked on the other, with deep
depressions of the basket-work." The pattern thus impressed
on the clay is one of repeated straight lines crossed by a
contrasted series of curved ones. (Plate II., Fig. i.) Thus
the fire which consumed the house baked its clayey coating,
and in this way preserved for us a record of what it
destroyed.

^ F. Keller, The Lake Dwellings of Sivitzerlaiid and other parts of
Europe. Second edition, 1878, p. 565.

90 EVOLUTION IN ART.

1 do not know whether the wattle-work has been
perpetuated on any object as a skeuomorph, but it is
possible that the shape of similarly constructed huts has
been continued, as - Mr. Charles de Kay suggests,^ into
the round towers of Ireland. He says, " Seeing how the
Irish kept heathen ideas in other things, we can perceive,
how the round wicker house of the Kelt, such as we see
it carved on the column of Antoninus at Rome, developed
into the wood and wicker outlook tower and beacon, and
in skilful hands became the Irish round tower. Christian
in usage, they are pagan in design."

The predatory expeditions of the Scandinavians created
a demand for watch-towers and places of temporary refuge ;
the pattern for these was supplied by the traditional
erections of the Gauls, but their translation into "towers
more durable, useful, simple yet stately, than anything
Ireland had seen before or has seen since," was due to the
skill and experience of " Byzantine craftsmen driven from
the East by the bigotry of the image-breaking emperors."

Mr. de Kay also calls attention to the encircling stone
bands, or "string-courses," as in the round tower at Ardmore,
*' which repeat, without any useful object in stone, the hori-
zontal bands that strengthened the tall wicker house of the
Gauls. Such apparently trivial points weigh heavily in
favour of the indigenous character of the round tower of
Ireland."

The interlacing of flexible bands, such as strips of bast,
entire leaves as of grass, or shreds of large leaves, is known
to almost every people, and is employed in making mats.
When the elements employed are all of one size, and when
the plaiting is straight, the intersections form regular equi-
lateral rectangles or squares. (Plate IL, Fig. 3, and compare
the transferred design in Fig. 50.) If the material consists
of two colours simple patterns are readily produced, but of
necessity the patterns must consist of straight, slanting, or

' "Pagan Ireland," The Century Magazine, xxxvii., 1889, p. 368.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 9 1

zigzag lines; curves are an impossibility. The same holds
good for nearly all forms of matting and basketry which is
made of strips of one material, but the constructional
surface marking may be rectangles of various shapes and
sizes instead of simple squares. (Plate 11. , Fig. 4.) When
one series of the components is twisted, as in Plate II.,
Fig. 5, there is a kind of flow effect in the intersections.

The making of baskets by laying down the material in a
spiral gives rise to different effects, especially when coloured
strips are interwoven for decorative purposes — as, for ex-
ample, in some African baskets and the baskets made by
the natives of South Australia, in the neighbourhood of
Adelaide. Dr. Keller found in the Lake of Robenhausen
a kind of basketry formed by bast, the fibre of the lime-
tree, intertwisted among a series of willow rods, the strips
"running concentrically in such a way that both together
form a structure like that called 'herring-bone.'"^ (Plate
II., Fig. 2.) It is possible that the pattern in the middle
band of Fig. 49, and some of those in Fig. 50, may have
been suggested by basketry or plaited fans.

An early type of basket is seen in the Roman corbula
(Plate II., Fig. 6), in which the osier rods are placed
rectangularly; another, in an ivory plaque from Boulak
(Plate II., Fig. 7), in which there is a chevron arrange-
ment. The latter is the more common skeuomorph on
European prehistoric pottery, but the rectangular type
often occurs, and it may be seen on a Danish food-vessel
of the Stone Age. (Plate IL, Fig. 8.)

The bottom of a basket, with a cruciform arrangement
of the bands, due to the method of weaving, was discovered
by Dr. Keller in the Terramara marl-pits of Northern Italy
(Plate II., Fig. 9); and a piece of pottery from the same
deposit is ornamented with a corresponding skeuomorph
(Plate IL, Fig. 10).

Dr. Colley March has further developed this subject, and,
^ F. Keller, The Lake DweUings^ etc , p. 565.

92 EVOLUTION IN ART.

while I cannot commit myself to several of his conclusions,
I do not hesitate to give an exposition of his ingenious
views, as they are very suggestive, and even if they are
not finally accepted, they will lead to a further examination
of the problems : —

"The perpetual concentration of attention, the strain of
hand and eye and brain upon the forms of wattle-work and
basketry produced an important decorative result. The
mind acquired an expectancy of a special mode of curved
repetitions. This particular skeuomorph is composed of a
band that winds in and out among a row of rods or discs."
(Plate III., Fig. A.)

The " discs " are naturally the cross sections of the
vertical elements of the wattle-work— that is the "rods."
"The device underwent a change in opposite directions.
The discs grew, or they vanished. In the latter case the
band left by itself is the meander, and may be called a
curvilinear zigzag. In the former case the discs often
became the seat of phyllomorphic invasion, and were trans-
formed into leaves or flowers.

"Examples may be seen on the margin of a bronze
shield from Cyprus (Plate III., Fig. 2); on a vessel of
terra-cotta from the third sepulchre of Mycen^ (Plate III.,
Fig. 8); and on an enamelled Roman vase found on Bart-
low Hill (Plate IIL, Fig. 5); whilst a twin-form, which
presents both contrast and repetition, occurs on another
bronze shield from the Mediterranean (Plate III., Fig. i)
and is the basis of the Assyrian ornament and its Greek
variant called the guilloche. (Plate III., Figs. 4, 3.)

"A different skeuomorph is derived from a different
method of basketry, in which a single fibre is turned round
a row of osier-sticks, so as to produce a wave repetition
(Plate III., Fig. b), as may be seen on the pottery of the
ancient Pueblos (Plate III., Fig. 6). When these discs
disappear, the fibre by itself resembles the Vitruvian scroll,
and may be called a curvilinear fret. (Plate III., Fig. b.)

EVOLUTION IN ART. 93

" Whenever the pattern has a stepped form, as on many
of the Pueblo vases (Plate III., Fig. 7), it indicates that the
methods of textile manufacture had already influenced the
eye and mind of the race before the invention or introduc-
tion of pottery. "

The scroll-patterns illustrated by Dr. March may at one
time and place have had the origin supposed by Dr. March,
but it does not appear to me to be probable that they
would have arisen in this way both in South Europe and
in Mexico. I have shown (p. 51, Fig. 27) how a simple
guilloche has arisen from interlocking birds' heads. 'J he
Vitruvian scroll design occurs among the Tugeri head-
hunters of New Guinea, and it is most improbable that it
owes its origin to basketry. It is probable that the
Pueblo pottery with curvilinear patterns, such as Plate III.,
Fig. 6, is more recent than that with angular designs; but
I shall return to this later on. In fact, I would feel inclined
to state that Dr. March's view is possible for the origin of
the patterns in question, once and in a restricted locality, but
highly improbable for wide application.

There is a great tendency for spirals to degenerate into
concentric circles; examples could be given from New
Guinea, America, Europe, and elsewhere. In fact, one
usually finds the two figures associated together, and the
sequence is one of decadence, never the evolution of spirals
from circles. The intermediate stage has been aptly termed
a "bastard spiral" by Dr. Montelius, ''that is to say, con-
centric circles to which the recurved junction-lines give, to
a casual glance, the appearance of true spirals. "^

".The strangest skeuomorph of all," writes Dr. March,
"was that common to the early inhabitants of Northern
Europe. They were adepts in basketry, and in wattle-work
for walls and ramparts. Moreover, the pliant bark of the
birch was ever ready to the hand for a thousand purposes

1 O. Montelius, " Sur les Poignees des Epees et des Poignards en
Bronze," Congr. prehist. Stockholm^ 1874, ii. p. 891.

94 EVOLUTION IN ART.

of life. The Norwegian still makes hinges for gates and
loops for the oar out of the entwisted fibre. The old
Norseman spoke of the rudder withy, for the earliest rudder
was an oar; and leather thongs were also used to keep the
oar against the thole-pin. The skeuomorph consists of a
withy wound upon itself. (Plate VII., Fig. 1 1.) This device,
wrongly called a rope-pattern, gained such an ascendency
over the northern mind that it was employed sometimes as
a symbol (Plate VII., Fig. 12), like the reefing knot on
Roman altars. (Plate VII., Fig. 13.) It was used also by
the ancient Hittites. (Plate IV., Fig. i.)

" It is evident that the withy skeuomorph (Plate IV., Figs.
2, 3), the Scandinavian worm-knot, established itself as a
necessity of the mind before those men who were dominated
by it had discarded a covering of skins for one of cloth; for
its type is antagonistic to the regular intersections and the
stepped designs of textile fabrics, and no trace of these
appears on their early pottery.

" When weaving was at last introduced, so as to be
practised by these people, it was probably along with the
introduction of metals. But for a while the use of metal
only increased the number of twisted things. The words,
wire, wicker, and withy are all from the root WI, io plait^
and the Teutonic WIRA means filigree, an ornament of
twisted filaments of metal; and as the simplest manner of
terminating a wire is to coil its end, the earliest filigree is
preponderantly spiral. (Plate IV., Figs. 5, 6, 7.) Thus was
the way prepared," concludes Dr. March, " for the advent
of the serpent zoomorph, so much affected by Teutons and
Scandinavians."

In early times wooden bands were interwoven to form
flat surfaces, as, for example, in the floor of a lake-dwelling at
Niederwyl, in Switzerland (Plate IV., Fig. 8), but few traces
of the art of "fascining," as Dr. March points out, remain to
us from antiquity, since wood-work rapidly perishes by decay,
and is easily destroyed by fire. This art produces a bold

EVOLUTION IN ART. 95

decorative effect which appears to have been perpetuated in
various ways. Amongst others may be mentioned the interior
decoration of an earthen vessel from UeberHngen See
(Plate IV., Fig. 9), a crescent of red sandstone from Ebers-
berg (Plate IV., Fig. 10), and an incised stone from
Hadrian's Wall, in Northumberland. (Plate IV., Fig. 11.)

So far we have only considered the type of ornamenta-
tion which occurs on plaited or woven objects, and these
are seen to be conditioned by that particular technique. We
have now to see what occurs when a new material is sub-
stituted for the old.

There are many varieties of tapa in the Pacific, some of
which are coarse and others of extreme fineness and soft-
ness. The process of making and decorating tapa has often
been described; sometimes the tapa is ribbed, having been
beaten with more or less finely corrugated wooden mallets,
occasionally it is marked with squares which give it an
appearance of having been stamped by a simply plaited mat,
but many pieces are quite smooth. There is nothing in
the texture or manufacture of tapa to prevent its being
ornamented with intricate and involved patterns. As a
general rule, all over the Pacific we find that tapa patterns
are largely geometrical — that is, they are formed of straight
and angled fines; bowed lines, which are grouped into leaf-
like designs, are not infrequent, but doubly curved lines and
scroll-like designs are extremely rare. The evidence clearly
points to a time anterior to the employment of tapa, and
when mats and other textiles were the only fabrics; the decor-
ation of these was necessarily angular in style. When tapa
became general the older designs were transferred to the
new material, and quite irrespective of its capabilities. Only
gradually has it been found that the smooth surface of tapa
lends itself to a more elaborate decorative treatment. The
essential conservatism of the savage precludes rapid emanci-
pation from long existent thralls, especially as the aesthetic
mind has, so to speak, become set in angularities.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

It is probable that the practice of beating tapa with
wooden mallets led to the discovery of printing in colours.
The transitions are slight between finding the natural
graining of wood impressing itself on the soft tapa, of so
cutting the mallets as to produce a regularly grooved surface,
and of colouring the blocks, and lastly of making the great
printing blocks on which the pattern stands up in relief,
which were made in Fiji. Sometimes the lines in relief of
printing blocks are made by fastening the mid ribs of palm
leaves on to a stout piece of tapa.

In certain islands it has been discovered that fern fronds
covered with pigment can be used for printing, and thus

y''?lijniP5fi?^57l^^

Fig. 51. — Sketches of tapa belts from Kerepunu, British New Guinea;
about three-quarters natural size.

what is known in this country as " nature-printing " has
been independently arrived at.

What has happened in the Great Ocean apparently also
took place in New Guinea. In the south-eastern peninsula
the men wear tapa belts which are often painted. About
the district of Kerepunu, in British New Guinea, tapa belts
are worn by the men which are painted in a peculiar
manner with grey and orange pigments. In Fig. 5 1 we
have two typical patterns. It is obvious that the interlaced
design would be easily arrived at in a plaited belt, but it is
highly improbable that it is, so to speak, indigenous to the
tapa. »

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 52.— Designs derived from uhiri
(women's covering) ; a, b, c,
Bakairi tribe, Central Brazil ; d,
Aueto tribe, Central Brazil.
After Von den Steinenj greatly
reduced.

In all the other examples of painted tapa known to me
from British New Guinea, angular designs alone occur.

Professor von den
Steinen discovered in
Central .Brazil some pat-
terns, which most people
would designate as "geo-
metrical," painted on
pieces of bark which
formed a frieze round a
chiefs house. These pat-
terns (Fig. 52) are derived
from serial repetitions of
the minute triangular gar-
mentwhich constitutes the
sole clothing of the women.
This is a good example of
the necessity for local in-
formation concerning the significance of designs. I would
refer the reader to later pages for further examples of analo-
gous patterns from the same district.

4. Skeuo7norphic Pottery, i^
Perhaps no manufacture is of such importance to anthro-
pologists as pottery. In Europe pottery first appeared in
what is termed by archaeologists the Neolithic Age, or that
period of human history when man had learnt to neatly
chip and to polish his stone implements, but had not as yet
discovered metal. Amongst living people the Australians
and the Polynesians are the only great groups among whom
pottery is unknown.^ There can be little doubt that the
1 In Oceania pottery is unknown save in the West, and there only
sporadically. It is absent in Polynesia. except in the Tonga Islands,
where it is doubtless due to Fiji influence. Its distribution in Melanesia
is erratic; for example, it occurs in the Fiji Islands, New Caledonia,
and the Loyalty Islands. Rude, unglazed dishes are made in Espiritu
Santo (R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, 1891, p. 315), but not

98 EVOLUTION IN ART.

ceramic art has been independently discovered in various
parts of the world, and Mr. Gushing believes that this has
been the case even in America.

Earthen vessels are comparatively easy to make, and
though they are brittle, their fragments, when properly
baked, are almost indestructible. The history of man is un-
consciously written largely on shards, and the elucidation of
these unwritten records is as interesting and important as the
deciphering of the cuneiform inscriptions on the clay tablets
of Assyria. The Book of Pots has yet to be written, but
materials for its compilation lie scattered throughout the
great literature of archaeology, anthropology, and ceramics,
and in the specimens in a multitude of museums and

Aurora, in Pentecost and Lepers' Island in the New Hebrides, nor
in Banks' Islands, Torres Islands, Santa Cruz Group, and most of
the Solomon Islands. While wanting in the Bismarck Archipelago, it
occurs in New Guinea. But even where pottery is made it is very
local and confined to certain tribes. For example, in British New
Guinea (A. C. Haddon, The Decorative Art of British New Guinea^
1894, pp. 149, 222-224) it is made only in the south-east peninsula and
in some of the adjacent islands. In scattered villages, or even in parts
of villages, from Yule Island to Maopa in Aroma, pottery is made from
clay in the lump ; but in the Engineer Group, and especially in Wari
(or Teste Island), the clay is laid down in a spiral, and no stone and
beater are used, but it is smoothed by a Tellina shell. This method is
described and figured by Dr. Finsch (O. Finsch, Samoafahrten, 1888,
p. 280; Ethnological Atlas, 1888, Plate IV.). The upper border of these
pots, he says, "exhibits various simple band patterns, which are scratched
with fork-like bamboo instruments, and which serve not as ornamenta-
tion but as trade-marks. Thus here also (as at Bilibili) each woman
has her own mark, with which she signs her fabrication." I have else-
where (cf. Decorative Art of British Neiv Guinea, p. 223) printed an
extract from the unpublished journal of Dr. H. O. Forbes, in which
he gives an account of the method of making pottery at Wari. Fig.
23 is a copy of Dr. Forbes' sketches of these slightly decorated
vessels. In German New Guinea (Kaiser Wilhelm's Land) pottery
is made from the lump, as among the Motu of British New Guinea,
at Sechstroh River (Humboldt Bay), Goose Bay (Dallmann Har-
bour), the island of Bilia (Eickstedt Island in Prince Henry Harbour)
and more especially at the island of Bilibili in Astrolabe

rbour)j

EVOLUTION IN ART. 99

collections. The scientific treatment of the subject has
been sketched out mainly by W. H. Holmes and F. H.
Gushing, and I have not hesitated to borrow largely from
the publications of these American anthropologists.

There are three principal methods of making clay vessels
— I, by coiling; 2, by modelling; or 3, by casting.

In the first method longer or shorter rope-like pieces
of clay are formed. These are laid down in a spiral,
and the vessel is built up by a continuation of the same
process.

In modelling, or moulding, a lump of clay is taken, and
this is first worked with the hands, and then the clay is
gradually beaten into the desired shape and thickness by

Dr. Finsch claims that this pottery is of better quality and better
decorated than that of the south-east coast. Some of the vessels are
ornamented with small bosses. But the insignificant patterns, frequently
made with the finger-nail, are probably intended, as in Port Moresby,
for trade-marks, and not merely for ornament. From their extremely
local and scattered distribution it is evident that the pottery makers of
New Guinea are not autocthones, but belong to the waves of Melanesian
immigration that have washed the coast and neighbouring islands.

In speaking of New Caledonia Baron L. de Vaux (L. de Vaux,
"Les Canaques de la Nouvelle-Caledonie," Rev. cTEtknog.fii., 1883,
p. 340) says, "formerly the women of Pouebo, Oubatche,' and Pam
had the monopoly; now the art tends more and more to disappear as
the natives find it more practical to buy trade vessels. They succeeded
in making pots to the height of two feet, and very often decorated
externally with lizards and frogs in relief. The base being ready, they
superimpose rings of well-prepared clay the one above the other,
holding them and joining them from the interior with the left hand,
whilst they smooth their work externally by means of the right hand
and of a little beater of smooth, hard wood."

Mr. Atkinson (J. J. Atkinson, "Notes on Pointed Forms of Pottery
among Primitive Peoples," yi?«r«. Anth. Inst.^ xxiii., 1893, p. 90) also
describes the New Caledonian method of making pottery, and draws
attention to the fact that the occasional traces of faint horizontal marks
occasioned by the technique " imitate the marks left by pottery made
on the system of plastering wickerwork employed by some people,"
and therefrom he suggests a necessary warning not to take the latter
nicthod as having been of universal occurrence.

100 EVOLUTION IN ART.

means of a wooden mallet, which hits against a stone or
other object that is held inside the incipient vessel.

The third method, by casting, is very rarely employed
except by quite civilised peoples. It was a comparatively
late discovery that clay vessels could be cast within hollow
moulds if the paste was made thin enough.

The coiling and moulding processes are in some places
employed side by side, and a vessel may be commenced in
the latter method and finished by coiling. (Fig. 55.) This
is done by the Nicobarese,^ Pueblo Indians, and other
peoples.

The subject of the forms and decoration of pottery is so
important for our study that it will be advisable to quote
at considerable length some of the American investigations
which bear upon it. Nowhere than in that continent are
conditions more favourable to a scientific study of the
evolution of ceramics, and our American colleagues happily
are fully alive to this fact. Their researches afford valuable
sidelights upon the probable history of European pre-
historic ceramics.

Mr. J. D. Hunter, 2 writing of the Mississippi tribes in
1823, says that they spread the clay " over blocks of wood,
which have been formed into shapes to suit their con-
venience or fancy. When sufficiently dried they are
removed from the moulds, placed in proper situations, and
burned to a hardness suitable to their intended uses.
Another method practised by them is to coat the inner
surface of baskets, made of rushes or willows, with clay, to
any required thickness, and when dry, to burn them as
above described."
, Messrs. Squier and Davis,^ referring to the vessels of the

^ E. H. Man, ''Nicobar Pottery," ywr;z. Anth. Inst.^ xxiii., 1893,
p. 21.

^ J. D. Hunter, Manners and Cusfoms of several Indian Tribes
located west of the Mississippi. Philadelphia, 1823, p. 296.

^ Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,
1S4S, p. 187.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 01

Gulf Indians, say: — "In the construction of those of large
size, it was customary to model them in baskets of willow
or splints, which at the proper period were burned off,
leaving the vessel perfect in form, and retaining the some-
what ornamental markings of their moulds. Some of those
found on the Ohio seem to have been modelled in bags
or nettings of coarse thread or twisted bark. These
practices are still retained by some of the remote western
tribes."

Mr. W. H. Holmes 1 points out that "clay has no in-
herent qualities of a nature to impose a given form or class
of forms upon its products, as have wood, bark, bone, or
stone. It is so mobile as to be quite free to take form
from surroundings. ... In early stages of culture the
processes of art are closely akin to those of nature, the
human agent hardly ranking as more than a part of the
environment. The primitive artist does not proceed by
methods identical with our own. He does not deliberately
and freely examine all departments of nature or art, and
select for models those things most convenient or most •
agreeable to fancy; neither does he experiment with the
view of inventing new forms. What he attempts depends
almost absolutely upon what happens to be suggested by
preceding forms.

" The range of models in the ceramic art is at first very
limited, and includes only those utensils devoted to the
particular use to which the clay vessels are to be applied;
later, closely associated objects and utensils are copied.
In the first stages of art, when a savage makes a weapon, ^
he modifies or copies a weapon; when he makes a vessel
he modifies or copies a vessel" (pp. 445, 446).

The discovery of the art of making pottery was probably \/
in all cases adventitious, the clay being first used for

* W. H. Holmes, *' Origin and Development of Form and Ornament

in Ceramic Art," Fourth Aumcal Report of the Bureau of Ethnology ^
1882-83. Washington, 1886.

102 EVOLUTION IN ART.

some other purpose. " The use of clay as a cement in
repairing utensils, in protecting combustible vessels from
injury by fire, or in building up the walls of shallow vessels,
may also have led to the formation of discs or cups, after-
wards independently constructed. In any case the objects
or utensils with which the clay was associated in its earliest
use would impress their forms upon it. Thus, if clay were
used in deepening or mending vessels of stone by a given
people, it would, when used independently by that people,
tend to assume shapes suggested by stone vessels. The
same may be said of its use in connection with wood and
wicker, or with vessels of other materials. Forms of vessels
so derived may be said to have an adventitious origin, yet
they are essentially copies, although not so by design "
(p. 445). In other words, such pottery is primitively
skeuomorphic. Ceramic biomorphs will be dealt with in a
later chapter.

Mr. Holmes further points out that the shapes first
assumed by vessels in clay depend upon the shape of the
vessels employed at the time of the introduction of the art,
and these depend, to a great extent, upon the kind and
grade of culture of the people acquiring the art, and upon
the resources of the country in which they live.

A few examples will suffice. Mr. Holmes (Joe. cif., pp. 383,
448) figures an oblong wooden vessel with a projecting
rim, which is narrow at the sides but broad at the ends ;
it is in fact a sort of winged trough; this is sometimes
copied in clay. It is evident that the elongated terminal
shelf-like projections are more suited to a wooden than to
an earthen vessel.

In Fig. 53 we have an Iroquois bark-vessel. Mr. Gushing^
informs us that in order to produce this form of utensil
from a single piece of bark, it is necessary to cut pieces

^ F. H. Gushing, "A Study of Pueblo Pottery as illustrative of Zuni
Culture Growth," Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology^
1882-83. Washington, 1886.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 53.— Iroquois bark vessel;
after Gushing.

out of the margin and fold it. Each fold, when stitched
together in the shaping of the vessel, forms a corner at
the rim. These corners, and the borders which they form,
are decorated with short lines and combinations of lines,
composed of coarse embroid-
eries with dyed porcupine quills.
Clay vessels (Fig. 54), which
strikingly resemble the shape and
decoration of these birch or
linden bark vessels, are of com-
mon occurrence in the lake
regions of the United States.
There can be but little doubt
that the clay vessels are directly
derived from the bark vessels.

Mr. Cushing's long and in-
timate knowledge of the Zuhi
Indians has enabled him to speak
with authority on matters which
might be merely happy sugges-
tions by other anthropologists.
Any one can guess at origins
and meanings, but there are few
who know at first-hand, and who
therefore can act as interpreters
to the student at home. The
following account of Zuhi pottery
is taken from Mr. Cushing's
paper, entitled "A Study of
Pueblo Pottery as illustrative of
Zuni Culture Growth."

So far as language indicates, the earliest Zuni water vessels
were tubes of wood or sections of cane. The latter must
speedily have given way to the use of gourds. While the
gourd was large and convenient in form, it was difficult of
transportation, owing to its fragility. To overcome this it

Fig. 54 — Rectangular, or
Iroquois, type of earthen
vessel; after Gushing.

t04 EVOLUTION IN ART.

was encased in a coarse sort of wicker-work. Of this there
is evidence among the Zuhis, in the shape of a series of
rudely encased gourd vessels into which the sacred water is
said to have been transferred from the tubes.

This crude beginning of the wicker-art in connection
with water vessels points towards the development of the
wonderful water-tight baskets of the south-west, explaining,
too, the resemblance of many of its typical forms to the
shapes of gourd vessels. The name for these vessels also
supports this view.

Mr. Gushing suggests that water-tight osiery, once known,
however difficult of manufacture, would displace the general
use of gourd vessels. While the growth of the gourd was
restricted to limited areas, the materials for basketry were
anywhere at hand. Basket vessels were far stronger and
more durable than gourds.

"We may conclude, then," continues Mr. Gushing,
"that so long as the Pueblo ancestry were semi-nomadic,
basketry supplied the place of pottery,' as it still does for
the less advanced tribes of the south-west, except in
cookery." Thus the Ha va su pat, or Goconinos of Gataract
Ganon, Arizona, in 1881, "had not yet forgotten how to
boil food in water-tight basketry, by means of hot stones,
and continued to roast seeds, crickets, and bits of meat in
wicker-trays, coated inside with gritty clay. A round
basket-tray, either loosely or closely woven, is evenly coated
inside with clay, into which has been kneaded a very large
proportion of sand, to prevent contraction and consequent
cracking from drying. This lining of clay is pressed, while
still soft, into the basket as closely as possible with the
hands, and then allowed to dry. The tray thus made is
ready for use. The seeds or other substances to be parched
are placed inside of it, together with a quantity of glowing
wood coals;" these are made to rapidly revolve. "That
this clay lining should grow hard from continual heating,
and in some instances separate from its matrix of osiers,

jiers, 1

EVOLUTION IN ART. I05

is apparent. The clay form thus detacl^ed would itself
be a perfect roasting vessel " (pp. 484, 485). The modern
Zuni name for a parching pan indicates that the shallow
vessel of twigs coated with clay for roasting had given birth
to the parching pan of earthenware.

In the ancient Zuhi country are found vessels of the
same form as the basket-pot or boiling basket, still
surviving among the Havasupai. These baskets are good
examples of the spirally-coiled type of basket.

" Seizing the suggestion afforded by the rude tray-
moulded parching-bowls, particularly after it was discovered
that if well burned they resisted the effects of water as well
as of heat, the ancient potter would naturally attempt in
time to reproduce the boiling-basket in clay. She would
find that to accomplish this she could not use as a mould
the inside of the boiling-basket, as she had the inside of
the tray, because its neck was smaller than its body. Nor
could she form the vase by plastering the clay outside of
the vessel, not only for the same reason, but also because
the clay in drying would contract so much that it would
crack or scale off. Naturally, then, she pursued the
process she was accustomed to in the manufacture of the
basket-bottle. That is, she formed a thin rope of soft clay,
which, like the wisp of the basket, she coiled around and
around a centre to form the bottom, then spirally upon
itself, now widening the diameter of each coil more and
more, then contracting as she progressed upward until
the desired height and form were attained. As the clay
was adhesive, each coil was attached to the one already
formed by pinching or pressing together the connecting
edges at short intervals as the widening went on. This
produced corrugations or indentations marvellously resem-
bling the stitches of basket-work. Hence accidentally the
vessels thus built up appeared so similar to the basket
which had served for its model that evidently it did not
seem complete until this feature had been heightened by

lo6 EVOLUTION IN ART.

art. At any rate, the majority of specimens belonging to
this type of pottery, especially those of the older periods
during which it was predominant, are distinguished by
an indented or incised decoration exactly*-reproducing the
zigzags, serrations, chevrons, terraces, and other character-
istic devices of watertight basketry. Evidently, with a like
intention, two little cone-like projections were attached to
the neck near the rim of the vessel, which may hence be
regarded as survivals of the loops whereby the ends of the
strap-handle were attached to the boiling-basket. Although
varied in later times to form scrolls, rosettes, and other
ornate figures, they continued ever after quite faithful
features of the spiral type of pot, and may even some-
times be seen on the cooking vessels of modern Zufii."
Corroborative evidence of the connection between the two
kinds of receptacles is found in their names, the translation
being "coiled cooking-basket" and "coiled earthenware
cooking-basket" (pp. 489-491).

Other earthenware vessels had a somewhat different
evolutionary history, but they had for their starting-point
the food-trencher of coiled wicker-work. When by a
perfectly natural sequence of events ornamentation by paint-
ing came to be applied to the surface of the bowls a smooth
surface was found preferable to a corrugated one, not only
because it took paint more readily, but because it formed
a far handsomer utensil for household use than if simply
decorated by the older methods.

Later the building up of large vessels was no longer
accomplished by the spiral method exclusively. " A lump
of clay, hollowed out, was shaped how rudely so ever on the
bottom of the basket or in the hand, then placed inside of
a hemispherical basket-bowl, and stroked until pressed
outward to conform with the shape, and to project a little
above the edges of its temporary mould, whence it was built
up spirally (Fig. 55) until the desired form had been
attained, after which it was smoothed by scraping."

EVOLUTION IN ART.

lo;

With regard to the employment of textile supports by the
ancient peoples of North America for the clay vessels
during the process of manufacture, Mr. Holmes^ writes: —
" Nets or sacks of pliable materials have been almost
exclusively employed. These have been applied to the
surface of the vessel, sometimes covering the exterior
entirely, and at others only the body or a part of the body.
The nets or other fabrics used have generally been removed
before the vessel was burned or even dried. ... I have
observed in many cases that handles and ornaments have

Fig. 55. — Clay nucleus in base mould, with beginning of spiral build-
ing ; a stage in the formation of a Zuni vessel ; after Gushing.

been added, and that impressed and incised designs have
been made in the soft clay after the removal of the woven
fabric. There w^ould be no need of the support of a net
after the vessel had been fully finished and slightly hardened.
Furthermore, I have no doubt that these textilia were
employed as much for the purpose of enhancing the
appearance of the vessel as for supporting it during the
process of construction. In support of the idea that
ornament was a leading consideration in the employment of

1 W. H. Holmes, " Prehistoric Textile Fabrics of the United States
derived from Impressions on Pottery," Third Ann. Rep. Btireatt
Elhnol. Washington, 1884.

I08 EVOLUTION IN ART.

these coarse fabrics, we have the well-known fact that

simple cord-markings, arranged to form patterns, have been

employed by many peoples for embellishment alone. This

was a common practice of the ancient inhabitants of Great

Britain"! (p. 398).

y The value of the bearing of such observations as the

foregoing on the study of the prehistoric pottery of Europe

is obvious. In America the record is unbroken ; with us,

■ like the great majority of our archaeological finds, we are

/ dealing with fragments, and it is only by careful piecing

/ together that a symmetrical whole can be restored.

Dr. Klemm,2 some half-century ago, wrote : — "The imita-
tion (of natural vessels) in clay presupposes numerous trials.
In the Friendly Islands [Tonga ^] we find vessels which are
still in an early stage; they are made of clay, slightly burnt,
and enclosed in plaited work; so also the oldest German
vessels seem to have been, for we observe on those which
remain an ornamentation in which plaiting is imitated by
incised lines. What was no longer wanted as a necessity
was kept up as an ornament."

Dr. Daniel Wilson* says that the early British urns may

1 A very interesting collateral line of study has sprung from Mr.
Holmes' investigations of the impressions on pottery. By the simple
expedient of taking impressions in clay from ancient pottery, and so
throwing into high relief the rather obscure intaglio impressions in the
originals, he has been able to restore a considerable number of diverse
fabrics which were used for the purposes just stated. '* The perfect
manner in which the fabric in all its details of plaiting and weaving
can be brought out is a matter of astonishment ; the cloth itself could
hardly make all the particulars of its construction more manifest."
The perishable material so impressed the clay that when it had long
since crumbled into dust the latter was enabled to transmit the details
of the structure of a fabric the very existence of which would otherwise
never have been known.

2 G. Klemm, Allgenieine CuUur-Geschichte der Menschheit, vol. i.
p. 188.

^ Pottery is made in Fiji, but not in Tonga.

* D. Wilson, Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (2nd ed.), 1863, i. p. 430.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 109

have been "strengthened at first by being surrounded with
a plaiting of cords or rushes. ... It is certain that very
many of the indented patterns on British pottery have been
produced by the impress of twisted cords on the wet clay
— the intentional imitation it may be of undesigned in-
dentations originally made up by the plaited network on
ruder sun-dried urns."

Professor Tylor^ refers to Mr. G. J. French's experiments.'^
"He coated baskets with clay, and found the wicker
patterns came out on all the earthen vessels thus made;
and he seems to think that some ancient urns still preserved
were actually moulded in this way, judging from the lip
being marked as if the wicker-work had been turned in over
the clay coating inside."

" On the surface of a few ancient vases or urns found
in Germany," Mr. Charles Rau^ says, "I noticed those
markings which present the appearance of basket-work; I
was, however, in doubt whether they were impressions pro-
duced by the inside of baskets, or simply ornamental lines
traced on the wet clay. Yet, even in the latter case, it
would seem that this kind of ornamentation was suggested
by the former practice of modelling vessels in baskets."

It may be taken as proved that in a number of cases
the forms of pots are taken from natural objects, or from
receptacles made of different materials. We cannot demon-
strate this in all cases, nor should we expect to, for even
assuming this to have been the universal origin, we cannot
hope to have the earlier stages preserved to us. The record
is imperfect, the evidence of origin is clear in some cases,
and probable in others ; in some the evidence is lacking.

What applies to the form of pottery applies equally to its

1 E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind (3rd
edit.), 1878, p. 273.

2 G. J. French, An Attempt, etc., 1858.

3 Charles Rau, "Indian Pottery," Smithsonian Report, 1866,
p. 346, and 1882, p. 49.

1 10 EVOLUTION IN ART.

;decoration ; often it is impossible to disassociate them. The
actual or primitive technique of manufacture, too, may
exhibit itself in and as an ornament, as, for example, the
spiral markings in pottery made in the coil method. We
have seen that in some places plaited or woven fabrics have
been used to support the soft clay, and these have left their
impress. If not previously destroyed, these marks become
indelible after the burning of the pottery. These markings
being due to the process of manufacture, are repeated in the
manufacture of every vessel, and if not purposely smoothed
out, expectancy comes into operation, and they may be
imitated in a slightly conventional manner even when they
may no longer occur in construction, as, for example, when
the supports are no longer employed, or in pottery turned
on a wheel.

Various methods of plaiting, intertwining, netting, and so
forth may thus be transferred as skeuomorphic decoration to
pottery. These are at first produced by means of incisions,
puckerings of the clay by the fingers, application of accessory
coils or pieces of clay, etc. Even the accidental imprints of
nails or finger-tips, or of implements, may have suggested
certain decoration.

Later on, when pottery was decorated by painting, the
same kind of ornamentation was reproduced in the new
medium, and as the changed conditions evoked freer treat-
ment, the designs underwent various transformations.

Mr. Holmes 1 discusses the modification of ornament (i)
through material, (2) through form, (3) through methods of
realisation (p. 458).

(i.) The material of which an object is made must have
a very definite effect upon its decoration, and the material is
to a very large extent dependent upon the locality. Metal,
stone, clay, wood, bone, skins, and textiles are so varied in
their structure that they require different artistic treatment,

^ W. H. Holmes, " Origin and Development of Form and Ornament
in CQXd^mxQ Art,'' Fourth Ann. Rep. Bureau EtJmol, Washington, 1886.

EVOLUTION IN ART. Ill

and it has usually taken a considerable time for a people to
discover what is the most suitable form of decoration for an
object made of a particular substance.

(2.) The forms of decorated objects exercise a strong
influence upon the decorative designs employed. An orna-
ment, as Mr. Holmes remarks, applied originally to a vessel
of a given form, accommodates itself to that form pretty
much as a costume becomes adjusted to the individual.
When it came to be required for another form of vessel,
very decided changes might be necessary.

The ancient Pueblo peoples were very fond of rectilinear
forms of meander patterns, and many earthen vessels are

Figs. 56 and 57, — Variations in a motive through the influence of
form. Pueblo pottery ; after Holmes.

found girdled with a beautiful angular pattern. (Fig. 56.)
When, however, the artist has to decorate a vessel which has
rounded prominences in its central zone, he finds it very
difficult to apply his favourite device, and he is practically
compelled to convert his angled into a spiral meander.

(Fig. 57.)

(3.) Ornament is modified by the method of its execution,
whether by incising, modelling, painting, or stamping;
closely associated with these are the peculiarities of con-
struction.

Nearly all woven fabrics encourage, even to compulsion,
the use of straight lines in their decoration. Curved lines

112

EVOLUTION IN ART.

ites, 1

are rendered as stepped or broken lines. Fig. 58 illustrates,'
in a diagrammatic manner, two forms of the same motive as
expressed in different arts. The curvilinear freehand scroll,
which is readily painted, incised, or moulded in relief, is
forced by the constructional character of textiles into square
forms, and a rectangular meander or fret will result. Brick-
work, mosaics, or whole-coloured tiles also lead to similar
results. In the small panel to the left of Fig. 59 it will be

:::-2!i-BH:S-r!i::::::!i::i

A. B.

Fig. 58. — A, Freehand form ; B, Form imposed by fabric. Forms of

the same motive expressed in different arts ; after Holmes.

Fig. 59.— Design of Fig. 60; after Hohiies.

observed that careless or hurried work has resulted in the
rounding of an angular hook, which has been transmitted to
pottery from a textile source. I have noticed the angular-
isation of spirals occurring in New Guinea ; this was due,
not to change in the material employed, but to the prefer-
ence which the natives of the Papuan Gulf have to straight
and angled lines. (Cf. Figs, it, 12.) Primitive spirals have
been copied by these people, and have gradually become
angularised into a rectilinear meander.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

113

Fig. 60 is a drawing of the painted design of a large
earthen vessel from the province of Tusayan, in the district
of the Colorado Chiquito. From the occurrence of an
isolated stepped line in the decoration, Mr. Holmes suggests
that the ornamentation had a textile ancestry. The design

Fig. 60. — Ancient Pueblo vase, province of Tusayan. The height and
width of the vase are 14 inches ; after Holmes.

is made by leaving the white colour of the pot and painting a
black background. The " unit of the design," as interpreted
by Mr. Holmes, is given in black in Fig. 61. Judging from
Fig. 60, which is a representation of the vessel itself, Fig. 59
is a fairly faithful copy of the design ; but there is no warrant

114

EVOLUTION IN ART.

on this vase for his joining the scroll pattern at each end
with its enclosing line, as in Fig. 6i. It is obvious that if
this design were logically worked out, it would appear as in
the last figure ; it may be so on other vases, but Mr. Holmes
apparently is concerned with this one. Professor GriinwedeP
has drawn attention to the mistake of rectifying aboriginal
drawings, as we are thereby preventing ourselves from
studying the psychology of the natives. According to the

Fig. 6i. — "Unit of the design" of Fig. 60; after Holmes.

method we are employing, we are concerned with wliat
actually occurs, and not with what might be.

5. S/o/te Skeuomorphs of Wooden Buildings.

Sir C. Fellows,^ in his interesting account of his travels in
Asia Minor, draws attention to the remarkable rock-tombs
which he discovered in Lycia, and which clearly prove that
these tombs were models in stone of wooden dwellings. At
Antiphellus (Plate V., Fig. i) the timbering is reproduced
to every detail of mortise and tenon. The stems of trees,

^ Cf. p. 334, which is an abstract of what that author says.
'^ C. Fellows, A Journal written durin^ an Exctirsion in -A
Minor ^ 1 839.

EVOLUTION IN ART. II5

laid horizontally to cover the chamber, are imitated in
masonry. They project beyond the wall, and show their
ends, as a row of circular sections, in the middle of the
entablature. The tree trunk at each extremity of the row
was larger than the rest, and has been squared. Sometimes
all the trunks are squared, as may be seen at Xanthus (Plate
v.. Fig. 2); and we witness, as Dr. March points out, the
origin of the well-known Greek ornament called " guttse."
He also calls attention to the fact that skeuomorphs of
timbering were much affected by the Normans, as in their
various billet patterns; whilst their capitals often show
sections, not alone of branches springing from a tree trunk,
but of the enveloping bark also. (Plate I., Fig. b.)

Another rock tomb at Antiphellus (Plate V., Fig. 3) shows
a row of squared trunks projecting beyond the side of the
building, as would be a natural arrangement in any wooden
house that had a length greater than its wudth. In the
same building are external indications of a second story.
They are indications only, for the story does not exist. The
device is a skeuomorph, because it is functionless. " But
we understand," to again quote from Dr. March, " the origin
of our ' string-course,' and we recognise one of the many
reasons, in the ancestral training of the eye of our race,
why the sight of a large unbroken surface produces in the
mind a sense of disappointment, a feeling of unsatisfied
expectancy, the anguish that Hood sings —

"' A wall so blank

That my shadow I thank
For sometimes falling there ! ' "

The gables of the roof of the old-time houses were often
formed by the bent boughs of trees crossing each other at
the ridge, as witnessed by an Etruscan hut-urn from Monte
Albano (Plate L, Fig. c), and Pompeian wall-paintings.
(Plate v., Fig. 4.) A finished treatment of the bent bough
gable is seen in a tomb at Antiphellus. (Plate V., Fig. 3.)

Il6 EVOLUTION IN ART.

In the wooden originals of the rock-tombs of Asia Minor
(Plate v., Figs. 2, 3) one sees the birth of the gable which,
arising as a structural necessity, was perpetuated in stone as
the crowning glory of Grecian temples, and ever since has
remained as a decorative adjunct to buildings, or the func-
tionless adornment of the humblest household furniture.
(Plate I., Figs, d-f.)

6. Skeuomorphic Inappropriateness..

We have seen that as the bronze implement replaced
the neolithic celt, so the lashing of the latter became a
skeuomorphic decoration on the former. As tapa replaced
matting the conditioned ornamentation of the early fabric
was transmitted to a material which in itself imposed few
artistic limitations. The same also with pottery when it was
derived from or suggested by baskets; basketry impressed
itself on the clay, literally or figuratively as the case may
be, and thenceforward pots were doomed to basket-like
ornamentation until the possibilities of clay worked out the
freedom of the pot from the limitations of the basket. In
all the above we have a continuity in function, and it is
not very surprising that indications of structure stubbornly
.persisted.

Everywhere the human mind has become accustomed to
certain local patterns, designs, and structures. These are
bound up with the sacred associations of family and religion,
with the green memories of childhood, and have become as
it were indented into the consciousness of the individual.
To many minds new designs are unvalued; they awaken no
sympathy, they are devoid of associations ; like alien plants,
they pine away and die.

The pleasure which people take in beauty prompts them
to ornament almost everything which admits of decoration,
and it is the old patterns and designs which are most fre-1
quently copied. So it comes about that these are scattered.

EVOLUTION IN ART. I'l/

with an impartial hand, and often without any regard to
appropriateness. By inappropriateness I do not wish to
imply that the ornament may not be suitable, but merely
that it has no meaning so far as the decorated object is
concerned. As a rule the decorative art of the less advanced
peoples is far more appropriate ^ than that of civilised. We
may not have the clue, but the more we do know the more
suitable do we find the decoration to be. The symbols of
religious ceremonies are usually depicted on the utensils
employed in that rite ; the transference of such symbols to
purely secular objects would clearly be inappropriate decora-
tion. Our knowledge of the precise use of objects in
ethnological collections, and the significance of their form
and decoration is in many cases so imperfect that we are
not in a position to criticise their appropriateness ; but we
have only to look around us at the objects of everyday life
to see that ornamentation is quite as often inappropriate as
appropriate. It will aff'ord continual pleasure to attempt to
trace the skeuomorphic (or " technical," as it is sometimes
called) origin of many patterns which have wandered far, and
have at last found themselves in strange company.

^ A remarkable example of inappropriate skeuomorphic decoration
occurs among some of the tribes of Central Brazil, where the small tri-
angular covering of the women is copied and made into patterns (Fig.
52) on various objects, some being on the bark tablets which run as a
frieze round a chiefs house (pp. 97, 175).

ii8

IT.— The Decorative Transformation of
Natural Objects.

From things made by hands I now pass to natural objects,]
that we may see how these too are seized upon and modified]
by primitive folk.

Natural objects fall naturally into two main classes — ■]
inanimate and animate subjects ; in other words, physical]
phenomena and living beings.

I. Fhysicomorphs,

Under the term of "physicomorph"^ I propose to describe
any representation of an object or operation in the physical
world. The heavens and all the powers therein have been
depicted in every age and by diverse peoples — usually, but
not invariably, with some mystical or religious significance.

Chief of the dreaded powers of the air were the thunder-
,storm, with its concomitants, the thunder and lightning.
These have impressed themselves upon the imagination of
man, not only on account of their majesty, but also because
of man's impotence. The thunder is the voice of the god,
the lightning his destructive and blasting energy.

The most obvious sign for lightning, a zigzag line, is
practically ubiquitous. Similarly the sun is variously de-
picted as a star with few or many rays; as a circle, with a
cross or star inscribed within it, or with rays projecting
from its periphery. A plain disc, or more often a crescent,
stands for the moon.

As the heavenly powers are so generally associated with

^ 0i;Ti/f<5s — of or concerning the order of external nature; natural,
pliybical.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

119

the heavens, the celestial phenomena and bodies come to
represent these cosmi'cal deities, and symbolism is born.
In the following pages I touch upon some of the symbolism
of physicomorphs in America ; later, in dealing with religion
and its symbohsm, I shall discuss similar symbols in the
Old World.

The symbolism of their autoc-

FlG. 62. — Modern Moki rain symbol
after Holmes.

Fig. 63. — Decorative/detail
from an ancieiit~rueblo
medicine-jar ; after Holmes.

thones has been, and is still actively and sympathetically
studied by American anthropologists, as in a valuable paper^
by F. H. Gushing, who remarks : — " The semi-circle is
classed as emblematic of the rainbow ; the obtuse angle as
of the sky; the zigzag as lightning ; terraces as the sky
horizons, and modifications of the latter as the mythic
' ancient sacred place of the spaces,' " and so on.

By combining several of these elementary symbols in a
single device, sometimes a mythic idea was beautifully ex-
pressed. For example. Fig. 62 is the totem-badge Major
J. W. Powell received from the Moki Pueblos of Arizona
as a token of his induction into the rain gens of that people.
An earlier and simpler form of this occurs on a very ancient
sacred medicine jar. (Fig. 63.) The sky (a), the ancient
place of the spaces — region of the sky gods — (b), the cloud-
lines (c), and the falling rain (d), are combined, and depicted
■> A Study of Pueblo Pottery ^ etc., 18S6.

i2<

EVOLUtlON IN ARti

to symbolise the storm, which was the objective of the

exhortations, rituals, and ceremonials to which the jar was

an appurtenance.

Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, in a more recent paper entitled

"A few Summer Ceremonials at the Tusayan Pueblos,"^

gives an interesting account of
the Flute Ceremony. Several
ancient rain-cloud tiles are
described ; one of them (Fig.
64) was in the room of the
South House, which contained
the altar. "Like its fellow, this
tile had an O'-mow-uh [cloud]
symbol, with falling rain and

Fig. 64.— Rain-cloud tile of the the two lightning snakes de-
South House in a Tusayan -^^^ ^ j^^ There were

ceremony; after Fewkes. , - ^ i. j ui 1

also fourteen broad black

parallel lines on a white ground representing falling rain.

Three rain-cloud semi-circles w^ere outlined by a broad

black band above the falling rain. The field of the clouds

was brown, and the middle cloud, which was the largest,

had a conventionalised half-ear of corn,^ consisting of two

parallel rows of rectangular kernels, each with a dot in the

middle. A field of green occupied the whole face of the

tile above the figures of the rain-clouds. On this region,

rising from the depression which separates the lateral from

the medial rain-cloud, one on each side, there was a brown

zigzag lightning figure outlined in black. Each of these

bore a simple terraced nd'k-fci [a terraced tablet placed on

the head of certain figures] on the head " (p. 121).

Mr. Cushing^ has drawn attention to a bowl of which

the form as well as its decoration is symbolic. He says,

"Thus, upon all sacred vessels, from the drums of the

1 "A few Summer Ceremonials at the Tusayan VxiebXos" Journal
of Avierican Ethnology and Ai'chcBoIogy^ ii., 1892.

* Maize or Indian corn. ^ Loc. cit.^ p. 517.

tVOLUTION IN ART.

121

esoteric medicine societies of the priesthood and all vases
pertaining to them, to the keramic appurtenances of the
sacred dance or Kd'kd, all decorations were intentionally
emblematic. Of this numerous class of vessels I will choose
but one for illustration
— the prayer-meal-bowl
of the Kd'kd. (Fig. 65.)
In this both form and
ornamentation are sig-i
nificant. In explaining
how the form of this
vessel is held to be sym-
bolic, I will quote a
passage from the * crea-
tion myth,' as I rendered
it in an article on the
origin of corn, belong-
ing to a series on 'Zuhi
Bread-stuff,' published
this year [?i882] in
Indiana. ' Is not the

Fig. 65. — Zuni prayer- meal-bowl ; after
Gushing.

the Millstone of Indianapolis,
bowl the emblem of the earth
our mother ? For from her we draw both food and
drink, as a babe draws nourishment from the breast of
its mother ; and round, as is the rim of a bowl, so is the
horizon, terraced with mountains, whence rise the clouds.'
This alludes to a medicine bowl, not to one of the handled
kind, but I will apply it as far as it goes to the latter. The
two terraces on either side of the handle are in representa-
tion of the 'ancient sacred place of the spaces,' the handle
being the line of the sky, and sometimes painted with the
rainbow figure. Now the decorations are a trifle more com-
plex. We may readily perceive that they represent tadpoles,
dragon-flies, with also the frog or toad. All this is of easy
interpretation. As the tadpole frequents the pools of spring-
time he has been adopted as the symbol of spring rains;
the dragon-fly hovers over pools in summer, hence typifies

EVOLUTION IN ART.

the rains of summer; and the frog, maturing in them later,
symbolises the rains of the later seasons; for all these pools
are due to rainfall. When, sometimes, the figure of the
sacred butterfly replaces that of the dragon-fly, or alternates
with it, it symbolises the beneficence of summer ; since, by
a reverse order of reasoning, the Zunis think that the butter-
flies and migratory birds bring the warm season from the
* Land of everlasting summer.'

"Upon vessels of special function, like these we have
just noticed, peculiar figures may be regarded as em-
blematic. On other classes, no matter how evidently con-
ventional and expressive decorations may seem (excepting
always totemic designs), it is wise to use great caution in
their interpretation as intentional and not merely imitative."

The study of symbols is a peculiarly difficult one, and
there is no branch of our subject which contains so many
pitfalls for the unwary. The two following paragraphs,
respectively by Messrs. Holmes and Gushing,^ afford a
useful warning: —

" There are those who, seeing these forms already endowed
with symbolism, begin at what I conceive to be the wrong
end of the process. They derive the form of the symbol
directly from the thing symbolised. Thus the current scroll
is, with many races, found to be a symbol of water, and its origin
is attributed to a literal rendering of the sweep and curl of the
waves. It is more probable that the scroll became the symbol
of the sea long after its development through agencies similar
to those described above, and that the association resulted
from the observation of incidental resemblances. This
same figure, in use by the Indians of the interior of the
continent, is regarded as symbolic of the whirlwind, and it
is probable that any symbol-using people will find in the
features and phenomena of their environment, whatever it
may be, sufficient resemblance to any of their decorative
devices to lead to a symbolic association " (p. 460).
^ Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology ^ iv.

EVOLUTION IN ART. $23

"To both the scroll or volute and the fret, and modifica-
tions of them ages later, the Pueblo has attached meanings.
Those who have visited the South-west and ridden over the
wide, barren plains during late autumn or early spring have
been astonished to find traced on the sand, by no visible
agency, perfect concentric circles and scrolls or volutes
yards long, and as regular as though drawn by a skilled
artist. The circles are made by the wind driving partly
broken weed-stalks around and around their places of attach-
ment until the fibres by which they are anchored sever and
the stalks are blown away. The volutes are formed by the
stems of red-top grass and of a round-topped variety of the
Chenopodium drifted onward by the whirlwind, yet around
and around their bushy adhesive tops. The Pueblos, ob-
serving these marks, especially that they are abundant after
a wind storm, have wondered at their similarity to the
printed scrolls on the pottery of their ancestors. Even to-day
they believe the sand marks to be the tracks of the whirl-
wind, which is a god in their mythology of such distinctive
personality that the circling eagle is supposed to be related
to him. They have naturally, therefore, explained the
analogy above noted by the inference that their ancestors,
in painting the volute, had intended to symbolise the whirl-
wind by representing his tracks. Thenceforward the scroll
was drawn on certain classes of pottery to represent the
whirlwind and modifications of it (for instance, by the
colour-sign belonging to any one of the 'six regions') to
signify other personified winds" (p. 515).

It is interesting to note that colours are often symbolic.
Thus in a footnote to p. in, loc. cit.^ Dr. Fewkes says: —
" Red is the colour of the south, yellow of the north, blue
of the west, and white of the east. For the west the avail-
able pigment used has, however, a green colour, although
blue is the colour corresponding to west." A correspondence
on the colours of the winds was carried on in the Academy
in 1883. Dr. Whitley Stokes points out (p. 114) that

124 EVOLUTION IN ART.

among the Mayas of Yucatan red was associated with the
east, white with the north, black with the west, and yellow
with the south. (Cf. Brinton, Folk-Lore Journal^ i. p. 246.)
In Ireland, east was purple; south, white; north, black;
and west, dun; the sub-winds between S. and E. were red
and yellow respectively; between S. and W., green and
blue; between N. and W., grey and dark brown; between
N. and E., dark grey and speckled. Professor Max Miiller
(p. 302) notes that among the Navajos E. is dark; S.,
blue; W., yellow; N., white (cf. Mathews, Amer. Anth.,
April 1883); and in the Veda E. was red; S., white; W.,
dark or dark blue; and N., very dark. Lastly, Mr.
Hilderic Friend (p. 318) says that in China and ancient

Fig. 66. — Tracing of a landscape etched on a bamboo tobacco-pipe, in
Berlin ; three-eighths natural size.

Java there were five deities or rules — (i) black, water, N.;
(2) red, fire, S.; (3) green, wood, E.; (4) white, metal, W.;
(5) yellow, earth, middle. Colonel Garrick Mallery has
also some notes on this subject. Fourth Ann. Rep. Bureau
EthnoL, Washington, p. 53, and Tenth Ann. Rep., p. 618.

It is very rarely that landscapes are drawn by savages
purely for decorative purposes. Maps or plans, or diagrams
which are virtually a kind of elevation section, or even a
sort of bird's-eye view, may be limned for mnemonic or
directive purposes (p. 209); but pictorial views are so rare
that it is worth while giving an illustration of one (Fig. 66)
which I found etched on a bamboo tobacco-pipe, from
Torres Straits, in the Museum fiir Volkerkunde, in Berlin.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 25

I have little doubt that the island of Mer is here intended,
on account of the shape of the hill and the presence of
dome-shaped structures, which I take to be the beehive
huts which characterise the eastern tribe of Torres Straits. I
add for comparison a rough sketch (Fig. 67) I took of this
island, as seen from the south-west by west.

The natives have a legend that this hill, " Gelam," was
originally a dugong; and I believe the eye-mark in the
native's drawing is intended for the eye of Gelam, " Gelam
dan," and the projection to the extreme left to indicate
Gelam's nose, "Gelam pit," a small jutting rocky escarp-
ment at the head end of the island, which is enormously
exaggerated in the drawing. I take it that the break in the

Fig. 67. — Sketch of Mer (Murray Island), by the author, from the \^/^
south-west-by-west, showing the hill Gelam.

ground of Fig. 66, below the first bird, indicates the hill
** Korkor," which forms the tail of the dugong in my sketch,
and which is one end of the horse-shoe shaped crater of a
volcano. The part extending beyond this is the lava-flow
which forms the north-eastern half of the island.^ The
vegetation is suggested in a very perfunctory manner. I
do not know what the lines that stream from the apex of
the hill are intended for. I should add that to make it
approximately topographically accurate, the native picture
should be reversed,^ assuming my identification to be

^ Cf. map by author in a paper ' ' On the Geology of Torres Straits,"
by Professors A. C. Haddon, W. J. Sollas, and G. A. J. Cole. Trans.
Roy. Irish Acad., xxx., 1894, pp. 419-470.

^ An interesting example of reversal is found on a bamboo tobacco-
pipe which I obtained on the island of Mabuiag in Torres Straits, and
which I have given to the National Museum at Washington, U.S.A.
On one side of the pipe was cut HA?? Ifl, and on the other MO RAP;

126 EVOLUTION IN ART.

coirect. What I imagine to have occurred is as follows: — •
The artist intended to represent Mer (Murray Island), and
he drew the peak of the principal hill, Gelam, from a very
characteristic point of view (I have sketches of my own
similar to this); in order to give a realistic touch he inserted
the eye, which is a prominent block of volcanic ash, and
added the nose. The view is suggestive, but it is an
impossible one, and it appears to me that this is char-
acteristic of a great deal of the pictorial art of savages.

2. Biomorphs.

The terms "zoomorph" and "phyllomorph" have been
employed for the representations in art of plants and
animals. Although man is, zoologically considered, only
a higher animal, it is convenient to retain the term
"anthropomorph," which has been used by some writers
to express representations of the human form. All three
terms have reference to living beings, hence the appro-
priateness of classing them under the general designation
of "biomorph." The biomorph is the representation of
anything living in contradistinction to the skeuomorph,
which, as we have seen, is the representation of anything

the latter is the name for a bamboo pipe, and the former I understood
was the name of the place in Daudai where the owner had cut the
bamboo from which he made the pipe ; possibly it was his own name.
It will be observed that this name, which is really RIRAU, is printed
backwards, and the final U is upside down. I suspect that the
occasional reversal of words is due to the method of counting on the
fingers which these people employ. They always begin with the little
finger of the left hand, and pass from the thumb of the left hand to
that of the right. If a man was spelling out a word letter by letter as
if he were counting he might readily fall into the error of putting down
the first letter in a place corresponding to the little finger of the left
hand, and so on. If the man who carved the pipe began with RIRAU,
that word would utilise all the digits of the left hand, and so MORAP
would come right end foremost on the right 4iand.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1^7

made, or of the physicomorph which is the representation
of an object or operation in the physical world.

The fact that there is life in the original of the biomorph
appears in most cases to exert an influence on the biomorph
itself, so that it comes to have what might almost be
described as a borrowed vitality.

The distinctive activities or qualities of any living being,
more especially in the case of animals, very often cause
them to be taken as symbolic of that particular quality.
For example, the harmless, gentle, and affectionate dove,
which only busies itself with parental cares, has come to be
symbolic of peace. There are other reasons to which
allusion will be made which have conspired to render
biomorphs very important in decorative art.

Biomorphs partake of one characteristic of their originals.
They have a life-history. All organisms are born, they
grow, they die. During their growth they all pass through
greater or less changes. Sometimes these changes, as in the
metamorphoses of most insects, have attracted the attention
of the least observant, and have appeared to be of such
significance as to have been utilised for the illustration of
religious doctrines. Whether taking place in full daylight,
open to casual observation, or hidden in obscurity, or en-
capsuled within an egg-shell, marvellous transformations
invariably accompany the earlier stages of the development
of animals, from the egg stage. The development records
an evolution, the history of which is being worked out in
detail by the patient investigators of one of the most
fascinating of all branches of study — embryology.

We have now to trace the birth, the evolution, and the
decay of biomorphs, and we shall find that the subject is
scarcely less suggestive and interesting than that of the very
animals themselves.

Biomorphs are represented for varied purposes, and with
other representations may be classified according to the
diagram given in the introductory section (p. 8).

128 EVOLUTION IN ART.

A. Representation of Abstract Ideas of Life,

Even such an abstract idea as the Principle of Life, or
Vital Energy, has been indicated in decorative art. " On
every class of food- and water-vessels, in collections of both
ancient and modern Pueblo pottery (except on pitchers and
some sacred receptacles), it may be observed as a singular,
yet almost constant feature, that encircling lines, often even

ornamental zones, are
left open or not, as it
were, closed at the
ends," writes Gushing i
(p. 510), who adds, " I
asked the Indian women,
when I saw them making
these little spaces with
great care, why they took
so much pains to leave fl

FicJ

them open. They re-
plied that to close them
was * fearful ! ' — that this

dZ — Pueblo water-jar ; after
dishing.

little space through the line or zone on a vessel was the
* exit trail of Hfe or being.' How it came to be first, left
open, and why regarded as the ' exit trail,' they could not
tell. When a woman has made and painted a vessel she
will tell you with an air of relief that it is a * Made Being ';
as she places the vessel in the kiln, she also places in and
beside it food. The noise made by a pot when struck or
when simmering on the fire is supposed to be the voice of
its associated being. The clang of a pot when it breaks -
or suddenly cracks in burning is the cry of this being as it 1
escapes or separates from the vessel. That it has departed
is argued from the fact that the vase when cracked never

1 F. H. Gushing,
Zuni Culture Growth,
Washington, 1886.

A Study of Pueblo Pottery as illustrative of
Fourth Ann. Rep. Bureau Ethnol.^ 1882-83.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 129

resounds as it did when whole. This vague existence
never cries out violently unprovoked; but it is supposed
to acquire the power of doing so by imitation; hence,
no one sings, whistles, or makes other strange or musical
sounds resembling those of earthenware under the circum-
stances above described during the smoothing, polishing,
painting, or other processes of finishing. The being
thus incited, they think, would surely strive to come out,
and would break the vessel in so doing." In their native
philosophy and worship of water, the latter is supposed
to contain the source of continued life, hence life also dwells
in a vessel containing water, and having once held water,
and in virtue of having done so, it contains the source of
life. " If the encircling lines inside of the eating bowl,
outside of the water jar, were closed, there would be no
exit trail for this invisible source of life, or for its influence
or breath." In attempting to arrive at the origin of this.
Gushing points out that it is very " difficult to smoothly
join a line incised around a clay pot while still soft, and
that this difficulty is greater when the ornamental band is
laid on in relief. It would be a natural outgrowth of this
predicament to leave the ends unjoined, which indeed the
savage often did. When paint instead of incision or relief
come to be the decorative agent, the lines or bands would
be left unjoined in imitation. As those acquainted with
Tylor's Early History of Mankind will realise, a ' myth of
observation ' like, the above would come to be assigned in
after ages."

The soul or spirit as it is supposed to emerge from a
person at death is often represented in Christian art as
a miniature man or as a winged monstrosity, as a
butterfly by the ancient Greeks, or in various ways by
different peoples. Souls of deceased persons may be en-
shrined in living fruit-eating bats,i frigate-birds,^ croco-

1 According to a legend collected by the author in Torres Straits.

2 Dr. Codrington, The Melanesians^ p. 126.

I30 EVOLUTION IN ART.

diles,^ lizards, 2 sharks,^ or other animals. Under certain
conditions the representation of any of these forms would
be emblematic of the soul.

The dove, flames (or tongues) of fire, wind, and other
emblems are symbolic of spirit in Christian art.

B. Phyllomorphs.
It has been frequently remarked that j)lant forms are
rarely represented by savages. A possible explanation may
be found in the fact that plant life is so passive, it does
nothing actively or aggressively as compared with the
irrepressible vitality of animals. Thus it does not impress
itself on the imagination of backward peoples.

Another explanation has been suggested to me by Dr.
Colley March. The need of ornament is based on expect-
ancy. The eye is so accustomed to something in a certain
association, that when this is not seen there is experienced
a sense of loss. Among savage peoples the eye is
accustomed to dwell on vegetal forms which are always
present. It is only when they cease to be present, as in the
exceptional circumstances of desert places, or walled towns,
that the sense of loss can arise.

It is very probable that the reputed paucity of ornamenta-
tion derived from the vegetable world amongst primitive

folk may be partly due to

our not recognising it as

such. Their conventions are

Fig. 69. — Design based on a not the same as ours, and

palmito leaf, Bakairi tribe, they are often satisfied with

Central Brazil; after Von ^^^^ appears tO US tO be a

en einen. very imperfect realism. Who,

for example, would recognise in Fig. 69 the leaves of a small

1 M. Uhle, " Holz- und Bambus-Gerathe aus N.W. Neu Guinea,"
K. Eth. Mus.y Dresden, vi., 1886, p. 6.

2 M. D'Estrey, *' Etude ethnographique sur le Lezard chez les Peuples
Malais et Polynesiens," V Anthropologie, iii., 1892, p. 711.

* Dr. Codrington, The Melanesfans, p. 126.

EVOLUTION IN ART. I3I

" cabbage "-bearing wild palm? Yet the pattern on this
painted bark-tablet of the Bakairi tribe of Central Brazil
has this significance, according to Professor von den Steinen
(cf. p. 175).

Backward people have to be taught to see beauty in
nature, and it is very doubtful if the elegance of the form of
flower or leaf appeals to them. Bright colours we know
please all, and it is the colour or scent of flowers and leaves
which causes them to be worn or used in decoration.

One of the very few instances known to me in w^hich
vegetable forms are employed in ornamentation by the
natives of British New Guinea occurs along the Fly River
(Figs. 4, 8). These natives are fond of decorating their
drums with leaves, hence it may happen that, on the principle
of expectancy, leaves become mentally associated with drum
decoration, and in consequence often carved upon drums,
and thence, by the constraint of the feeling of expectancy
transferred to pipes and other objects ; the casual decoration
becomes an engraved ornament. On the other hand, the Fly
River appears to have been a culture route (pp. 28, 70), and
the employment of plant motives (if the majority of these
devices are really such) may be partly due to influence from
Malaysia. Dr. M. Uhle^ points out that "The influences of
the plant ornamentation of the East Indian xA.rchipelago are
also found in Western New Guinea. Although essentially
peculiar to the western portion of the East Indian Archi-
pelago it is not wanting in isolated cases in the eastern.
Plant ornamentations in perforated carving are known from
Halmahera which form a precise parallel with the carvings
from Geelvink Bay. Further, the plant ornamentation
occurs in Geelvink Bay also in isolated four-petalled
flowers, as in Celebes, Halmahera, Timor, and Borneo.
[Plant garlands are found on objects from the neighbour-
hood of Geelvink and Humboldt Bays.] A complete

^ " Holz- und Bambus-Gerathe aus Nord West Neu Guinea," Dresden
Ethnograph. Ahis., 1886.

132 EVOLUTION IN ART.

tendril with four-rayed leaves [or flowers] occurs as a
pattern on a pottery-beater from Humboldt Bay.^ Trust-
worthy examples from further east in North New Guinea
are either absent or are as yet unrecorded. The influence
of the western plant ornament is also felt in South-west
New Guinea in the district between Kamrao and Etna
Bays. The formation of a cruciform pattern through the
arrangement of four Nassa shells, which occurs not only in
Geelvink Bay but also in South-west New Guinea at Wamuka
River, appears to be due to the influence of a plant pattern,
the frequent four-petalled flower."

In the central district of British New Guinea plant forms
appear to be again met with (Fig. 21). I say "appear,"
as unless there is direct information from natives it is
always risky to hazard a guess as to the meaning of a
particular design. The reason for these designs is at
present quite obscure, but there can be no doubt that there
is a reason for them, and a good one too.

Where plants are represented by savage peoples we shall
probably find that as a rule their employment is primarily
due to other causes than the selection of beautiful forms
and graceful curves for their own sakes. A very good
example of this is found among the magic patterns on the
combs of the Negritos of Malacca, and I would refer the
reader to the section on Sympathetic Magic (p. 235), where
this is dealt with at considerable length. It may be that
this four-rayed flower which is credited with magical
properties is the same which, as Dr. Uhle has pointed
out, is so widely spread in the decorative art of the Malay
Archipelago and Northern New Guinea. ^
/ Few plants have penetrated into the psychical life of man
to the same extent as the lotus. The food-plants, which
afford sustenance to his body, rarely, as such, enter the
portals of art. Even those used in fermentation do not

' P. Mantegazza, '* Studii antrop. ed etnogr. sulla Nuova Guinea,"
Arch, pel' VAtitrop. e la EinoL, vii., 1877, PL X , No. 914.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 33

necessarily fare much better. The chief exception is the
vine, which from its graceful habit of growth and its
decorative leaves and clusters of grapes readily lends itself
to artistic treatment, but in this case it was probably on
account of the "wine that maketh glad the heart of man,"
rather than the beauty of the vine, that this creeper became
a favourite motive in decorative art. Having once effected
an entrance by appealing to the lower senses, the vine
retained its position by gratifying the higher. This chapter
in the history of art has, however, yet to be written.

Neither mere utility nor intrinsic beauty appear to be a
necessary quaHfication for the establishing of plant-life in
decorative art. It is only, so to speak, when plants are
provided with a souL when an inner meaning is read into
them, that they become immortalised.

The best example of this is found in the history of the
lotus in decorative art. Religion introduced it, symbolism
established it, and habit or expectancy retained it.

The Loins and its Wanderings.

As many mistakes have arisen from the confusion of the
Egyptian lotus with the rose water-lily it is necessary to
clearly distinguish between them.

The White lotus i^Nymphcea lotus) and the Blue lotus {JV.
coendea), which is only a colour variety of the former, have
a disc-like leaf, cleft nearly to its centre, which floats on the
surface of the water. The calyx has only four coarse sepals
which are dark green in colour, and which entirely encase
the bud until it begins to open. As it expands the delicate
white or sapphire blue petals offer a marked contrast to the
sepals. From four points of view of the open flower a
central and two lateral sepals will be evident, often when
the flower begins to fade the sepals bend downwards, but
the petals do not expand to a greater extent than is shown
in the accompanying figure (Fig. 70), in which will also be

134

EVOLUTION IN ART.

seen the characteristic seed-capsule with its rosette-like
apex.

The rose water-lily, or water-bean (Nelwnbium speciosimi)^
according to Professor Goodyear, ^ is not represented in Egyp-
tian pattern ornament. Its leaves (Fig. 71), standing erect
out of the water, are bell-shaped and not slit. The calyx has
numerous, over-lapping, scale-like sepals. The flower opens
widely and the broad petals disappear from view by the
expansion of the blossom. The seed-pod resembles the
spout of a watering-pot. Sir J. G. Wilkinson says,^ "The
Nelumbium, common in India, grows no longer in Egypt,

Fig. 70. — Rough sketch of the Egyptian lotus {Nymphcea lotus); after
original drawings by Professor Goodyear.

and the care taken in planting it formerly seems to show
it was not indigenous in Egypt."

In every book dealing with Ancient Egypt numerous
figures of the lotus will be noticed either in scenes illustrat-
ing the cult of some divinity and as sacred symbols, or in
later times employed merely for decorative effect. The
same remark applies, though to a less extent, to the art of
Chaldea, Assyria, Persia, India, Phoenicia, and several of
the Mediterranean countries.

Why should this motive be so widely spread ? The most
obvious answer has already been suggested. Religion intro-

1 W. H. Goodyear, The Gratjwiar of the Lotus, 1891.
- J. G. Wilkinson, The Manners atui Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians^ ii. (3rd edition), p. 407.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

135

duced the lotus to art. We have already noticed the
earthly original, now allusion must be briefly made to its
symbolism; then its original home must be sought; and
finally, some of its wanderings traced, and a few of its
variations and transformations noted.

Fig. 71. — Sketch of the Indian lotus {Nelumhium speciosiim) ; after
Description de f Egypt : Hisioire Na:iireUe, from Goodyear.

It appears that in Ancient Egypt the lotus was symbolic
of the sun; a text at Denderah says, "The Sun, which was
from the beginning, rises like a hawk from the midst of its
lotus bud. When the doors of its leaves open in sapphire-
coloured brilliancy, it has divided the night from the day."^

* Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der Alien ALgypter^ i. p. 103;
cf. Goodyear, p. 6.

136

EVOLUTION IN ART.

At Denderah a king makes an offering of the lotus to the Sun-
god, Horus, with the words, " I offer thee the flower which
was in the beginning, the glorious lily of the Great Water." i

Fig. 72 is a detail
taken from a plate in the
second volume of the
magnificent atlas by
•Prisse d'Avennes;^ it is
\ part of the offerings on
an altar before Osiris,
who is crowned with the
solar disc. Osiris is the
sun in the Lower World
— i.e., during the night,

Fig. 72. — Lotus flowers and bud, painted
on the coffin of a mummy from the
Necropolis of Thebes, Twentieth
Dynasty ; after Prisse d'Avennes.

and the father of Horus. Horus is sometimes depicted
seated on a lotus.

The various animals which were symbolic of the sun or
associated with sun-divinities are also placed in direct
connection with the lotus, as if to emphasise its solar
significance; for example —

The solar-bull is well recognised in Egyptian mythology,
the Bull-god Apis being an incarnation of Osiris, and an
offspring of the Sun-god, Ptah of Memphis. Similarly also
for Assyria, Merodach, **the Bull of Light," was originally
a Sun-god; his Syrian equivalent was Baal. The Phoenician
Moon-goddess, Astarte, had the bull as her symbol, and the
bull of Europa was its counterpart. The Taurus of the
Chaldean Zodiac commenced the year.

The lion was another sun-animal both in Egypt and in
Chaldea and Assyria.

Among birds the hawk and the eagle were sun symbols,
especially the former, and it is sometimes depicted standing
on a lotus. The solar-goose is also important in its asso-
ciation with the lotus. (Fig. 129, g.)

^ Brugsch, Religion, etc., i. p. 121; loc. cit., p. 6.

2 Histoire de PArt Egyplien ifapi-es les MonumeniSy 1S78.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 37

In early Cyprian pottery we find lotus derivatives grouped
with the solarcrossand other symbols of the sun. (Fig. 129, f.)

The association of the lotus with the sun probably led to
its other symboHc relations, and these latter have rather
drawn attention away from what is here regarded as the
more primitive symbol.

The lotus was a well recognised symbol of life, resurrec-
tion, and immortality. It was largely employed in funeral
rites in Egypt, and is constantly associated with mummies,
and also symbolised the resurrection, but this latter idea
was associated in the Egyptian mind with reproductive
power, and hence the relation of this also to the lotus.
Professor Maspero says:^ "The assimilation and occa-
sional complete identity of the Supreme God with the
sun being once admitted, the assimilation and complete
identity of the secondary divine beings with Ra (the sun)
were a matter of course. Amon, Osiris, Horus, Ptah, were
regarded sometimes as the living soul of Ra, sometimes
as Ra himself." From this would result a mingling and
extension of symbolism; but upon these troubled waters
the lotus calmly rides supreme. Its association with the
sun, its connection with reproductive energy, its descent
into the grave, and its symbolism of a resurrection have
given to the lotus that immortality which it symbolised.

Although lotus designs are profusely scattered up and
down in Egyptian art there is no reason for believing that
the Egyptians regarded it as a national emblem, but it was
a universally recognised symbol. At the beginning of the
year it sprouted from its slimy bed and floated beautiful
and pure on the surface of the waters. At sunrise the buds
opened and studded the water with white or cerulean asters,
which closed when night fell. Every autumn it died its
annual death only as prelude to the vernal resurrection.

The intensely religious mind of the Ancient Egyptians

^ Maspero, Histoire ancienne des Pciiples de V Orient^ p. 31, cf.
Goodyear, p. 11.

138

EVOLUTION IN ART.

was permeated with the problems of death and elevated
by the prospect of immortality. Resurrection and future
bliss were articles of firm faith, not merely a pious hope.
What wonder then, with this religious saturation of im-
mortality, that the flower which symbolised the resurrection
should be depicted in such profusion in their tombs and
elsewhere !

If the reader will take the trouble to compare lotus
representations in books on Egyptology it will be beyond
dispute that it is the white or blue lotus (Nymphaea), and
not the rose water-lily (Nelumbium), which is so ubiquitously
delineated.

A slightly con-

ventionalised

lotus with two of

its leaves (Fig. 73)

^ /'''^"^^^^\ is drawn on a vase

^^^ J contemporaneous

::^^ y with the pyramids,

^^— ""^^ from the Necro-

FiG. "Ji. — Lotus flower with two leaves, on a polis of Memphis

vase from the Necropolis of Memphis, (Fourth and Fifth

Fourth to Fifth Dynasties; after Prisse Dynasties, -^008-

d'Avennes. "^ 1 ^yy

3503 B.C.).
The same lotus flower (Fig. 72) appears some two
thousand years later in a representation of an offering to
Osiris from the Necropolis of Thebes belonging to the
Twentieth Dynasty. Indeed, it was painted and carved so
frequently for thousands of years that it would be impos-
sible to describe its variations and applications. I must,
however, permit myself to allude to one or two examples
which are interesting from other points of view. In Plate
VII I. , Fig. 12, we see single lotus flowers employed in an
isolated manner in a border pattern, and alternating with
these is another device. The separation of the elements
of a border pattern is by no means universal in Egyptian

EVOLUTION IN ART.

139

^'^^

decorative art; for example, the scroll pattern (Fig. 74)
from the Necropolis of
Thebes is a good ex-
ample of a pattern which
gives an idea of flow,
but even here there is
a lack of continuity in Fig. 74. — Lotus border; from Goodyear,
the spiral band which after Prisse d'Avennes.

creates a feeling of dissatisfaction when one attempts to
trace out the construction of the design. It is evident
that in such patterns the spiral is quite a secondary motive,
and it thus has not been worked out
logically; the lotus flowers and the rosettes
are the essential elements of the pattern.

With the last figure we may compare
the scroll detail (Fig. 75) from a Melian
vase, the lotus flower being represented
by four black marks, and the scroll has
acquired that development which is so
characteristic of ^gean art.

Various causes may lead to the

evolution of a recognised scheme

of decoration of certain objects,

but when a new class of objects

is to be decorated the artist has a

chance to exhibit his originality; even

so this is about the last thing which

decorative artists do manifest. The

constraint of custom appears to exert

an influence too potent to be readily

snapped, and so the Egyptian decora-
tor, being further tied by religious

sentiment, ornamented even exten-
sive areas, such as the ceilings of

tombs, with lotus designs, the main

Fig. 75. — Lotus
scroll detail on
a Melian vase ;
from Goodyear,
after Conze.

Fig. 76. — Pattern from
the ceiling of a tomb,
Necropolis of Thebes,
Eighteenth Dynasty ;
from Coffey, after

Prisse d'Avennes.
elements of which had been elaborated elsewhere.

140

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 77.— Pattern from the
ceiling of a tomb, Necro-
polis of Thebes, Eighteenth
to Nineteenth Dynasties ;
from Coffey, after Prisse
d'Avennes.

In Fig. 76 we have a ceiling design in which the lotus i.s
very apparent both in flower and bud; the rosettes, like
spiders' webs, may possibly re
present the leaves of the lotus
(Fig. 70), and we have the same
inteilocking but discontinuous
spirals that occur in Fig. 74.

A different treatment of the
same motive is seen in Fig. 77.
but here only the lotus flowers
and the interlocking scrolls are
employed. Below each flower
is a fan-like portion apparently
tied on to the former ; this may
have some significance or it may
be merely a convenient method
of finishing off the flower.

In these old Egyptian designs
the rosette is often associated with the lotus and lotus deriva-
tives, as in Fig. 74; and it may happen, as in Fig. 78, that the
former is the most prominent motive. The lotus is here
represented solely by the black triangles which occupy the
angles of the quadrangular spaces which contain the rosettes;
at all events there is good evidence to support this view.

The angularisation of the last pattern gives us Fig. 79,
which many people would imagine to be Greek, although,
as a matter of fact, it is ancient Egyptian. The rosettes and
the angled scrolls alone persist. We cannot speak with
certainty as to the reason for the modification of the scrolls,
but it is probable that it resulted from an attempt to copy
such a painted design as Fig. 78 in textiles, and the pattern
metamorphosed by the new conditions was painted on the
tomb ceilings along with its more flowing progenitor. For
further examples of analogous transference of designs from
one technique to another, and their consequent trans-
formation, the reader is referred to p. 112.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

141

Professor Flinders Petrie has stated that the scroll or
spiral was one of the greatest factors in the early develop-
ment of ornament, and only second to the lotus in the part
it played in the decorative ideas of the ancient world.
What it symbolised, if symbolise anything it did, we know
not. Some affect to see in it a representation of the
wanderings of the soul, but why, as Professor Petrie
suggests, some souls should come to the end of their
wanderings in a spiral and others in an oval is not
explained. Its oldest use was on the scarabs, where it was

Wmmp

oiiilg'

oral

Fig. 78. —Pattern from the
ceiling of tomb No. 33,
Abd-el-Kourneh, Thebes,
Seventeenth to Twentieth
Dynasties; from Coffey,
after Prisse d'Avennes
and Goodyear.

Fig. 79. — Pattern from the ceil-
ing of a tomb from Thebes,
Seventeenth to Twentieth
Dynasties ; from Coffey,
after Prisse d'Avennes.

clearly used first as "filling-in" ornament. We can first
trace it about 3,500 B.C. At first in loose unconnected
"C" and "S" links, and afterwards in every variety of
combination, continuous as well as unconiiected, the scroll
line winds its way for ages through the records of Egyptian
decoration. Yet there is a clear margin of 1000 years at
least between any Egyptian date of its use and its appear-
ance in the art of other ancient countries. From the fact
that it is generally coloured yellow in Egyptian designs,
Professor Petrie infers that gold was used in these forms

142 EVOLUTION IN ART.

to enclose gems, cloisonnd and coloured stones; indeed
Schliemann found such work in his explorations at Mycenae.

Mr. Arthur Evans remarks:^ — "On the twelfth dynasty
[about between 2778 and 2565 B.C.] scarabs the returning
spiral motive, as is well known to Egyptologists, was deve-
loped to an extraordinary degree. These purely spiral types,
like the twelfth dynasty motives, were also copied by the
native Cretan engravers. From Crete, where we find these
Aegean forms in actual juxtaposition with their Egyptian
prototypes, we can trace them to the early cemeteries of
Amorgos, and -liere and in other Aegean islands like Melos
can see them taking before our eyes more elaborate develop-
ments. Reinforced a thousand years later by renewed
intimacy of contact between the Aegean peoples and the
Egypt of Amenophis III., the same system was to regain a
fresh vitality as the principal motive of the Mycenaean gold-
smith's work. But though this later influence reacted on
Mycenaean art [about 1500 b.c], as can be seen by the
Orchomenos ceiling, the root of its spiral decoration is to
be found in the earlier ' Aegean ' system engrafted long
before, in the days of the twefth dynasty.

" In the wake of early commerce the same spiraliform
motives were to spread still further afield to the Danubian
basin, and thence in turn by the valley of the Elbe to the
Amber Coast of the North Sea, there to supply the Scandi-
navian Bronze Age population with their leading decorative
designs. Adopted by the Celtic tribes in the Central Euro-
pean area, they took at a somewhat later date a westerly turn,
reached Britain with the invading Belgae, and finally sur-
vived in Irish Art."^

Among the most frequent of the decorative designs

^ A. J. Evans, " Primitive Pictographs and a Prae-Phoenician Script,
from Crete and the F eloponnese, " Jburn. Hellenic Studies^ xiv., 1894,
p. 328.

^ Cf. also G. Coffey, " The Origins of Prehistoric Ornament in
Ireland, "y''^^'''^- Roy. Soc. Ant. Ireland, 1894, 1895.

EVOLUTION IN ART. I43

employed by the Assyrians are the knop (or bud) and
flower pattern and the rosette, and usually these are found
in combination. For the former design I shall employ the
Greek term " Anthemion."

"That flower," write MM. Perrot and Chipiez,i "has
been recognised as the Egyptian lotus, but Layard believes
its type to have been furnished, perhaps, by a scarlet tulip
which is very common towards the beginning of spring in
Mesopotamia. 2 We ourselves believe rather in the imita-
tion of a motive from the stuffs, the jewels, the furniture,
and the pottery that Mesopotamia drew from Egypt at a
very early date through the intermediary of the Phoenicians.
The Phoenicians themselves appropriated the same motive
and introduced it with their own manufactures, not only
into Mesopotamia but into every country washed by the
Mediterranean. Our conjecture is to some extent con-
firmed by an observation of Sir H. Layard's. This lotus
flower is only to be found, he says, in the most recent of
Assyrian monuments, in those, namely, that date from the
eighth and seventh centuries B.C., centuries during which
the Assyrian kings more than once invaded Phoenicia and
occupied Egypt. ^ In the more ancient bas-reliefs, flowers
with a very different aspect — copied in all probability direct
from nature — are alone to be found.

"The lotus flower is to be found, moreover, in monu-
ments much older than those of the Sargonids, but that
does not in any way disprove the hypothesis of a direct
plagiarism. The commercial relations between the valleys
of the Nile and the Euphrates date from a much more
remote epoch, and about the commencement of the eigh-
teenth dynasty the Egyptians seem to have occupied in force

^ G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, A History of Ai't in Ckaldaa and
Assyria, 1884, i. p. 303.

- A. H. Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon^ i.
p. 184, note.

"^ Nineveh and its Remaijis^ ii. p. 212, note.

144 EVOLUTION IN ART.

the basin of the Khabour, the principal affluent of the
Euphrates. Layard found many traces of their passage
over and sojourn in that district, among them a series
of scarabs, many of which bore the superscription of
Thothmes III. [1481-1449 B.C.]. So that the points of
contact were numerous enough, and the mutual intercourse
sufficiently intimate and prolonged, to account for the
assimilation by Mesopotamian artists of a motive taken
from the flora of Egypt, and to be seen on almost every
object imported from the Nile Valley. This imitation
appears all the more probable as in the paintings of Theban
tombs, dating from a much more remote period than the
oldest Ninevite remains, the pattern with its alternate bud
and flower is complete (Plate VIII., Fig. 12).

" The Assyrians borrowed their motive from Egypt, but
they gave it more than Egyptian perfection. They gave it
the definite shapes that even Greece did not disdain to copy.
In the Egyptian frieze the cones and flowers are disjointed;
their isolation is unsatisfactory both to the eye and the
reason. In the Assyrian pattern they are attached to a
continuous undulating stem, whose sinuous lines add greatly
to the elegance of the composition."

While admitting that the lotus motive overran Assyrian
art, there is reason to believe that it did so only because
there was an antecedent style upon which it could be
engrafted. The pattern shown in Fig. 10, Plate VI I L, is an
example of an Assyrian anthemion engraved on an ivory
panel in the British Museum, and of purely Assyrian
workmanship. It is worth while attempting to trace this
back as far as possible. In Fig. 4, Plate VIIL, we have a
pattern painted in red, blue, white, and yellow upon
plaster, discovered by Sir Henry Layard in Nebuchad-
nezzar's palace in Nineveh. In this there is a serial
repetition of a disc, or sphere, which is pendant; all the
pendants are connected by a single cord, which appears as
if it were drawn into loops by their weight.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 145

In Fig. 7, Plate VIIL, we have a representation from a
stone carving of an Assyrian pavilion, and in Fig. 2 a
"tabernacle" from the famous bronze gates of Balawat,
which were made for Shalmaneser IL, and are now in the
British Museum. Yet more simple is the tasselled canopy
(Fig. 6) from an enamelled brick from Nimroud, a king
who is standing under this canopy has a fringe (Fig. 5) to
his robe which is composed of alternate white and yellow
tassels. King Sargon (about 722 B.C.) is also represented
on a relief from Khorsabad in the Louvre, with a similar
fringe (Fig. i) to the hem of his robe.

Any one who has done any plaiting in bands of two
colours knows that if the intersections be truly alternate the
fringe along the opposite borders will all be of the same
colour as in A, Plate VIIL, but if the colours run in stripes
the fringe all round will be composed of alternate patches
of colour. When bands composed of several threads are
employed, it is necessary to knot the strands together at the
edge to prevent fraying. A more pleasing border is formed
by taking half the strands of one band and tying them to
half the strands of the next band of the same colour, and so
on (B, Plate VIIL). By this means we naturally obtain a
structural root-like origin for each tassel in the fringe, which
may be termed the connecting strand. This appears to
have been the common method of finishing off the edge of
Assyrian textiles.

There is thus no difficulty in accounting for a fringe of
tassels (Figs, i, 5, Plate VIIL). Awnings (Fig. 6) as a
protection from the blazing sun were a very common
feature in Assyrian life. When the king went out on war-
like or hunting expeditions he took with him a large royal
tent or pavilion made of " slender columns with rich capitals
and a domed roof, made, no doubt, of several skins
sewn together, and kept m place by metal weights. ^
The pavilion (Fig. 7) was a civil edifice, the temporary
^ Perrot and Chipiez, Assyria, i. p. 194.

146 EVOLUTION IN ART.

resting-place of the sovereign. The same materials were
employed in the same spirit in the erection of religious
tabernacles " (f^ig. 2). It is, however, probable that brightly-
woven rugs or mats were employed for the smaller canopies;
these would even more require the employment of weights
to prevent the wind from blowing about the covering. One
can hardly interpret the pendants on the royal pavilion
(Fig. 7) in any other manner than as weights to steady the
awning. The pendants would in the case of textiles be
fastened on to the tassels, probably they would sometimes
be placed on alternate tassels. In the pavilion so often
referred to the weight pendants are of two shapes, in this
also carrying out that alternate arrangement which mani-
fests itself structurally in most textiles, and which con-
sequently gives rise to the feeling of expectancy in other
objects. Another example of this is seen in the representa-
tion of the vine in Assyrian art, for the decorative sentiment
has so possessed the artists as to cause them to depict the
branches with a leaf and a bunch of grapes in regular
succession.

There is no need to go further than this for the origin
of the Assyrian anthemion. We find a fringe of tassels in
alternate colours, we find a fringe of canopy weights of
alternate design, we assume an occasional alternation of
fringe and weight. In all cases these must be serially
united by the "connecting strand." How can the stone-
carver or the wall-decorator represent these three alterna-
tives? Clearly they would indicate rather than imitate
them. What greater realism could we expect than that
which we have ?

There are many ways of making tassels — for example,
each one may be allowed to splay out fan-wise, or it may
be tightly tied round the middle, or bound round so as to
form a kind of cone or spindle.

Whether as variously tied, or differently coloured tassels,
or as alternate tassel and weight, a border of alternate

EVOLUTION IN ART. 147

members organically springing from a common base was
constantly before the sight of the artists of this great textile
manufacturing people. The conventionalising tendency of
decorative art did the rest, and the various forms of Assyrian
anthemion would easily follow.

A triple alternation (Fig. 9, Plate VIII.) occurs on an
enamelled brick tile from Nimroud in the British Museum.
It is characteristically Assyrian in style, but it does not give
that effect of repose and satisfied expectancy which we
demand from a pattern, and in this respect we cannot
regard it as eminently successful.

If this hypothesis of Dr. March's of the evolution of the
Assyrian anthemion be correct, this pattern is essentially a
skeuomorph, but at the same time certain local plant-forms
were probably associated with it.

Let us now turn to the border pattern (Fig. 8, Plate VIII.)
of the carved stone thresholds, which are occasionally found
in a marvellous state of preservation. Here we have a " knop
and flower pattern" which differs as much from the Assyrian
style as it resembles that of Egypt. A comparison of this
figure with Fig. 12, Plate VIII., will convince most people
that borrowing has taken place. It is not always easy to
determine how far the Assyrian anthemion has been influ-
enced by native foliage or by conventional designs derived
from the local flora. In these threshold borders, however,
the Egyptian phyllomorph has grown, as Dr. March points
out, like a floral parasite on a skeuomorphic basis. As
introduced plants frequently overrun a new country and
crowd out native forms, so the lusty lotus invaded the field
of Assyrian art, and largely supplanted pre-existing phyllo-
morphs.

To return for a moment to the Egyptian pattern, the
" proto-anthemion," as one may term it, is characterised by
the absence of a connecting strand, the buds and flowers
springing from a basal line. My friend, Dr. March, with
his usual ingenuity, has suggested to me a very plausible

148 EVOLUTION IN ART.

explanation of this fact. The Egyptian pattern was phyllo-
morphic from the beginning, originating in symbolism it
was primitively a realistic representation of an erect water-
plant.

Maspero says the decoration of each part of the Egyptian
temple was in consonance with its position. The lower parts
of the walls were adorned with long stems of lotus or papy-
rus— bouquets of water-plants emerging from the water.

This then is the solution of the difficulty. The Egyp-
tian anthemion, derived from plants emerging from the
water, has as a rule no connecting strand. The Assyrian
variety, derived from a tassel-skeuomorph, is never without
its looped base line, is primarily pendant, and consists in
the earliest stage of plants that are non-aquatic.

The rosette (Plate VIII., Figs. 4, 8, 10) is usually
stated to be an essentially Mesopotamian device, but it is
scattered up and down in Egyptian and Mediterranean
art. (Figs. 74, 78, 79, 84.) It may be characteristic of
Assyria, but it is by no means peculiar to it.

The rosette in Egypt is probably mainly a lotus-motive;
the upper end of the yellow-rayed seed-vessel may be
regarded as the chief original, but some are undoubtedly
fully expanded lotus flowers seen from above or below, or
a group of buds or of flowers arranged radially. However
conventionalised it may become, the rosette is most con-
stantly associated with the lotus in Egypt, the land of its
birth. Their association elsewhere is only to be expected,
as there would naturally be a tendency for the rosette to
accompany the knop and flower in their migrations.

According to Professor Flinders Petrie,^ it is even doubt-
ful whether the rosette was truly of vegetable origin. The
use of leather-work seemed to have greatly modified the
rosette. Its primitive form did not look floral at all, merely
a circle with white dotted lines radiating across. Later,

* Newspaper Report of a Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution
in May 1894.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 49

there were concentric rings of colours, with the same white
dotted lines. The stitched leather theory explained a whole
host of peculiar ornaments that could hardly otherwise be
understood.

Goodyear"^ points out (p. loi) that no dated example of
the rosette is known in Assyria or Chaldea before the
twelfth century B.C. — /.(?., on the dress of Merodach-idin-
akhi, King of Babylon. It occurs with other lotuses in
Egypt on the head-dress of Nefert, a statue of the Fourth
Dynasty, 3998-3721 b.c. As previously stated, the earlier
Egyptian kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty conquered
Assyria. The reign of Thothmes III., who, according to
a contemporary expression, "drew his frontiers where he
pleased," is placed by Professor Flinders Petrie^ from 1481-
1449 B.C The Egyptian empire then comprised Abyssinia,
the Soudan, Nubia, Syria, Mesopotamia, part of Arabia,
!^hurdistan, and Armenia.^

In answer to the question, How is it that the fact has
been overlooked that the rosette is as familiar a feature of
Egyptian ornament as the earliest dated remains of other
ornaments? Goodyear (p. 102) says that the answer
apparently is that the rosette is very abundantly known on
carved slabs from Nineveh, while the architectural surface
carvings in Egypt are almost absolutely destitute of rosette
ornament, but it is very frequently represented in tomb
paintings.

Those who have argued for the Assyrian origin of the
rosette appear to have only compared the stone carvings of
the two countries in question, but it is well known that no
borrowing of architecture took place. There is evidence
that portable objects were traded from Egypt to Mesopo-
tamia, and there is no doubt that the purely decorative
mural paintings of Egyptian tombs were analogous to the

^ Granunar of the Lotus.

2 W. M. Flinders Petrie, A History of Egypt ^ i., 1894, p. 251.

* Perrot and Chipiez, Egypt ^ i. p. 19.

150 EVOLUTION IN ART.

patterns on Egyptian textiles, and these were traded to the
East. The thresholds from Assyria were undoubtedly
carved in imitation of rugs; from the monuments we may
suppose that the walls were often decorated with woven
stuffs, the ornamentation of which was transferred to stone
and glazed bricks. We may then come to the conclusion
that the mural decoration of Assyria was affected by the
designs of textiles and other portable articles of merchandise,
the idiosyncrasy of this country making itself felt in the
selection and adaptation of Egyptian originals.

In dealing with rosettes we must be very careful not to
fall into the common error of imagining that things which
are similar are necessarily the same. In the course of this
book there are several examples of the facility with which
such a mistake could arise, and sometimes has arisen.
Patterns and designs must primarily be studied in situ,
and the wandering " from Dan to Beersheba " is to be
deprecated as a method. It is only when the indigenous
material is insufficient, or fails in its results, that the com-
parative method should be employed, and then only when
history, tradition, or other lines of evidence warrant its use.

Rosettes undoubtedly occur in Egyptian decoration as
well as in Assyrian. Goodyear makes a special pleading
for the derivation of the latter from the former. The
question really is — Are all Assyrian rosettes lotus-motives
which originally had their source in Egypt ? Few will
doubt that Egyptian rosettes may have travelled with other
lotus derivatives to Assyria, but it is improbable that a.
wholly foreign ornament should stud itself so profusely and
ubiquitously over Assyrian architecture and manufactures.

I do not profess to be able to suggest what may be the
original, or originals, of the primitive Assyrian rosette; but
it does seem as if its vitality was increased and its employ-
ment further perpetuated by the cross-fertilisation, to speak-
figuratively, of the immigrant Egyptian variety.

In studying the influence of the lotus in decorative art

EVOLUTION IN ART. I51

we have to travel far afield, as it has left its trace even in
India. The art of modern India is, so to speak, a medley
composed of foreign motives and influences associated with
native designs and religion. Under the term " native "
must be included all the artistic influences which have been
afforded by the mixed races of that vast peninsula. A very
brief and limited survey of some of the historical aspects of
the question must suffice.

In very early days " the Chaldeans, whose cry is in their
ships," voyaged to India for commercial purposes. Proof
of this is found in the discovery of teak wood among the
ruins of Mugheir. It is agreed also that there are distinct
traces of Assyrian influences in Indian art.

Sir George Birdwood^ (ii. p. 162) says, "The researches of
Mr. Fergusson have shown that stone architecture in India
does not begin before the end of the third century B.C. ; "
and again (i. p. 99), "There is no known Hindu temple
older than the sixth or fifth century of the Christian era;
and all the earlier stone buildings are Buddhist."

The same author has come to the conclusion (i. p. 146)
" that the remarkable European character of the Buddhistic
sculptures in the Panjab and Afghanistan is due, not to
Byzantine, but to Greek influence. They are unmistak-
ably Buddhistic sculptures, and may therefore date from
B.C. 250 to about A.D. 700; and any of them which are later
than the fourth century a.d. may have been executed under
Byzantine influence. . . . Dr. Leitner was the first to insist
on describing (the Buddhistic remains in the neighbourhood
of Peshawar in the Panjab) as Grseco-Buddhistic sculptures.
. . . Their resemblance is probably due to their having
been executed by Indian workmen from Greek designs or
models."

Goodyear remarks, " At a later date Hindu art became
saturated with Mahommedan lotus patterns. These were
all originally borrowed in the countries conquered by the
1 G. C. M. Bird wood, The Industrial Arts of India, 1880.

152 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Mohammedan Arabs, during the seventh century a.d.,
Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Persia." Islam swept into
her net the decorative art of the countries she conquered,
and as reahsm was denied to her owing to the Prophet's
injunction against depicting human or animal forms, she
had to fall back on patterns, but, unknown to her, many of
these were lotus derivatives. It was these patterns that the
Arabs brought with them to India.i

"The history of India," continues Goodyear, "thus
explains why its apparently favourite water-lily [the
Nelumbium] has had so little influence on its ornamental
patterns. Although naturalistic rendering of the rose water-
lily is found in ancient and modern Oriental art, it must be
remembered that this has nothing to do with the dominance
of a pattern, which is a matter of technical tradition. It
appears that the famous Indian water-lily exercised no
visible influence on the art of Egypt, and that Egyptian
patterns have invaded its own home by many paths, at many
times, borne by waves of historic influence which are admitted
to have determined the character of Hindu art since the
third century B.C., which is the first century in which this
art is known to us."

Examples of Indian forms of the anthemion will be
found on Sindh pottery (Plate VIII., Fig. ii), on Delhi and
Cashmere shawls, and on innumerable other objects and
temple carvings. If one compares the anthemion combined
with an " astragal " moulding in Fig. 80, which is from the
Lat at Allahabad, with Figs. 7 and 5, Plate V., which are
purely Greek, it will be evident that borrowing has taken

. /^ I have a note to the following efifect, the origin of which I cannot now
/ XxxdiCQ. : — Art under the Mahommedans in the first centuries appears to
[/ have been much encouraged, as many drawings and pictures are shown,
thus upsetting the general belief that the Koran forbade the representa-
tion of human and animal figures. The picture of a rider belonging to
the period of Arab civilisation is remarkably spirited, the folds of the
rider's garments, as well as the figure itself, being admirably portrayed.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

153

place. One cannot follow Sir George Birdwood^ when he
says this " necking immediately below the capital represents
with considerable purity the honeysuckle ornament of the
Assyrians, which the Greeks borrowed from them with the
Ionic order. Its form is derived originally from the Date
Hom^ but it really represents, conventionally, a flowery
lotus, as the Bharhut sculptures enable us to determine.
The * reel and bead ' pattern running along the lower
border of the necking represents the lotus stalks." This
author does not state which lotus he refers to, probably it is
the Nelumbium or Rose water-lily, but the stalked flowers
added on each side of the central anthemion have no
distinctive character, nor can I see that the figures he gives
of the Bharhut sculptures are any more definite.

Fig. 80. — Anthemion and astragal moulding from the Lat (stone
column) at Allahabad ; from Birdwood, after Fergusson.

The Buddhist missionaries carried this pattern with them
to China, where on some of the pottery unmistakable lotus
derivatives occur, and those too of the anthemion series.

From the Orient we must retrace our steps westward.
Persian art may be left on one side, as it was largely a
legacy of Assyrian.

Among the Mediterranean peoples the Phoenicians claim
first attention on account of their early assumed role of
middle-men. But as Perrot and Chipiez remark, " In the
true sense of the word we can hardly say that Phoenicia had
a national art. She built much and sculptured much, so
we cannot say she had no art at all; but if we attempt to
' G. C. M. Birdwood, Jhe Industrial Arts of India^ ii., 1880, p. 167.

154 EVOLUTION IN ART.

define it, it eludes us. Like an unstable chemical com-
pound it dissolves into its elements, and we recognise one as
Egyptian, another as Assyrian, and yet another, in its later
years, as purely Greek. The only thing that the Phoenicians
can claim as their own is the recipe, so to speak, for the
mixture." Herodotus tells us that the Phcenicians had in
their ship "Egyptian and Assyrian goods." ^

Not only did the Phoenicians barter in foreign objects,
but they manufactured articles for trade, and were expert
craftsmen. At the funeral games in honour of Patroklos
"the son of Peleus set forth other prizes for fleetness of
foot; a mixing-bowl of silver, chased; six measures it held,
and in beauty it was far the best in all the earth, for artificers
of Sidon wrought it cunningly, and men of the Phcenicians
brought it over the misty sea."^ As their home-made goods
were intended for foreign markets, they probably copied
more or less exactly from Egyptian and Assyrian sources.
They w^ere artificers rather than original artists, their object
was gain.

On the whole it appears that the Egyptian influence was
more patent on Phoenician art than that of Assyrian, but on
the other hand, the Phoenician religion was Semitic, and
by this they were far more closely allied to Chaldea and
Assyrian than to Egypt.

Through far wanderings and endless trafficking the —
" Phoenician, practised in deceit, a greedy knave," asl
Homer dubs him, introduced numberless objects into the
Mediterranean littoral which were ornamented with lotus
designs or with patterns of lotus origin.

The great skill of the Chaldeans and Assyrians in weaving
and embroidery enabled them to produce textiles which were
highly valued wherever they found their way. The appro-
priation of " a goodly Babylonish garment " from the loot of

^ G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, Ari in Phoenicia and its Dependencies^
1S85, ii. p. 427.
2 Iliad ^ xxiii. (Lang, Leaf, & Myers.)

EVOLUTION IN ART. 155

Jericho by the unfortunate Achan shows how much these
fabrics were prized. We know that the decoration of these
beautiful and precious commodities reacted on the designs
of Phoenician manufacturers, and directly or indirectly had
some effect in guiding the nascent art of Europe.

When the Greeks were a young and growing people they, •
like most of their neighbours, were forced to trade with the
Phoenicians they so despised, and were thus acquainted with
trade goods from Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Ionic
Greeks were more particularly influenced by Oriental art.
The designs from early Greek tombs and the spoils recovered
by the spade in recent excavations clearly show the nationality
of the foster-mothers of Greek art.

The lessons learnt in childhood are hard to forget, and so, >
following the traditions of their fathers, the decorators con-
tinued to employ the same general patterns and designs
that they saw around them and which they had inherited.
For centuries we see the anthemion reproduced in archi-
tecture (Fig. 82 and PI. V., Fig. 7), painting, pottery, varied
it may be in detail, but essentially the same pattern. Rarely
going direct to nature for inspiration, the Greeks were content
with endless repetitions of slight variants of the one eternal
and highly unconventional design. The mental unrest of
the Greeks, which was always seeking something new, was j
in marked contrast to their decorative conservatism.

When the trade of Europe was taken up by Greeks they
further disseminated this dominant motive. In less chaste
form we find it in Roman art. The Renaissance gave it,
with other matters classical, a new lease of life.

But Europe was not dependent on Greek and Roman
influences alone for the spread of the anthemion. The
Crusaders brought away with them many Oriental goods,
and that, too, from the meeting-place of Europe, Asia, and
Africa. Later the Moors invaded Spain, and left as the
jetsam of their retreat a wealth of matchless decorative art,
amongst which our old patterns may also be traced.

156

EVOLUTION IN ART.

F.G.

By this time it is often flamboyant. (Fig. 8i.) The
isolated elements of the design may have been the origin

of the fleur de lis^ of which
the Prince of Wales' Feathers
appear to be a variant. ^

Throughout the art of the
civilised world of to-day we find
repeated, again and again, the
misnamed honeysuckle pattern,
or the anthemion, as it is pre-
ferable to call it. Most of our
modern examples can be traced
to Ancient Greece, but even
I.— Saracenic Algerian de- there it had a hoary antiquity
tail; from Goodyear, after and probably a multiple an-
Ravoisie. cestry. It is not improbable

that future research will demonstrate that the history of this
pattern is far more complex than that which I have en-
deavoured to sketch out. Its amazing longevity may be

^ The reader is also referred to Dr. E. Bonavia's studies ( The Flora of
the Assyrian Monuments audits Outcomes, 1894) for another theoretical
origin of these designs. He lays stress on the practice of fixing horns
on trees, and other places, by the Assyrians. We not only see horns
and modifications of horns symmetrically used on the stem of their
sacred trees, but we meet with them as decorative terminations on the
poles of the royal tents (Plate VIII., Figs. 2 and 7). "They were
symbols of power against the evil eye and evil spirits" (p. 205).
Sooner or later they were sure " to have been taken up by artists, and
modified in various ways into decorations for walls of temples, palaces,
etc. And so, in truth, we see these horns, at first probably used solely
from superstitious reasons, passing afterwards into motives for various
decorative purposes " (p. 141).

" What is called the honeysuckle pattern, or anthemion, is nothing
but the date tree head supported by horns. . . . This So-called honey-
suckle pattern is not, I think, the only outcome of the superstition of
tying horns on trees, for I believe the fleur-de-lys, so much used in
heraldry as a royal emblem, and on many coats-of-arms, seems but
a modified imitation of the real horns tied on trees or posts " (p. 142).
Dr. Bonavia discusses the history of the latter motive. It appears

EVOLUTION IN ART.

due to the fact that it arose from various radicles, and when
the branches met their differences were not too great to

Fig. 82. — Ionic capital of the eastern portico of the Erechtheium.

counterbalance their resemblances, and so a fusion or
mingling of elements could easily and naturally result'

probable that it was introduced to French heraldry by Louis VII. on
his return from the Crusades, and it is also likely that the device was
independently associated with the lily and the iris in various countries
after its real origin had been forgotten. (This applies equally to
Goodyear's or to Bonavia's theory. )

'* The top of the Assyrian sacred date-tree, with its supporting horns,
was probably taken up by the Greeks and modified into ornaments for
friezes." In support of this proposition Dr. Bonavia illustrates an
anthemion from the Erechtheium (Fig. 82).

"There are numerous architectural and decorative designs which, I
think, are traceable to the Assyrian date-tree and its horns. The
Trince of Wales' feathers are perhaps also a descendant of the same
motive. There are in it three elements held together by means of a
crown, which maybe a modification of the ligature" (p. 154). The
trident and the caduceus are also supposed by this author to be " luck-
horns " attached to a wand.

It must be remembered that the ligatures are usually very distinct in
Assyrian anthemia (Plate VIII. , Figs. 9 and 10), and they require an
explanation as much as any other detail of the design. Dr. Bonavia
regards them as the lashings of luck-horns which have become modified
into volutes. Dr. CoUey March, as we have seen, attributes them to
a textile origin. On the other hand, we find ligatures in Egyptian lotus
designs, as in Fig. 77, where there is no suspicion of Assyrian influence;
future research will doubtless show whether the central ligatures in
Figs. 85 and 89 A are Assyrian, Egyptian, or local in origin.

158

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Mr. Goodyear has an elaborate study of the evolution of
the Ionic capital (Fig. 82) from the anthemion. A German
architect and critic, Semper,^ appears to have been the
first to derive the Ionic capital from the volutes of the
Assyrian palmette (PI. VIIL, Figs. 9, 10) by a process of
gradual suppression of the leafy portion and increase of the
scroll. Dr. J. T. Clarke 2 supported and elaborated this

theory. At Neandreia, near

Assos, in Asia Minor, he

discovered an Ionic capital

(Fig. 83) which is a valuable

" missing link." But, according

to Mr. Goodyear, there is no

Fig. 83.— Early form of Ionic ^qq^ to Seek an Assyrian origin

capital from Neandreia; after ^^^ ^.^ j^^j ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^

Clarke. . _ ^ , r t

mtermediate stages can be found

in Egypt and in the Greek Islands.

In Fig. 84 and Fig. 130, f, we have a lotus with curling

Fig. 84. — Lotus design from a "geometric" vase from Cyprus;
after Goodyear.

sepals on pots from Cyprus; no one can dispute that these
are really lotuses. The curling sepals become more spiral
in Rhodian (Fig. 130, G),and especially in Melian pottery (Fig.

^ G. Semper, Der Slil in den technischen und tekfonischen Kiinsten
(2nded.), 1878.

2 J. T. Clarke, "A Proto-Ionic Capital from the Site of Neandreia,"
A me He an Jour, of AichdoL, 1886^ ii, p. i.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

159

85). The central rosette has now become more leaf-Hke,
but there are numerous true Egyptian examples of this, as
in a compound flower (Fig. 86) from a tomb ceiUng, or

Fig. 85. — Lotus derivative on
a vase of the seventh cen-
tury B.C., from Melos;
from Goodyear, after
Conzc.

Fio. 86. — Compound flower,
based on the lotus, Thebes,
Eighteenth to Twentieth
Dynasties; from Goodyear,
after Prisse d'Avennes.

again (Fig. 87), on a blue-glazed lotus pendant from a neck-
lace in the British Museum, of the Nineteenth Dynasty. In

Fig. 87 — Lotus pendant from
an Egyptian necklace of
the Nineteenth Dynasty;
after Goodyear.

Fig. 88. — Anthemion from the
Parthenon.

the Owens College Museum, Manchester, there is a some-
what similar enamel tomb amulet of the Twelfth Dynasty
(2778-2565 B.C.). The transition from these to the stone

l6o EVOLUTION IN ART.

or terra-cotta anthemion of the Parthenon (Fig. 88) is very
gradual.

Thus, according to this view, the volute of the Ionic
capital is merely a drooping lotus sepal, which became
spiral in the Grecian Archipelago. Many of the Ionic
capitals, especially the earlier ones, exhibit distinct traces
of the central palmette, but eventually only the spirals
persisted, and the cleft between the curling sepals was
gradually reduced so that their stems came to appear as a
transverse band ending in volutes.

In following this view of the history of the Ionic capital
we have practically traversed that of the anthemion. The
more typical examples of this pattern not only present us
with the element which we have already briefly studied, but
alternating with it is a trefoil. For this again there are
any number of Egyptian originals in which the trefoil
indicates a lotus flower; in this case all the petals have
been eliminated and only the sepals persist.

Lack of time prevents me from attempting to follow the
fascinating evolution of various patterns and designs which
adorn Grecian temples and vases; but I must permit my-
self to indicate a probable origin of an exceedingly common
pattern which has also overrun our own art. I refer to the
so-called egg-and-dart moulding of Greek entablatures (Plate
v., Fig. 5), and the same motive painted on vases or
moulded on the later Samian ware (Plate V., Fig. 6). In
these two figures the pattern is drawn in its usual position,
but, the better to follow the argument, a typical variety is
figured (Fig. 89) reversed. There are many varieties, from
a series of U-shaped figures with alternating dots, as many
Greek vases (Fig. 89, e), through the Samian device (Plate
v., Fig. 6) and Erechtheium variety (Fig. 82 and Plate V.,
Fig- 5), to others in which there is greater complexity and
more floral forms (Fig. 89, d).

With any given series of designs it is possible to begin at
either end — in the one case there is an ascending evolution,

EVOLUTION IN ART.

i6i

in the other a degeneration. Students of the biological
method of treating decorative art will recognise that the
latter is by far the most general order in the evolution of
patterns, and by adopting it in this case Professor Goodyear
has been able to demonstrate the life-history of this pattern
to the satisfaction of many students.

In Fig. 89, A, we have a typical lotus flower and bud
pattern or Greek pattern from Rhodes; the same design
occurs in a simplified form on a fragment of Greek pottery

Fig

moulding

■Hypothetical derivation of the " egg-and-dart'
from a lotus pattern ; according to Goodyear.

A. Lotus anthemion on a vessel from Rhodes ; after Salzmann.

B, c. Lotus anthemia on pottery from Naukratis; after Flinders

Petrie.

D. Egg-and-dart moulding from the Erechtheium.

E. Degraded egg-and-dart pattern painted on a Grecian vase.

from Naukratis (Fig. 89, b),^ in which the lotus flower is now
a lotus trefoil ; and in Fig. 89, c, the pattern is disrupted.

In Greek vases we usually find that decoration has been
made with a fine feeling for appropriateness ; thus the erect
anthemion occurs when the vase is swelling, but where it is
contracting an inverted anthemion is placed, because the
decorative lines thus widen to correspond with the expan-

* W. M. Flinders Petrie, Naukratis^ i., 1884-85; Egyptian Explora-
tion Fund, 1886, Plate VII., Figs, i, 6.

1 62 EVOLUTION IN ART.

sion of the vase. Again, in Egyptian tomb ceilings the
bordering iotus pattern is inverted, as the base line of the
design naturally is made to correspond with the peripheral
line of the ceiling — in other words, the lotus anthemion was
inverted.

We have then a painted lotus bud and trefoil pattern
which was often inverted and as often a simple design.
According to this view, the egg of the egg-and-dart pattern is
simply a semi-oval left between two lotus trefoils, the dart
being the central sepal. When this design came to be in-
cised in stone, the new technique very slightly modified the
pattern, and the flat oval areas necessarily came to be carved
as rounded or leaf-shaped projections. On these latter
occasionally appear reminiscences of the intervening buds,
as on the Erechtheium leaf-and-dart moulding. Many vari-
ants occur in this device, especially in Roman sculpture.

Professor Goodyear points out that the egg-and-dart
moulding as such is unknown to Egyptian patterns, owing to
the almost entire absence in Egyptian art of carved or incised
lotus borders of any kind, a preference for flat ornament in
colour being the rule. Stone carved patterns of any kind
in Egyptian art are quite rare before the Ptolemaic period.
In Greek art the absence of patterns in projected carving is
also a general rule down to the time of the Erechtheium.
In Greek art also colour decoration on flat surfaces was the
rule in architecture for earlier periods ; for example, a Ifeaf-
and-dart pattern was painted on a Doric capital in ^gina.^

"The Ionic capital, the 'honey-suckle,' the egg-and-
dart moulding, the meander, the various forms of spiral
ornament, the guilloche and the rosette, and some few other
motives, belong to one ornamental system, and have never
been used in Europe, apart from historic connections with
their original system, since the Greeks, and have never
been used in Europe since prehistoric ages, without distinct

^ W. H. Goodyear, " Origin of the Acanthus motive and Egg-and-
Dart Moulding," T/ie ArchiUctutal Record ^ iv., 1894, p. 88.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 163

dependance on the Greeks. As found with the Greeks they
can all be traced back to Egyptian sources; except the
guilloche, which is only the later variant of the spiral scroll.
The guilloche pattern has been found in Egypt on pottery
dated to the Twelfth Dynasty (2700 B.C.), which was prob-
ably made by foreigners resident in the country, but it may
easily be an Egyptian pattern which has not yet been
specified as such.

"The Egyptian rosette can be dated to the Fourth
Dynasty, 3998-3721 B.C. Since that time its history has
been continuous. Since its first transmission to Europe it
has never been reinvented in Europe, for there was never an
occasion or a chance to reinvent it there.

" The spiral scroll is dated to the Fifth Dynasty, and the
meander (at present) to the Thirteenth Dynasty, about 2500-
2000 B.C. The Egyptian Ionic capital is dated to the
Eighteenth Dynasty, 1587-1327 B.C. The Egyptian an-
themion (' honey-suckle ' original) is dated to the Twelfth
Dynasty (2778-2565 B.C.). A considerably higher antiquity
than the given date must be assumed in all cases." ^

This in brief is Professor Goodyear's theory ;2 it is in-
genious, but time will show how far it will convince students
of this subject. It is quite possible that the egg-and-dart
pattern may have had a multiple origin. Dr. Colley March
is still inclined to see in it a kind of artistic reminiscence of
the ends of beams (Plate V., Fig. i) of earlier wooden
buildings; but it is highly improbable that the conclusion
arrived at by Mr. Hulme is the correct one. He says:
" The echinus, or horse-chestnut, is also called the egg-and-
tongue or egg-and-dart moulding, a variety of names that
may be taken as conclusive of the fact that it bears no great

* W. H. Goodyear, "Are Conventional Patterns Spontaneously
Generated," The Architectural Record, ii., 1893, p. 291.

^ Prof. Goodyear acknowledges {Grammar of Lotus) that P. E, New-
berry had independently arrived at a similar conclusion in 1885, and
that Owen Jones in 1856 and Leon de Vesley in 1870 had suggested a
lotus original for the egg-and-dart pattern.

l64' EVOLUTION IN ART.

resemblance to anything at all, but is a purely arbitrary
form."^ The variety of names is conclusive only of the
ignorance of the name-givers as to what the pattern
originated from. In future those who write on decorative
art will have to prove that any pattern or design is a
purely arbitrary form ; that assumption is no longer permis-
sible.

We have left the lotus far behind, and though it is hard to
believe that the multitudinous designs of so many ages and
of such diverse countries are all derived from the sacred
flower of Ancient Egypt, yet it may well be that the oldest
stock was a lotus derivative, and that the symbolism of that
flower gave to it sufficient vitality to spread and multiply
and replenish the earth.

C. Zoomorphs.

It is a matter of common observation that our children
very early take delight in pictures of animals and in making
delineations of them. It is further noticeable that the
quality of the drawing makes no difference to children, and
they are as pleased with the crudest representation of an
animal as their elders are with a life-like portrait. In all
1^ this the child closely resembles the folk, whether they be
the backward classes among ourselves or the less advanced
peoples. All these agree in being satisfied with dia-
grammatic realism.

Savages, however, vary greatly in their power of repre-
senting animal forms. In Fig. 3 we have a number of
outlines of animals which were etched on bamboo pipes or
carved on wooden drums by the Papuan natives of the
islands of Torres Straits or of the adjacent coast of New
Guinea. The figures are all reduced to the same scale by
photography from tracings of the original delineations, and
are therefore faithful copies of the originals. A glance at

^ F. E. Hulme, The Birth and Development of Ornament^ 1S93,
P. 86.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 16$

the figure will show that the animals are drawn with a
very fair degree of accuracy, so that in most cases it is
perfectly easy to identify the genus of the animal intended.
There are numerous little touches which appeal to the eye
of the naturalist as indicating keen observation on the part
of the artists; for example, the sharks (c, d) are always
drawn with unequally lobed tails, the tail of the dugong (m)
is accurately rendered; several characteristic details are, as
a rule, well brought out in the draw^ings of the cassowaries
(k). On the other hand, there are several anatomical
mistakes, as for instance, giving shark-like gill-slits to a bony-
fish, or even to a crocodile. The mouth is represented in a
sucker-fish (f) as being on the upper side of the head,
whereas it should be underneath, and the view of that fish's
tail would be impossible from that particular point of view;
but these and numerous other similar examples which I
could name are merely due to a desire to express several
salient features, without regard to the possibility of their
being all seen at once. The artists' aim was to give a
recognisable representation of animals, and in this they have
as a rule succeeded perfectly; it is captious to expect more
from them.

On other parts of the mainland of New Guinea one
rarely meets with representations so life-like as these,^ and
nowhere else on that largest of islands are so many kinds
of animals drawn. Animals are often depicted by the
Australians, but usually these are very poor as works of art;
they are also employed in pictography.

Although animals are so frequently drawn by the Torres
Straits Islanders, they never arrange them in groups or in
series. They are pictures of individuals, drawn for decora-
tive effect, but they have no story to tell. The only
exception to this rule occurs in the case of certain animals,

^ O. Schellong, " Notizen uber das Zeichnen der Melanesier,"
Internat. Arch, filr Ethnogr., viii., 1895, p. 57. (Plates VIII., IX.)
A. C. Haddon, The Decorative Art of British New Guinea.

1 66 EVOLUTION IN ART.

two of which are sometimes placed symmetrically on the
decorated object.

Representations of animals are not uncommon in
Melanesia, but they are distinctly of rare occurrence in
Polynesia. They occur in great profusion in America from
north to south, but here they are predominantly religious
or pictographic in significance. Animal forms are not
characteristic of African art, except among the Bushmen,
and there we find pictures of animals which are comparable
with those of the Eskimo or the natives of Torres Straits.

As far back as the time when men hunted the reindeer
and wild horse in Western Europe do we find drawings of
aiiimals. This was at the time period when the glacial cold

:Sr^ //1/Hi

Fig. 90. — Horses etched on an antler from La Madelaine;
from Taylor.

was abating and when men lived in caves, used chipped,
unpolished stone implements, and were unacquainted with
pottery. In archaeological nomenclature this is known as
the Epoque Magdalenienne of the Cave Period in the
Palaeolithic Age. The figures of the mammoth, reindeer,
horse (Fig. 90), etc., are usually cleverly etched on bone or
ivory, and sometimes they are wonderfully life-like and
accurate; the representation of human beings are as a rule
very weak indeed.

" The wild horse roamed in immense herds over Europe,
and formed the chief food of the palaeolithic hunters. In
some of the caverns in France the remains of the horse are
more abundant than those of any other animal, more even
than those of the wild ox. Thus at Solutre, near Macon,

EVOLUTION IN ART. 167

the bones of horses, which had formed the food of the
inhabitants of this station, form a deposit nearly 10 feet in
depth and more than 300 feet in length, the number of
skeletons represented being estimated at from 20,000 to
40,000. This primitive horse was a diminutive animal, not
much larger than an ass, standing about 13 hands high, the
largest specimens not exceeding 14 hands. But the head
was of disproportionate size, and the teeth were very
powerful. He resembles the tarpan or wild horse of the
Caspian steppes. A spirited representation of two of these
wild horses is engraved on an antler found at the station of
I.a Madelaine in the Department of the Dordogne."^

It is impossible for me to do more than just touch on the
subject of the relation of animals to decorative and pictorial
art; the few examples I can offer will, however, demonstrate
its importance.

Wherever it occurs the crocodile or the alligator, as the
case may be, almost invariably finds its way into the decor-
ative art of the district. From north to south the crocodile
asserts itself in the decorative art of New Guinea; for further
information the reader is referred to Dr. Uhle,^ who has
made an elaborate study of the crocodile in Malayo-Papuan
art, has noted the strange metamorphoses to which it is
subjected in north-west New Guinea; he also draws atten-
tion to the cult of the reptile in these parts. The belief of
a relationship between the crocodile and man occurs among
the Malays of Sumatra, Batta, Java, Makassar and the
Bugis, Tagals, in Banka, Timor, Bouru, Aru, and the south-
western islands. The Javanese have no fear of the crocodile
when bathing, they believe that their " grandfathers " and
" fathers " could do them no harm. The crocodile is
reverenced in Borneo and killed only when the blood-
revenge demands it; their teeth are used as talismans all

* Isaac Taylor, The Origin of ths Aryans^ p. 158.
2 M. Uhle, *'Holz-und Bambus-Geralhe aus N.W, Neu Guinea,"
K. Eth. Mus., Dresden, vi., 1886, p. 6.

i68

EVOLUTION IN ART.

over the island. The inhabitants of Kupang and Timor
have an unconquerable fear of the killing of crocodiles and
pray by dead ones. Even the Malays (Hovas) of Mada-
gascar are afraid to kill crocodiles, since they would
revenge themselves.

From Melanesia we will pass to Central America and
take advantage of Mr. W. H. Holmes's masterly study of
the ancient art of the province of Chiriqui in the Isthmus
of Panama.^

Wherever it occurs, the crocodile or the alligator, as the
case may be, almost invariably finds its way into the decor-

FiG. 91. — Conventional alligator from the "lost colour" ware of
Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

ative art of the district. From north to south the crocodile
asserts itself in the decorative art of New Guinea; and,
although associated with other animals, the alligator pre-
dominates among the zoomorphs of the Chiriqui.

In Fig. 91, we have a highly conventionalised represen-
tation of an alligator. The scutes (or scales) are represented
by spotted triangles and run along the entire length of the
back; a row of dashes in the mouth indicates the teeth.

In another class of ware the treatment is quite different,
more clumsy, but prominence is given to a number of

^ W. H. Holmes, •' Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,
Colombia," Sixth Amiual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology^ 1884-
85. Washington, 1888.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 69

corresponding features; the strong curve of the back, the
triangles, dots, the muzzle, and mouth. In Fig. 92 all the
leading features are recognisable, but are very much
simplified, and the body is without indication of scales, the

Fig. 92.— Simplified figure of an alligator from the "alligator"
ware of Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

head is without eyes, the jaws are without teeth, and the
upward curve of the tip of the upper jaw in the last figure is
greatly exaggerated, but this is a common feature in these
representations.

The spaces to be decor-
ated also largely determine
the lines of modification.
In Fig. 93 we have an
example crowding an elon-
gated figure into a short
rectangular space. The ^^^- 93-— Alligator design, chiriqU;

head is turned back over

the body, the sunken curve of the back is enormously
exaggerated, and the tail is thrown down along the side
of the panel.

It often happens that the animal form, literally rendered, ^
does not fill the panels satisfactorily. The head and tail do
not correspond, and there is a lack of balance. In such
cases, as Mr. Holmes points out, two heads have been

170

EVOLUTION IN ART.

preferred. The body is given a uniform double curve and
the heads are turned down, as in Fig. 94. This figure " is

Fig. 94. — Alligator delineation, greatly modified, Chiriqui;
after Holmes.

extremely interesting on account of its complexity and the
novel treatment of the various features. The two feet are
placed close together near the middle of the curved body,
and on either side of these are the under jaws turned back
and armed with dental projections for teeth. The character-
istic scale symbols occur at intervals along the back; and
very curiously at one place, where there is scant room,
simple dots are employed, showing the identity of these two
characters. Some curious auxiliary devices, the origin of which
is obscure, are used to fill in marginal.spaces." Judging from
some of the figures in Fig. 100 we may regard the upper sup-
plementary device as another alligator derivative.

Fig. 95 is an extreme
form of conventionalised
alligator which has be-
come metamorphosed
nto an apparently mean-
ngless design which is
intended to be sym-
metrical.

In Fig. 96 we have a
series showing the de-
generation of the alli-

FiG. 95. — Highly conventionalised
alligator derivative, Chiriqui ;
after Holmes.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 171

gator into a curved line and a spot. The series shown in
Fig. 97 illustrate the tendency of linear bands not only to
cramp the original in a vertical direction, but to force it
into a serial pattern. Fig. 97, a, is a simplification of such
a two-headed form as Fig. 94. One might be tempted

/";b;:£g^ ty^^ 0=0 c^y^

A BCD

Fig. 96. — Series of derivatives of the alligator, showilig Stages of
simplification, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

to regard it as a doubly tailed form, but such do not
appear to have been recognised by Mr. Holmes. The
transition from this undoubted alligator derivative to the
broad chevron of Fig. 97, E, is quite obvious, the conven-
tional scutes, dotted triangles, together with the zigzag

Fig. 97. — Series of alligator derivatives, showing modification through
use in narrow zones, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

body alone forming the pattern, and in Fig. 97, f, the latter
has disappeared. Mr. Holmes states " there is little doubt
that the series continues further, ending with simple curved
lines and even with straight lines unaccompanied by
auxiliary devices."

Mr. Holmes also points out that the Chiriqui have

172

EVOLUTION IN ART.

arrived at the scrdll and fret by way of the alhgator. I
can here illustrate only two of these (Figs. 98, 99); in these

Fig. 98.— Scroll derived from
the bxly-line of the alliga-
tor, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

Fig. 99. — Fret derived from
the body-line of the alliga-
tor, Chiriqui; after Holmes.

the body of the reptile is the element of the design. In
other cases Mr. Holmes finds that parts of the creature,
such as head, feet, eye, or scales, assume the role of radicles,
and pass through a series of modification ending in purely
geometrical devices.

The designs in Fig. 100 are painted upon low rounded
prominences on vases, and hence are enclosed in circles.

A BCD li

Fig. ICO. — Series of alligator derivatives, showing modification through
use within a circular area, Chiriqui ; after Holmes.

In Fig. 100, A, the alligator is coiled up, but still preserves
some of the well-known characters of that reptile. In b, we
have the double hook modification of the alligator's body,
but the triangles are placed separately against the encircling
line. In the next figure the body-line is omitted, and three
dotted scutes alone represent the animal. The four scutes
of the next designs assume a symmetrical position, and the
central crossed line may represent the alligator's body. In
the last figure of this series the cross has become the pre-
dominating feature, and the spots have migrated into it, so
that the triangles have become mere interspaces.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

173

Finally, Fig. loi is a zone pattern, painted on an earthen
drum, the central zigzag line represents the body of the
alligator, and the notched hooks its extremities; these are
here arranged with perfect regularity, but sometimes only
the latter occur in patterns, and then they are often some-
what irregularly disposed. ---^

From his prolonged study of ancient American art, Mr. I
Holmes formulates the following generalisation : — " The .
agencies of modification inherent in the art in its practice
are such that any particular animal form extensively em-
ployed in decoration is capable of changing into or giving
rise to any or to all of the highly conventional decorative

Fig. ioi. — Pattern composed of alligator derivatives, from a clay
drum painted in the style of the " lost colour group," Chiriqui ;
after Holmes.

devices upon which our leading ornaments, such as the
meander, the scroll, the fret, the chevron, and the guilloche,
are based" (p. 187). The importance of the following con-
clusion is obvious: — "We are absolutely certain that no acx
race, no art, no motive or element in nature or in art can
claim the exclusive origination of any one of the well-known
or standard conventional devices, and that any race, art, or
individual motive is capable of giving rise to any and to all
such devices. Nothing can be more absurd than to suppose
that the signification or symbolism attaching to a given
form is uniform the world over, as the ideas associated with
each must vary with the channels through which they were
developed" (p. 183).

The investigations of Dr. P. Ehrenreich and Professor

74 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Karl von den Steinen on the decorative art of various tribes
in Central Brazil have led to results which may, without
exaggeration, be termed startling. The patterns employed
by these people typically belong to the class which is popu-
larly described as geometrical. On page 176 I have selected
examples of these patterns which will give a fair idea of the
style of design.

Dr. Ehrenreich^ informs us that in the Bakairi chiefs'
huts a frieze of blackened bark tablets run along the wall
which are painted in white clay with very characteristic
figures and patterns of fish. All the geometric figures are
in reality diagrammatic • representations of concrete objects,
mostly animals. "Thus a wavy line with alternating spots
denotes a large, dark-spotted colossal snake, the Anaconda
{Eunectes murinus); a rhomboidal mark signifies a lagoon-
fish, whereas a triangle does not by any means indicate
that simple geometrical figure, but the small, three-cornered
article of women's clothing " (p. 98).

The following quotation is also translated from Dr. Ehren-
reich^: — "The ornaments of the Karaya consist of patterns
of zigzag lines, crosses, dots, lozenges, and peculiar inter-
rupted meanders, whereas the quadrate and triangle occur
only incidentally (that is, owing to the filling up of other
figures), and circles are entirely absent. As in the orna-
mentation of the Xingus tribes, so also here occur those
apparently entirely arbitrary geometrical combinations funda-
mentally of wholly defined concrete presentments, of which
the most characteristic traits are therein reproduced. Unfor-
tunately it is not always possible to correctly ascertain the
respective natural objects. The frequently occurring cross
(Fig. 102, a), which in America has so often given occasion

1 " Mittheilungen liber die zweite Xingu-Expedition in Brasilien,"
Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, xxii., 1890, p. 89.

^ "Beitrage zur Volkerkunde Brasiliens," Veroffentlichiingeji aus
dem koniglichen Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin, ii., 1891, pp,
24, 25.

PP- J

EVOLUTION IN ART.

175

for amusing hypotheses, is here nothing but a kind of hzard.
. . . Also pecuUarly characteristic are the extensive wings
of a bat (Fig. 102, b), as well as
the frequently occurring snake
pattern, such as Fig. 102, c,
which represents the rattle-
snake, while another snake is lQ]rljii3i£ni^
represented in Fig. 102, d.
Accurate representations of
nnen and animals, as we know
them to be done so excellently
by the Bushmen and Eskimo,
do not appear to be forth-
coming among the Karaya."

Professor von den Steinen^
describes the above-mentioned
frieze more fully. The pieces

Fig. 102. — Patterns of the Kar-
aya, Central Brazil ; after
Ehrenreich. A. Lizards ; B.
Flying bats; c. A rattlesnake;
D. A snake. A. Incised on a
grave-post ; B, c, D. Plaited
on the handles of combs.

of bark, which were from 15 cm. to 40 cm. (6 to 16 inches)
broad, were blackened with soot, and the white or yellowish
lime applied with the fingers. The frieze itself was over
56 m. (over 184 feet) in length.

I would ask the reader to refer back to Fig. 52, p. 97,
although this motive is not a zoomorph, in order to show
that triangular designs, or resulting zigzags, may have various
origins.

Only one tablet represented a plant. (Fig. 69.) It in-
dicates the leaves of a small *' cabbage "-bearing wild palm.

The bulk of the motives for the decorative art of these
people, the Schingii tribes (the Xingu tribes of Ehrenreich),
are drawn from the animal world; Fig. 103 a, h, i, k, are
Bakairi patterns, and Figs. 103 b-f those of the Aueto.

The pattern to the right in Fig. 103, h, indicates a kind of
ray, the characteristic rings and dots which ornament the
skin of this fish are here represented.

* Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens: Reiseschilderung und
Ergebnisse der Zweiten Schingii- Expedition ^ 1887-88. Berlin, 1894.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 103. — Patterns from Central Brazil, after Von den Steinen. A.
Bakairi paddle; B-E. Mereschti (fish) patterns of the Aueto ;
F. Locust design, Bakairi; G. Fish-shaped bull-roarer, Nahuqua;
H. Stikicri (snake) and ray patterns; I. Jiboya (snake); K.
Agait (snake); ii-i. Bakairi tribe.

Common to all the tribes of the Schhigd stock is the
employment of conventionalised representations of

the J
the I

EVOLUTION I.N ART. I77

viereschu. This is a small compressed lagoon-fish, about
19 cm. (7^ inches) long, and 9.5 cm. (3^ inches) deep;
its colour is silver-grey with brown spots. The mereschu
belongs to the genus Serrasalmo or Myletes ; the figure on
p. 260, given by Von den Steinen, looks as if it were drawn
from a badly-preserved spirit specimen, and one fails to see
how Fig. 103, c, for example, could by any stretch of the
imagination be considered to suggest that fish. On
p. 613 of Dr. Giinther's Jntrodiution to the Study of Fishes
(Edinburgh, 1880) is an outline figure of Serrasalmo
scapiilaris; the contour of this fish is approximately
rhomboidal, the head, the dorsal fin, and the tail fin
occupy three of its angles, and the anal fin practically
runs up to the fourth angle. Von den Steinen points out
that in most cases representations of these animal-forms
are incisions, not paintings, and the diagrammatic rendering
of curved lines by angles is due to this fact. The patterns
which I am about to describe are common to numerous
allied tribes, and everywhere these patterns bear the name
by which this kind of fish is locally known.

Sometimes the mereschu fish is employed singly, but most
frequently a number of them are evenly distributed over the
decorated surface, and between the fishes single, double, or
even several lines may be drawn, as in Fig. 103, b, c, e;
these latter represent the net by means of which these fish
are caught. Thus we may have a fish-pattern or a fishes-
in-net pattern. These patterns are delineated on masks,
posts, spinning-whorls, and other objects. Fig. 103, b, is a
pattern of the mereschu fishes-in-net group, but the fishes
themselves are entirely filled up with black, and not their
angles only.

The Aueto pattern drawn in Fig. 103, f, is intended for a
mailed- or armadillo-fish.

On a Bakairi paddle (Fig. 103, a) are incised four circles,
which are the ring-markings of a ray, pinukdi^ on the other
side of a transverse line follow two mereschu in the meshes

EVOLUTION IN ART.

of a net, then a paki'i^ and finally several kiibmi fish.
Professor von den Steinen believes that the object of this
decoration is simply to bring fish close to the paddle.
" But it is extremely instructive to see," he continues, ^
" that concerning these scribblings, though they certainly
do not denote anything in their order of arrangement, con-
sequently are not picture-writing ; however, every single one
is by no means a casual flourish, but the diagram of a well-
defined object, and consequently, in fact, represents the
element of a piciure-ivriting. "

Zigzags and waved lines are snakes. Fig. 103, k, represents
common land-snake, the agau^ or cobra of Brazil ; to the left
is the tail, the head is simply rendered, and as the skin of
the snake is marked the artist characterised it by adding
spots. Very similar is the suhiri water-snake or anaconda
{Boa scyfak), drawn to the left of Fig. 103, h. A boa-con-
strictor is indicated in Fig. 103, i ; the row of diamonds left
on the dark background, between the two rows of triangles,
represents the marking of the snake's skin. The larger
terminal diamond to the left is probably the boa's head. A
snake is also painted on a Nahuqua bull-roarer (Fig. 103, g).

We have seen that
A c ...

rows of horizontal

triangles are uluns^
women's triangles, but
when they are mar-
gined above by a line,
as in Fig. 104, b, they
are bats; but rows

Fig.

104. — Patterns derived
after Von den Steinen.
B, c. Aueto.

from bats
A. Bakairi

of triangles vertically
disposed, as in Fig.
104, c, are hanging bats; Fig. 104, a, is also a bat device.

Another triangular ornament (Fig. 105) represents small
birds, called by the Bakairi natives yantamdze, that is,
they are a particular kind of bird, not birds in general.
1 Loc. ciL, p. 269.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 179

Finally, one would naturally consider that the ornament
engraved on the post, Fig. 1 03, d, is simply the favourite
inereschu pattern; but Von den Steinen assures us that
the central design is not composed of inereschu^ in which
the angles are only slightly filled up, but that it is a locust,
the lines arising from the angles of the lozenge being the
legs. This locust pattern is, however, asso-
ciated with true f?iereschus, which may be seen
between the legs of the locust.

In Europe and in our own country we can
study analogous transformations.

More or less recognisable animals break
out, as it were into scrolls and floral devices,
as on Samian vases (Plate VI., Fig. i), on
Gaulish swords (Fig. 2), on Pompeian walls
(Fig. 3), and on the gold ornaments of Tuscany

(Fig. 5). In Fig. 4, Plate VI., we have on an ^^^^ 7^ Bird
ancient pot from New Mexico a decorative design, Bakairi,
treatment of birds which recalls that of the Central Brazil;

after Von den
mural paintings of Pompeii. steinen.

Often in Greece and Italy symmetrical scrolls are asso-
ciated with a head. (Plate VI., Fig. 6.) The scrolls them-
selves may, in some cases, be an animal form which has
ended in a flourish, as is taking plSce in Plate VI., Fig. 5 ;
or in others they may be the remnants of plant motive.

Dr. Colley March calls attention to old bench-ends of
English churches, notably those in Cornwall, which are
frequently surmounted by a crouching quadruped ; at a later
period this appears to be converted into a single scroll like
that which adorned the old pews in Ormskirk Church.
(Plate VI., Fig. 7.)

^ An ancient silver plate (Plate VI., Fig. 8), found in a
tumulus at Largo, Fifeshire, is decorated with the distorted
fore-half of an animal. The transformation is advanced to
flamboyant curves in the zoomorph of the Dunnichen Stone
(Plate XL, Fig. 9) ; but the head and ear and legs can still

l8o EVOLUTION IN ART.

be distinguished. It is not quite certain what animal this is
intended to represent. Earl Southesk^ believes it to be the
horse, which was sacred to Frey, and is a special symbol of
the sun. The second figure is very remarkable, but it seems
to be an extreme and foliated form of the same zoomorph.

There are numerous examples of linear series of animals
in the early art of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and other artistic
centres, but these do not appear to have developed into
patterns, possibly because the units were readily recognisable,
on the other hand, serially repeated conventionalised zoo-
morphs frequently metamorphose into patterns. These
patterns by repeated copying tend to become simplified till
finally not only is all trace of the original long lost, but the
resultant pattern may so resemble other simple patterns as
to be indistinguishable from them. This may easily lead to
confusion and cause tlie designs to be classed as one. We
tlms come to the conclusion that before any pattern can be
termed the same as another, its life-history must be studied,
otherwise analogy may be confused with homology, and false
relationships erected. Things which are similar are not
necessarily the same.

At the extreme south-east end of New Guinea and in the
adjacent archipelago the most frequent designs are beautiful
scroll patterns, which are 'subject to many variations. I have
already^ described many of these, and so there is no need
to again repeat what I have said, except to remind the
reader that all these patterns are variations of serially re-
peated conventionalised heads of the frigate-bird. I shall
again allude to this bird when I deal with the relation of
religion to art.

In the same district one occasionally meets with a pattern
(Fig. 1 06) which in some respects resembles the former and
appears in some cases to have been confounded with it.

1 Origins of Pictish Symbolism, l893«

^ Pp. 49-56, and at greater length in my Memoir on the Decorative
Art of Jiriti^h New Guinea.

EVOLUTION IX ART.

i8i

This one clearly arises from the serial repetition of conven-
tionalised heads of crocodiles. The illustration is part of
the carved rim of a wooden bowl in my possession, which
probably came from the Trobriands or the Woodlarks. The
triangles above the crocodiles' snouts are coloured black,
those bounded by their jaws are painted red.

There is yet another method of representing animals
which consists in grouping them so as to tell a story, or, in
other words, to make a picture.

Grouped animals rarely occur by themselves in decorative
art; men, houses, implements, and even vegetation are
frequently associated with them. The Arctic peoples, such
as the Lapps, Eskimo, etc., greatly affect this form of art.

Fig. io6.— Rubbing of part of the carved rim of a wooden bowl in the
author's collection. Probably from the Woodlarks or Tro-
briands, British New Guinea. One third natural size.

The bulk of these pictures are representations of hunting
scenes, and many incidents in the lives of these hyper-
boreans are depicted on bone and ivory. There is reason
for regarding these as records of particular events (cf. p. 207);
but they are also very useful to us as illustrations of native
life and industry. Animals are sometimes drawn fore-
shortened, and confused herds of reindeer are often figured;
but the grouping is mainly linear, without effects of per-
spective being attempted.

This kind of art is extremely rare amongst savage peoples,
in fact its presence may be regarded as one of the proofs
that the people practising it have passed from a purelyy^^
savage condition, and have made some advance towards

1 82 EVOLUTION IN ART.

civilisation. It has reached its highest point in the works
of the great animal painters of the present day, and thus has
been one of the last forms of graphic art to be perfected.

As a general rule the inferior representations of animals
in groups, and of animal pictures generally, are not due to
)^the process of decay. They are the bad workmanship of
inferior craftsmen. It is the imperfection of immaturity,
not the symptom of decadence.
■^ The last stage of the life-cycle of this class of zoomorphs
occurs when incompetent draughtsmen copy the work of a
master ; when, for example, we see on the walls of country
inns cheap and badly-drawn copies of Landseer's pictures.

Animals also play a large part in mythologj^, and it is
often very difficult to determine the limits of totemism in
this direction. There are, however, numberless instances of
legendary communications and relationships, of friendliness
and enmity between animals and men, which have no con-
nection with totemism, and these often form the subject of
decorative art. Sometimes the animal alone is represented,
at other times both man and animal are depicted, and accord-
ing to their artistic treatment we may have pictures, or
should the zoomorph and anthropomorph be^ rendered
schematically, heteromorphism may result. At present we
have to deal with representations of animals which illustrate
some belief, myth, or folk-tale. The sacred art of the
Hebrews was almost free from zoomorphs, and that of
Islam totally so; with these exceptions there has scarcely
been a religion in which zoomorphs have not played a
greater or less part.

I need only remind the reader of the numerous examples
in which animals are depicted in illustration of, or as a kind
i of mnemonic of a folk-tale, a legend, or myth, and of some
'^ sacred tradition or belief. There are so many intermediate
stages between these different phases that it is often im-
possible to draw the line between them. The religious
belief, with its sacred tradition of one age, becomes the

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 83

myth or the legend of a later period, subsequently it is per-
petuated as a folk-tale; later it may serve to amuse children,
and lastly it becomes the object of scientific study.

What I have termed the aesthetic life-history may occur
to the zoomorph at any or all of these stages of religious A
decadence. There is no correlation between an extreme or
medium phase in the aesthetic cycle and a corresponding
stage in the religious series. To take a homely example,
the illustrations of the most recently published fairy-tales
are as a whole of greater artistic merit than has been the
average illustration of sacred narratives during any period of
the world's history.

D. Anthropomorphs.

As a general rule, savages are less skilful in the delineation )
of the human form than they are with representations of
animals, nor is it usually employed so frequently as might
be expected.

It is for religious purposes that the human form is most
frequently represented, and I refer the reader to the section
in which religion is dealt with for illustrations of this
fact. I epiploy the term " human form " advisedly, as this
includes the images of both gods and men. At one stage
of its evolution in the human mind, deity, like the Spectre
of Brocken, is the shadowy image of man projected on the
clouds. So the gods are most naturally represented as men,
but often wdth special attributes. Now, these attributes are
worthy of special study as being the milestones which
indicate the distance which any given religious conception
has traversed.

In the distant vista of time we can dimly perceive the
transformation of the totem animal into the god. In the
highest period of Greek sculpture the evolution was, for
example, perfected in "ox-eyed lady Hera," consort of
Olympian Zeus, and in the Cnidian statue of Demeter,
" Mother-Earth," whose archaic representation was a

1 84 EVOLUTION IN ART.

wooden image of a woman with a mare's head and mane.
For thousands of years the Egyptian pantheon was peopled
by gods arrested in the process — gorgonised tadpoles of
divinity. Still earlier stages may even now be noted among
savage peoples.

I know of no example of the preponderating employment
of the human face for decorative purposes to be compared
with what I have established for the natives of the Papuan
Gulf. Illustrations of this will be found in Figs. 10-19, and
in my Memoir on Papuan Art, but only an examination of
a large number of objects from this district of British
New Guinea will bring home to the student the remark-
able ubiquity of the motive. We have no information con-
cerning the reason for copying human faces; my impression
is that it is related to the initiation ceremonies, which we
know from the accounts of the Rev. James Chalmers to be
very prolonged and important. One would expect to find
more animal representations among these people than
appear on objects in our ethnographical collections.
Possibly these people are passing from the totemistic into
the anthropomorphic phase of religion, and the latter finds
most expression in their art. However, such speculations
are futile until we obtain far more detailed and extended
information of their religion than we at present possess.

Human beings are comparatively rarely represented
merely for decorative purposes. In pictographs they have
no predominating position. But when we come to por-
traiture the matter is very different; here we have an
adequ{ite motive for the delineation of the human form and
face; it is, however, very noteworthy that portraiture, as
such, only occurs amongst civilised communities. Possibly
the explanation of this may be found in the widespread
savage philosophy of sympathetic magic. According to
this system a portrait has a very vital connection with the
subject, and any damage done to the counterfeit would
be experienced by the original. Portraiture then would

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 85

be too hazardous to health, or even Hfe, to be lightly under-
taken.

What we have seen happening to plants and animals is
also the fate of men in decorative art. A few examples
here will sufifice.

New Zealand is one of the places where anthropomorphs
abound, due in this case to ancestor cult. The short series
of three clubs (Plate VI., Figs. 10-12) illustrates the meta-
morphosis of the limbs into curvilinear forms. In dealing
with the religion of Polynesia I give examples (Figs. 124-128)
of the degradation of the human form into "geometrical"
patterns.

In the various illustrations which have been given repre-
sentations of the human form may be isolated, as in Me-
lanesia (Fig. 3, o), Mangaia (Fig. 124), and New Zealand
(Plate VI., Figs. 10, 12), or they may be double; for example,
one frequently finds in Polynesia tvvo god-figures placed back
to back, and these may strangely degenerate, as in the
examples given by Stolpe^ and Read.^ Human forms
placed in linear series are frequent in Mangaian wood-
carving (Figs. 127 and 125, a). Fig. 126 illustrates the
decoration- of a broader area.

We get examples of the selection of one portion of the
man in the face patterns of the Papuan Gulf. (Figs. 10-19.)

These are undoubtedly conscious selections from the very
commencement, but we find various parts of the body come
to be perpetuated, with the elimination of the remainder,
owing to differing causes.

The reason for the simplification of the body and the
disappearance of the head in the Mangaian art is probably
partly due to the fact that savage peoples are usually quite

^ H. Stolpe, Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savage Peoples.
Figs. 3, 34.

- C. H Read, *' On the Origin and Sacred Character of certain
Ornaments of the S.E. Racific," Joiirn. Anth. Inst., xxi., 1891
Plate XII.

l86 EVOLUTION IN ART.

content with suggestions of objects, they do not demand
what we term reahsm. By conventionalising their represen-
tations the Mangaians were better able to multiply them,
and at the same time to appropriately decorate the object
with which they were concerned. It could not be with a
view of economising time or labour. " Time," as Stolpe
says, " is for them of no importance, they have plenty
of it, and usually they are not able even to reckon it."
Judging by the skill exhibited by these clever carvers in
wood, we cannot put down the simplification of the human
body to careless copying.

We have seen that the face may be represented to the
exclusion of any other part of the body, but there are
examples of parts of the face becoming predominant.

Professor Moseley^ was, I believe, the first to indicate the
evolution which occurred in the images of gods in the
Hawaian group. In some instances the hollow crescent
form, which came to represent a face, seems to have been
arrived at by an enormous increase in the size of the mouth;
in others, as in the case of some wicker images, by a hollow-
ing out of the face altogether ; the mouth in the latter,
though large, not being widened so as to encroach upon
the whole area of the face. Since, in the worship of the
gods, food was placed in the mouths, the mouths may have
been gradually enlarged as the development of the religion
proceeded, in order to contain larger and larger offerings,
and the head in the wicker-work image may have been
hollowed out for a similar purpose. Moseley traced the
degeneration of the human (or god's) face down to a hook-
shaped ornament cut out of a sperm whale's tooth.

Some of the carvings of the human face from New
Zealand bear a general resemblance to those from Hawaii;
but a very noticeable feature in the art of the former island
is the protruding tongue. The most interesting develop-

^ H. N. Moseley, Notes by a Naturalist on the ^' Challenger " 1879,
pp. 504-5"-

EVOLUTION IN ART. iSy

ment of this member occurs in the Maori kani, or staff of
office. At the upper end is what appears, at first sight,
to be a spear-point. " This portion, however, does not
serve the purpose of offence, but is simply a conventional
representation of the human tongue, which, when thrust
forth to its utmost conveys, according to Maori ideas, the
most bitter insult and defiance. When the chief wishes
to make war against any tribe, he calls his own people
together, makes a fiery oration, and repeatedly thrusts
his Aam in the direction of the enemy, each such thrust
being accepted as a putting forth of the tongue in defiance.
In order to show that the point of the /lani is really
intended to represent the human tongue, the remainder of
it is carved into a grotesque and far-fetched resemblance of
the human face, the chief features of which are two enor-
mous circular eyes made of haliotis shell." ^

My friend, S. Tsuboi, has made a special study ^ of the
protruding tongue in New Zealand art. He gives illustra-
tions of thirty-one specimens, and with characteristic Japan-
ese ingenuity he has drawn figures of half-a-dozen models
which he has constructed which illustrate the various
possible variations, and the lines they may have taken.
He has also made numerical tables of possible varieties.
I allude to, this paper in order to draw the attention of
students to graphic methods. I regret that my ignorance
of the Japanese language precludes my giving the results of
this investigation.

In Ancient Egypt the eye was symbolic, and numberless
amulets are found which exhibit one, two, or numerous eyes
in varying stages of degeneracy, or in strange modifications.
These, too, have been studied and described by Tsuboi.^

^ J. G. Wood, The Natural History of Man, ii,, 1870, p. 161.

2 S. Tsuboi, '* On the Degeneration of Tongue-thrusting Figures in
New Zealand Carvings," Toyo Gakugei Zasshi {Oriental Scientific
Magazine), No. 112, Jan. 25th, 1891.

* Oriental Scientific Magazine, Nov. 25th, 1889.

1 88 EVOLUTION IN ART.

E. Bioniorphic Pottery.

In the description of the primitive methods of pottery
manufacture, allusion was made to the fact that vegetable and
animal forms were copied by the early artificers.

Although the immediate originals of many kinds of clay
vessels were baskets of various kinds, we must not forget
that these also were often textile imitations of natural
objects. Gourds which are of almost ubiquitous occurrence
undoubtedly were early and independently utilised as
vessels. For the more convenient porterage of them they
would be enclosed in netting or basketry. The better the
accessories became, the less need for the original founda-
tions, especially as the latter were brittle. From the fact
that the shape of certain baskets in a district resemble
those of the gourds of that district, we may assume that
this process of evolution has operated spontaneously in
diverse places. Clay vessels which were modelled from
the suggestion of such baskets would thus remotely be
phyllomorphs but having an intermediate skeuomorphic
stage. I

Instead of this indirect mode of origin a more direct *
one has often occurred. Messrs. Squier and Davis ^ record :
" In some of the southern states (of North America), it is
said, the kilns, in which the ancient pottery was baked,
are now occasionally to be met with. Some are represented
still to contain the ware, partially burned, and retaining the j
rinds of the gourds, etc., over which they were modelled, 1
and which had not been entirely removed by the fire."
They also state that the Indians along the Gulf moulded
their vessels "over gourds and other models and baked
them in ovens."

It is not necessary to believe that this has everywhere
been the original ceramic gourd-derivatives, even among

1 Squier and Davis, Aucient Monwnents of the Mississippi Valley^
1848, p. 195.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

189

savage peoples. Once the power of working in clay was
acquired, intentional copying of gourds (Figs. 107, 108), or
other vegetable vessels, may very well haveoccurred. This
is rendered all the more probable from tnelact that animal
forms are modelled as earthen vessels. I am not here
alluding to figures of men or of totem, sacred, or familiar
animals which may belong to a somewhat higher stage of
culture than that which we are now more particularly
considering; but to clay utensils which are copied from
receptacles w^hich are the shells or other parts of animals.

Fig. 107. — Gourd; after Holmes. Fig. 108. — Clay vessel, made in

imitation of a gourd, from a
mound in South-eastern Mis-
souri; after Holmes.

Wherever shells of sufficient size are found they are
utilised as food and water vessels, and there are numerous
instances in various parts of the world of vessels being
modelled so as to represent the ancient and familiar
utensils.

Clay vessels imitating both marine and fresh-water shells
are occasionally obtained from the mounds and graves of
the Mississippi Valley. The conch-shell appears to have
been a favourite model (Fig. 109, a and p>). A clam shell
is imitated in c and d. The more conventional forms of
these vessels are exceedingly interesting, as they point out

90 EVOLUTION IN ART.

the tendencies and possibilities of modification. The bowl
(e) has four rosettes, each consisting of a large central boss
with four or five smaller ones surrounding it. The central
boss, as in a, is derived from the spire of the conch shell,
and the encircling knobs from the nodulated rim of the
outer whorl of the shell. Mr. Holmes suggests that in this
case the conception is that of four conch shells united in
one vessel, the spouts being turned inwards and the spires
outwards. With all possible respect to Mr. Holmes, I
venture to demur to this interpretation. The fusion of
elements which are essentially isolated is rare amongst
primitive peoples; it is difficult to imagine how they could

^^ ^ (^^

Fig. 109. — Clay vessels imitated from shells, from the mounds and
graves of the Mississippi Valley; after Holmes.

conceive of the structural union and fusion of four conch
shells. This is very different from the amalgamation of
the clay imitations of such vessels as gourds or coco-nuts,
for these are frequently fastened in pairs or in small groups
to a common string handle, and there is already the idea
of multiplicity and the apposition of the vessels. Again,
Mr. Holmes does not present us with any intermediate
stages of this or similar clay .vessels ; until such evidence
is forthcoming it would be safer to regard this as an
example of transference. According to my interpretation,

EVOLUTION IN ART. I9I

the rosette derived from the spire of a conch shell was a
pleasing motive, and it was applied to and repeated upon
a circular bowl, which may, as Mr. Holmes elsewhere ^
suggests, be derived from the lower half of a gourd.
A single conch-derivative would be entitled to one rosette
only, and the association of ideas would operate in favour
of only one being moulded, at all events until a very
extreme stage of degeneration had been attained ; but in
the case of transference there would be no continuity of
custom to control the potter, and consequently more scope
could be given to his fancy.

A highly conventionalised form is shown in f (Fig. 109).
The cup is unsymmetrical in outline, and has a few im-
perfect bosses near one corner, but its resemblance to a
shell would hardly be recognised by one unacquainted with
more realistic renderings of similar subjects. In G we
have an imitation of a shell cup placed within a plain cup.

The skins, bladders, and stomachs of animals are very
frequently employed as water-carriers. The characteristic
forms of these may often be traced in the pottery of the
same districts, odd details of form or of surfacp marking
usually persist to a surprising degree.

In Fiji and elsewhere the image of a turtle has been
modelled in clay, doubtless because the carapace is often
used as a vessel.

While the use of an animal or the part of an animal as a
vessel has often led to the imitation of that animal in clay
or other material, owing to an association of ideas, we must
be very careful not to run to the extreme and to say that
there was a primitively utilitarian origin for all zoomorphic
vessels. Sympathetic magic and religion are responsible
for many, and we must admit that mere fancy must some-
times come into play, and when this is the case theorising
is necessarily at fault.

1 W. H. Holmes, "Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos," Fourlh
Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 271.

192 EVOLUTION IN ART.

3. Heteromo7'phs,

As previously stated, I propose to adopt the term Hetero-
morph for a confusion with one another of two or more
different skeuomorphs, or with the amalgamation of any
two or more biomorphs, or with the combination of any
skeuomorph with any biomorph. We may thus have (i)
Heteromorphs of skeuomorphs, (2) Heteromorphs of bio-
morphs, and (3) Heteromorphs of skeuo-biomorphs.

To speak somewhat figuratively, heteromorphism is a
sort of disease that may attack the skeuomorph or the
biomorph. Whereas the final term of the life-history of
the biomorph is, so to speak, senile decay, the result of
heteromorphism is a teratological transformation. Accept-
ing this view of the subject, the present section might be
entitled " The Pathology of Decorative Art."

Any stage of the life-history of a biomorph, whether it is
the expression of decorative or religious art, is liable to be
infected by heteromorphism. The only section of graphic
art which must from the nature of the case be free from it
is pictorial art. Where heteromorphs are introduced into
pictures they form one of the subjects of those pictures, the
picture itself is not subject to this modifying influence; for
example, the introduction of the representation of a sphinx
or a gryphon into a picture does not constitute the latter a
heteromorph.

A. Heteromorphs of Skeuomorphs.

The combination of two different kinds of skeuomorphs
does not appear to be of very frequent occurrence, or, at
all events, we have not yet trained ourselves to appreciate
them.

In Fig. 50 we have an example, which, however, is not
particularly satisfactory. It will be noticed that various
kinds of plaiting are indicated on this Tongan club; as a
matter of fact, if it had really been covered with plaited

EVOLUTION IN ART. 1 93

work, the latter would have been uniform in its character,
although diverse patterns might have been worked into it.
If this club had been decorated in a consistent manner the
simple in-and-out plaiting of the broad band, as in the
middle of the figure to the left, could not occur along with
the finer oblique plaiting in other parts of the object.

B. Heteromorphs of Biomorphs.

Wherever two or more animals or plants are represented
in association there is a tendency for them to amalgamate
in process of time. I have shown numerous examples of
this in the bird and crocodile motive in Papuan art, and it
would be easy to multiply illustrations.

Heteromorphism is especially characteristic of that style
of decoration which we call arabesque, or grotesque. This
is said to have been the invention of a painter named
Ludius in the reign of the Emperor Augustus. That
sovereign is said by Pliny to have been the first who
thought of covering whole walls with pictures and land-
scapes. The fashion for the grotesque spread rapidly, for
all the buildings of about that date which have been found
in good preservation afford numerous and beautiful examples
of it. Vitruvius was entirely out of conceit with this sort
of ornament, and declares that such fanciful paintings as
are not founded in truth cannot be beautiful; but the
general voice, both in ancient and modern times, has pro-
nounced a very different opinion. It was from the paint-
ings found in the baths of Rome that Raphael derived
the idea of those famous frescoes in the gallery of the
Vatican. His example was immediately followed by other
distinguished artists. This style derived its name grotesque
from the subterranean rooms {grotte) in which the originals
were usually found — rooms not built below the surface of
the ground, but buried by the gradual accumulation of soil
and ruined buildings.

A typical example of Pompeian treatment is seen in

194 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Plate VL, Fig. 3, where a bird's tail passes into a floral
scroll.

The representations of such mythical monsters of antiquity
as the Sphinx, Chimgera, the Harpies, and so forth, are
famihar to all. Originally these embodied distinct con-
ceptions which were familiar to the initiated, if not to all.
They were symbols and their origin in art was religious; their
retention was due to their decorative quality.

C. Complex Hetero7norphs.

We have now to consider the complications arising from
a combination of skeuomorphs and biomorphs.

Again I have recourse to Dr. Colley March's suggestive
essay. He points out that in the north of Europe ani-
mals were strangled by the withy-band, as occurs on an
incised stone from Gosforth (Plate VH., Fig. 3). Mr.
Hildebrand endeavours to show that the so-called Scan-
dinavian sun-snake was produced by the breaking down into
curves of the figure of a lion rampant, copied by a suc-
cession of artificers, all ignorant of the appearance of a lion.
But in the first place, points out Dr. March, the Norse
Wurm is found long ago in prehistoric rock-sculptures. In
the next place, the serpent of the north was symbolic of the
sea and not of the sun. And then, it was not the un-
familiar lion that alone broke up into serpentine forms; the
skeuomorph assailed the stag, as on King Gorm's stone in
Denmark (Plate VII., Fig. 2). Eikthysnir, the stag of the
sun, who was an attendant and attribute of Frey, is here
seen being strangled by the "laidly worm " of Scandinavia.
Dr. March suggests that perhaps we may recognise the
walrus in rock-sculptures at Crichie in Scotland (Plate VII.,
Figs. 6, 7). That the walrus was well known to the North-
men, and highly prized both for its hide, from which ships'
ropes were made (Plate IV., Fig. 4), and for its tusks, which
were a source of ivory, is proved by the Orosian story
(I. Orosius, i. 14). " He went thither chiefly for walruses,

EVOLUTION IN ART. 195

because they have noble bone in their teeth, and their skin
is very good for ships' ropes." The Earl of Southesk/ how-
ever, brings forward a considerable body of evidence in
favour of the view that this " elephant " symbol, as it has
been absurdly termed, is the sun-boar — a symbol of Frey.
No animal held a higher place in Scandinavia, and at an
early period it was adopted as the national emblem in
Denmark, and borne on the standard.

One frequently finds on early Christian sculptured stones
that the field on each side of the central cross is occupied
by a writhing animal; of these numerous examples occur in
the Isle of Man, where they are undoubtedly due to
Scandinavian influence. This animal may be recognised
in some cases as being a wolf, as on a cross at Michael
(Plate VIL, Fig. 5).

Two skeuomorphs attack the wolf. The influence of
thong-work is seen in Plate VIL, Fig. i ; this may be com-
pared with Plate IV., Fig. 4, which is copied from a
sculptured stone at Malew, also in the Isle of Man. The
latter is one of several Manx skeuomorphs of leather or
strap-work.

The withy-band is even more frequently depicted, and on
a cross at Gosforth (Plate VIL, Fig. 3) the wolf is being
strangled by it.

The serpent or dragon also is frequently represented,
indeed it seems as if the wolf and the serpent passed
insensibly into one another, and nothing is easier than to
confound the latter with twisted bands. So the animal
fades away, till finally the skeuomorph triumphs, and only
the ghost of a zoomorph remains in what, to ordinary eyes,
is only an entwisted fibre (Plate VIL, Fig. 11).

What then is the significance of this remarkable cycle?
The explanation must be sought in the pagan-Christian
overlap, at the time when the symbols of Norse mythology
were being homologised with those of the Christian faith.
J Origins of Piclish SymhoHsm, 1893.

196 EVOLUTION IN ART.

" Three mighty children to my father Lok
Did Angerbode, the giantess, bring forth —
Fenris the wolf, the serpent huge, and me.
Of these the serpent in the sea ye cast,
Who since in your despite hath wax'd amain,
And now with gleaming ring enfolds the world.
Me on this cheerless nether world he threw.
And gave me nine unlighted realms to rule.
While, on his island in the lake, afar.
Made fast to the bored crag, by wile not strength

■ Subdued, with limber chains lives Fenris bound."

So, in the words of Matthew Arnold, spoke Hela to
Herniod on his quest for the restoration of the slain Balder.

At the crack of doom, the Ragnaroks, Frey, Woden, Thor,
and Tyr, are predestined to perish. A wolf shall devour the
sun, and another shall swallow the moon, and the stars shall
vanish out of heaven. Woden shall go first, and shall en-
counter Fenriswolf, but the wise, one-eyed god shall die.
The hammer of the " friend of man " shall not avail against
the sea-dragon, and though Thor fights Midgarthsorm, and
shall slay him, he himself shall fall dead from the serpent's
venom. Garm, the hell-hound, shall fasten upon the one-
handed Tyr, and each shall kill the other. Frey shall fall
before Swart, the giant with the flaming sword. Then shall
Vidar spring forward, the mighty son of the Father of
Victory, and shall rend the wolf asunder. " Vidar shall
inhabit the city of the gods when all is over,'' as the giant
said to Woden. "Vidar, who outlived the earth-fall,
became," says Professor Stephens,^ "a fitting emblem for
that Almighty Lord who overcame Sin and Death," and he
is represented on some sculptured stones as a divine Hart,
trampling on Fenriswolf and Midgarthsorm.

These strangled wolves and writhing snakes of Scan-
dinavian art represent the portentous struggle of the
powers of darkness with the gods when "the Wolf shall
devour the Sire of Men; but Vid shall avenge him, and
1 G. Stephens, Studies on Northern Mythology, 1883, p. 167.

EVOLUTION IN ART. I97

shall rend the cold jaws of the Beast." But the new
religion possessed a somewhat analogous imagery, and
the symbolism of the one readily passed into that of the
other. Whether pagan or Christian, the symbolic animal
was attacked by the plaited thong or twisted fibres, and the
secular handicraft choked the religious idea. Such a hold
had this technique on the mind of the people that it
predominated all their art, and even led to the extinction
of religious symbolism.

There was, however, another means by which the pagan
dragon crept into Christian art. I refer to the legend of
Sigurd and Fafni, which was introduced into sepulchral
and ecclesiastical carving as late as the fourteenth century
by followers of the new faith. I cannot now detail the
foundation story of the Nibelungen Lied; the point which
at present concerns us is the slaying of Fafni in the form of
a dragon or serpent by Sigurd with his magic sword.

This and other incidents of the legend are carved on
wooden portals or door-pillars of churches, on fonts, and on
Christian crosses of stone in many parts of Sweden and
Norway, and also in some parts of England, as on the
Hatton Cross in Lancaster.

Fafni is often seen passing into a maze of beautiful
scroll-work, and in the Hatton Cross he is solely represented
by a twisted knot.

Under monkish influence, no doubt, the whole story came
by degrees to be looked upon as containing types and
proofs of the younger religion. Sigurd became the
Christian soldier, forging the sword of the spirit, and his
defeat of the serpent could readily be adopted into
Christian symbolism. ^

" When the Anglo-Saxon had almost forgotten Midgarth's
Orm, and the ancient Egyptian snake-symbol, as old as the

^ For a more detailed treatment the reader is referred to Dr. H.
Colley March's essay on '* The Pagan- Christian Overlap in the North,"
Trans. Lane, and Cheshire Antiquarian Soc.^ ix., 1892.

198

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Rameside period, had been introduced as a new design
(Plate VII., Fig. 8), this itself fell a prey to the dominant
skeuomorph, and was doubled and entangled in obedience
to the over-mastering expectancy of the day."

"It must be clear," continues Dr. Colley March, "that
such transformations as these were due to something more
than the successive copying of a copy by ignorant and
slovenly artificers, as in those degenerate changes wrought
by Gaulish imitators of the stater of Philip of Macedon. In
that case the original coin was not before them ; they had

Figs, iio, hi. — Modified human figures on the shaft of a cross at
Ham, near Ashbourne; after Browne.

no artistic impulse or intention, their only object was to
fabricate passable pieces of money. But the men whose
'taste' is disclosed by the work we have just considered
were swayed by an influence they could not have under-
stood. The expectancy that controlled them they inherited.
The withy-band had wrapped itself round all their concep-
tions." But the result was enrichment and not degradation,
and the curious designs their art produced show us the
only portal through which the animal form can enter into
ornament, by resolving itself, namely, into the angles,
curves, and scrolls of symmetrical repetition.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

" Many pauses took place ere the process was completed.
Now one part of the body was surrendered to the skeuo-
rnorph and anon another. Conventionalism established a
temporary truce, but the war of structure against nature
broke out afresh, and the grotesque appeared. We look
upon the death-grasp of a writhing quadruped, the knotted
convolutions of a serpent, the spectral gleam of a vanishing
face. And then, when all was over, when the battle on the
ornamental field was lost and won, nothing was left but a
zoomorpli of contrasted curves and symmetrical scrolls."

The human form is not exempt from the skeuomorphic
inroad. The two men in Fig. 4, Plate VII., which is taken
from an illuminated page of the Gospel of Mac Regol, at
Oxford, are suffering from but a mild attack, but the men
on the Pre-Norman font at Checkley, near Uttoxeter, and
similar figures (Figs, no, in) on a cross at Ham, five
miles from Ashbourne, have all but succumbed. /

2o6

THE REASONS FOR WHICH OBJECTS ARE
DECORATED.

In the Introduction I referred to what were termed
certain needs which constrained man to artistic effort.
These were art, information, wealth, and religion, and they
will now be treated as briefly as may be, since it is impos-
sible to deal adequately with them.

I. Art.

Esthetics is the study and practice of art for art's sake,
that is, for the pleasurable sensations which are induced by
certain combinations of form, line, and colour. It does not
signify for our purpose how the feeling for art has been
obtained, nor is an analysis of the sensations necessary.
All men have this sense, varying from a rudimentary to an
exalted extent. Though it is naturally the basis of all art
work, it does not follow that the aesthetic sense has been the
sole cause of decorative work. Religion and the desire
to convey information have both imitated and controlled
pictorial and decorative art, but the artistic sense has all
along exerted its influence to a greater or less extent. The
artistic feeling has endeavoured to cast a glamour of beauty
over the crude efforts of religion and science.

In the scheme of the life-history of pictorial or decorative
designs given on p. 8, I have considered only those
which have originated from various combinations of origin-
ally solitary figures. Separate portraits whether of men or

EVOLUTION IN ART. 20I

animals, either in the flat or in the round, have been
omitted as they remain in the lowest place of development,
though they may attain to the highest excellence of art.
Those who have followed the brilliant researches in classical
archaeology will appreciate what I mean by the life-history
of representations. The origin, rise, glorious consummation,
and decadence of Greek statuary is a striking illustration
of my theme.

Figures may be grouped not only to convey a sentiment,
as in a picture, but merely for decorative effect. The artist
in this case usually at once adopted a conventional treat-
ment. In some instances strict realism may be appropriate,
but in the greater number of conditions it is most inappro-
priate.

Walls, fabrics, and platters have from time immemorial
been decorated in this manner. Many books have been
written illustrating this branch of art and laying down
principles of design, and the reader is referred to these, as
this subject does not fall within the scope of the present
essay.

I would like to point out in this place that there is a very
instructive field for study in the consideration of the decor-
ative methods of various peoples. The way in which areas
are decorated, the idea of symmetry, and such-like subjects;
for example, the essence of Japanese decorative art is
asymmetry, and the results are charming to our eyes
although we have been reared amongst symmetrical design-
ing. Symmetry may be exhibited in the equal balancing
of dissimilar designs, as is commonly done by Oriental
artists, or in the mechanical duplication in relation to a
median line which is so dear to European decorators.

The style of the decorative art. of a savage or barbaric
people is a legacy and its perpetuation is usually binding, not
merely by custom but more frequently by religion. When
all the various factors are taken into account, one finds that
the aesthetic sense of a savage artist is not so very different

202 EVOLUTION IN ART.

after all from that of his civilised fellow-craftsman, and one
can see in the disposition or the introduction of certain
elements in a design, that both are actuated by the same
aesthetic sense of what is suitable, — both are, in fact, artists.

In the section on Physicomorphs I allude to the rarity of
landscape drawing among savage peoples, and give an illus-
tration (Fig. 66) of one, from Torres Straits, which occurred
casually on a bamboo pipe; there is another but poorer
landscape from the same locality in the Oxford University
Museum. Early attempts, such as these, at pictures are
especially interesting as illustrating the working of the mind
of the artists.

It is not within the scope of this book to trace the history
either of pictorial art or of individual pictures. The genesis
of a great picture is most interesting, and it may occasionally
be traced owing to the fortunate preservation of the artist's
sketches and studies. It often happens that some of the
figures in the finished picture have lost the vitality which
they had in the sketch stage, even such a great artist as
Raffael could not always reproduce the spirit of his own
work.

If the originating artist lost something out of his own
handiwork, it is no wonder that a copyist should lose more,
especially when the latter may not have access to the
original, but base his reproductions on copies several times
removed from it. A late stage of degeneration of pictorial
art, through more or less incompetent copying, is seen in
the cheap lithographs which occupy, without adorning, the
walls of houses of the country folk, many of which, like the
analogous frescoes of Pompeii, are the pictorial echoes of
the works of masters of the craft.

203

II. Information or Communication.

I HAVE already referred to the difficulty of finding a
term which will express all that might be dealt with in this
section.

In order to convey information from one man to another,
when oral or gesture language are impossible, recourse must
be had to pictorial signs in some form or another.

Probably one of the earliest of this needs was that of
indicating ownership, and it may be that many devices on
primitive implements and utensils have this as one reason
for their existence, although the nature of the ornamenta-
tion may be owing to quite a different reason.

As a matter of fact we know very little about owners'-
marks, but it is possible that while an object may frequently
be decorated with a clan or tribal device, the particular
variety or delineation of that figure will serve to distinguish
the ownership of the object.

Allied to owners'-marks are trade-marks; on this subject,
too, information is lamentably deficient, but we know that
these do occur amongst primitive folk (p. 48, Fig. 23).

Most savages employ a more elaborate method of convey-
ing information, and this picture-writing, as it is called,
has been of such importance in the history of the world,
especially in its later developmentsj that it deserves a more
detailed treatment.

204 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Pictographs,

A pictograph is writing by means of a picture. It records
and conveys a fact or an idea by graphic means, without
the employment of words or letters. As pictography belongs
to a low plane of culture, so far as the visual communica-
tion of information is concerned, the representations are
generally very crude. By no means should they be regarded
as typical examples of the artistic skill of the people who
execute them. They are intended for picture-writing, not
for pictures. An examination of pictographs shows at once
that only essential or salient characters are noted, and when
objects are frequently repeated they become convention-
alised, and in their later forms cannot be regarded as in
any sense objective portraitures.

Nowhere in the world are pictographs so much employed
as in America, and fortunately it is possible to gain precise
information respecting their signification. Colonel Mallery^
has devoted himself to an exhaustive study of North
American pictography, and I cannot do better than briefly
detail a few of his deductions.

" A general deduction, made after several years of study of
pictographs of all kinds found among the North American
Indians, is that they exhibit very httle trace of mysticism or
y of esotericism in any form. They are objective representa-
tions, and cannot be treated as ciphers or cryptographs in
any attempt at their interpretation. A knowledge of the
customs, costumes, including arrangement of the hair,
paint, and all tribal designations, and of their histories
and traditions, is essential to the understanding of their
drawings. Comparatively few of their picture signs have
become merely conventional. A still smaller proportion
are either symbolical or emblematic. By far the larger

1 Garrick Mallery, "On the Pictographs of the North American
Indians," Fourth Animal Report erf the Bureau of Ethnology^
1882-83 (1886). See also Tenth Ann. Rep., 1888-89 (1893).

EVOLUTION IN ART. 205

part of them are merely mnemonic records, and are treated
of in connection with material objects formerly and, perhaps,
still used mnemonically.

" It is believed that the interpretation of the ancient
forms is to be obtained, if at all, not by the discovery of
any hermeneutic key, but by an understanding of the
modern forms, some of which fortunately can be interpreted
by living men ; and when this is not the case the more
recent forms can be made intelligible, at least in part, by
thorough knowledge of the historic tribes, including their
sociology, philosophy, and arts, such as is now becoming
acquired, and of their sign language.

" It is not believed that any considerable information of
value in an historical point of view will be obtained directly
from the.interpretation of the pictographs in North America.
They refer generally to some insignificant fight or some
season of plenty or famine.

"Ample evidence exists that many of the pictographs,
both ancient and modern, are connected with the mythology
and religious practices of their makers.

"Some of them were mere records of the visits of in-
dividuals to important springs or to fords on regularly
established trails. In this respect there seems to have
been, in the intention of the Indians, very much the
same spirit as induces the civilised man to record his
initials upon objects in the neighbourhood of places of
general resort.

"One very marked peculiarity of the drawings of the
Indians is that within each particular system, such as may
be called a tribal system, of pictography, every Indian draws
in precisely the same manner. The figures of a man, of a
horse, and of every other object delineated, are made by
every one who attempts to make any such figure with all
the identity of which their mechanical skill is capable, thus
showing their conception of motive to be the same" (pp.
15-17; all the quotations are from the Fourth A7in. Rep,).

206 EVOLUTION IN ART.

The purposes for which pictography has been employed
by the North American Indians are : —

r. Mnemonic. — For the remembrance of the order of

songs, the figurative or representative pictures remind the

singers of the order of the stanzas previously committed to

memory; as well as for traditions, treaties, and the records

of events. Among the most interesting of the latter are

the Dakota Winter Counts. The Dakotas reckon time by

winters, and apply names to them instead of numbering them

from an era. Each name refers to some notable occurrence

of the year to which it belongs, and ideographic records of

these occurrences were formerly painted in colours on the

hides of animals. A single example will suffice,

it is for the year 1812-13. " Many wild horses

caught," or "catching wild-horses wintgr." The

wild horses were ^first^jun, and caught by the

Dakotas. The device is a lasso. The date is

of value, as showing when the herds of prairie

f J 'horses, descended from, those animals intro-

vj^ duced by the Spaniards, had multipHed so as

Fig. 112 to extend into the far northern regions. The

^iSrSakota Dakotas undoubtedly learned the use of the

i8i"\^3^-^ after ^^^^c, and perhaps also of the lasso, from

Maiiery. southern tribes . . in only two generations since

they became familiar with the horse they have become so

revolutionised in their habits as to be utterly helpless, both

in war and the chase, when deprived of that animal " (p. 108).

2. Notification. — The pictographs of this division may be

grouped as follows — (i) Notice of departure, direction, etc.;

(2) notice of condition, suffering, etc.; (3) warning and

guidance; (4) charts of geographical features; (5) messages

or communications; (6) record of expedition, and so forth.

The following (Fig. 113) is an example of a notice of
departure on a hunting expedition.^ Similar ones are made

1. Originally published by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, Trans. An:hrop. Soc.^
Washington, ii., 1883, p. 134.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 20/

by the natives to inform their visitors or friends of their
departure for a certain purpose. They are depicted upon
strips of wood, which are placed in conspicuous places near
the doors of the habitations.

1. The speaker, with the right hand indicating himself,

and with the left pointing in the direction to be
taken.

2. Holding a boat paddle — going by boat.

3. The right hand to the side of the head, to denote

sleep, and the left elevated with one finger, to signify
one — one night.

4. A circle with two marks in the middle, signifying an

island with huts upon it.

5. Same as No. i.

6. A circle to denote another island.

» 8 3 4 5 C 7 8 p 10 II 12

Fig. 113. — Alaskan notice of a hunt; from Malleiy, after Hoffman.

7. Same as No. 3, with an additional finger elevated,

signifying two- — two nights.

8. The speaker with his harpoon, making the sign of

a sea-lion with the left hand. The flat hand is held
edgewise with the thumb elevated, then pushed
outward from the body in a slightly downward
curve.

9. A sea-lion.

10. Shooting with bow and arrow.

1 1. The boat with two persons in it, the paddles project-

ing downward.

1 2. The winter, a permanent habitation of the speaker.
The following is a translation of the native account: —

" I there go that island, one sleep there; then I go another
that island, there two sleeps; I catch one sea-lion, then
return place mine,"

208 EVOLUTION IN ART.

" Hunters who have been unfortunate, and are suffering
from hunger, scratch or draw upon a piece of wood
characters similar to those figured (Fig. 114), and place the
lower end of the stick in the ground on the trail where the
greatest chance of its discovery occurs. The stick is
inclined toward the locality of the habitation.

" I. A horizontal line, denoting a canoe, showing the
persons to be fishermen.

« 2 3 4

Fig. 114,— Pictograph of starving hunters, Alaska; after Mallery.

" 2. An individual with both arms extended, signifying
nothings corresponding with the gesture for negation.

'' 3. A person with the right hand to the mouth, signifying
to eaty the left hand pointing to the house occupied
by the hunters.

" 4. The habitation.

" The whole signifies that there is nothing to eat in the
house. This is used by natives of Southern Alaska."

Lean-Wolf, of the Hidatsa, who drew the picture of
which Fig. 115 is a fac-simile, made a trip on foot -from Fort
Berthold to Fort Buford, Dakota, to steal a horse from
the Dakotas encamped there. The returning horse-tracks
show that he attained the object in view and that he rode
home. The following explanation of characters was made
to Dr. Hoffman, at Fort Berthold, in 1881 :—

1. Lean-Wolf, the head only of a man to which is

attached the outline of a wolf.

2. Hidatsa earth lodges, circular in form, the spots

representing the pillars supporting the roof. Indian
village and Fort Berthold, Dakota.

3. Human footprints; the course taken by the recorder.

4. The Government buildings at Fort Buford (square).

EVOLUTION IN ART.

209

5. Several Hidatsa lodges (round), the occupants of

which had intermarried with the Dakotas.

6. Dakota lodges.

"^ Oo

Fig. 115. — Lean-Wolf's Map, Hidatsa; after Mallery.

A small square — a white man's house — with a cross
marked upon it, to represent a Dakota lodge. This
denotes that the owner, a white man, had married a

. Dakota woman who dwelt there.

Horse-tracks returning to Fort Berthold.

The Missouri River.

2IO EVOLUTION IN ART.

1 0-16. Tule Creek, Little Knife River, White Earth
River, Muddy Creek, Yellowstone River, Little
Missouri River, Dancing Beard Creek.

3. Designation. — This group embraces tribal, clan and
personal names, marks, status of individual and signs of
particular achievements.

The clan, or gentile, designations are totems; these are
depicted in the funeral pictographs to the exclusion of the
personal names; the latter are not indicative of an Indian's
totem.

In No. I of the last figure we have the usual signature of
Lean- Wolf. During his boyhood he had another name.

4. Religious. — Comprising mythic personages, shamanism
dances and ceremonies, mortuary practices, grave posts,
charms, etc.

5. Customs^ Daily Life a?id Habits. — The accompanying
figure is from a carving made of a piece of walrus tusk and
represents incidents in the life of an Alaskan native. The
special purport of some of the characters and etchings is
not apparent.

1. A native with his left hand resting against a house.
To the right is a "shaman stick" surmounted by the
emblem of a bird, a "good spirit," in memory of some
departed friend (? of his wife).

2. A reindeer.

3. One man, the. recorder, shot and killed another with
an arrow.

4. A trading expedition with a dog sledge.

5. Is a sail boat, although the elevated paddle signifies
that that was the- manner in which the voyage was best
made.

6. A dog-sled with the animal hitched up for a journey.
Above is the sun.

7. A sacred lodge. The four figures at the outer corners
of the square represent the young men placed on guard
armed with bows and arrows, to keep away the uninitiated.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

211

Inside are the members of the band dancing; the fire-place
is in the centre. The angled lines extending from the
right side of the lodge to the partition line are a plan of
the subterranean entrance to the lodge.

8. A pine tree, up which a porcupine is climbing.

9. A pine tree, from which a woodpecker is extracting
larvae for food.

10. A bear.

11. The recorder in his boat, holding aloft his double-
bladed paddle to drive fish into a net.

7 8 9 10 II 12

Fig. 116. — Ivory carving with records, Alaska; after Mallery.

12. An assistant fisherman driving fish into the net.

13. The net.

The figure over the man (No. 12) represents a whale,
with harpoon and line attached, caught by the narrator.

6. Historical — Colonel Mallery says: "It is very diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to distinguish in pictographs, or
indeed orally, between historical and traditional accounts
obtained from Indians. . . . The winter counts, while
having their chief value as calendars, contain some material
that is absolute and veritable tribal history."

7. Biog7'aphic. — Pictographs are very common either of
a continuous account of the chief events in the life of the

212 EVOLUTION IN ART.

subject of the sketch, or of separate accounts of some
particular exploit or event in the life of the person referred to.
In this and in another memoir ^ Colonel Mallery calls
attention to the fact that it is necessary to distinguish
between different kinds of pictorial signs, but this becomes
more difficult when the characters have become con-
ventionalised. They may be classified under — i. Pictorial
Signs; 2. Emblems; 3. Symbols.

1. The representation of any object when it is intended
to express that object is a pictoyial sign; for example, the
figure of a fish in a pictograph would usually refer to fish in
general or to some particular species of fish. The pictorial
translation of a personal name, such as "Lean-Wolf" (Fig.
115, i), comes under this heading.

2. Tribal signs, personal insignia, etc., are emblems; and
these do not necessarily require any analogy between the
objects representing and the objects or qualities represented,
but may arise from pure accident. The representation of a
totem belongs to this category, so that under certain con-
ditions a drawing would not refer to any actual fish or
that the individual was named " fish," but that he belonged
to the fish clan; it was emblematic of his clan or his family
group, like most of our armorial bearings. Tribal signs among
savage peoples are emblems in the same way that the rose,
thistle, leek, and shamrock are the emblems of the main
components of the British Islands. As Mallery points out,
"After a scurrilous jest the beggar's wallet became the
emblem of the confederated nobles, the Gueux of the
Netherlands; and a sling, in the early minority of Louis
XIV., was adopted from the refrain of a song by the
Frondeur opponents of Mazarin."

3. ^''Symbols are less obvious and more artificial than
mere signs, they are usually conventional, and are not only
abstract but metaphysical, and often need explanation from

^ Garrick Mallery, "Si^n Language among North American Indians,"
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1879 80 ( 18S1).

EVOLUTION IN ART. 21 3

history, religion, and customs. They do not depict but
suggest objects; do not speak directly through the eye to
the intelligence, but presuppose in the mind knowledge of
an event or fact which the sign recalls. The symbols of
the ark, dove, olive-branch, and rainbow would be wholly
meaningless to people unfamiliar with the Mosaic or some
similar cosmology, as would be the cross and the crescent
to those ignorant of history. The last-named objects
appeared in the class of emblems when used in designat-
ing the conflicting powers of Christendom and Islamism."
Among the North American Indians " the pipe is generally
the symbol of peace, although in certain positions and con-
nections it sometimes signifies preparation for war, and
again subsequent victory. The hatchet is a common
symbol for war, and closed hands or approaching palms
denote friendship. The tortoise has been clearly used as
a symbol for land." Many pictorial signs can be used as
emblems, and both can be converted into symbols or
explained as such by perverted ingenuity. An interesting
example of the last is seen in the early Christian conceit of
the portraiture of a fish used for the name and title of Jesus
Christ. This is based on the Greek word lxOvs, "an
acrostic composed of the initials of the several Greek
words signifying that name and title. This origin being
unknown to persons whose religious enthusiasm was in
direct proportion to their ignorance, they expended much
rhetoric to prove that there was some true symbolic relation
between an actual fish and the Saviour of men. Apart from
this misapplication, the fish undoubtedly became an emblem
of Christ and of Christianity. "^

An interesting example of the transformation of a symbol
into an emblem is found in the case of the triskele or
triquetra. This is now recognised to be a variant of the
tetraskele, fylfot, gammadion, or swastika, as it is variously
called. Originally this was a sun-symbol, but many other

1 Mallery, "Sign Language," etc., 1881, p. 389.

214 EVOLUTION IN ART.

meanings were doubtless associated with it. The triskelion
"first appears on the coins of Lycia^ about b.c. 480; and
then on those of Sicily, where it was adopted by Agathocles,
^•c. 317-307? but not as a symbol of the morning, mid-day,
and afternoon sun (' the Three Steps of Vishnu '), but of
the * three-sided ' or rather * three-ended ' or ' three-
pointed' (triquetrous) land of Trin-akria, i.e., 'Three-
Capes,' the ancient name of Sicily; and finally, from the
seventeenth century, on the coins of the Isle of Man;"^
where covered with chain armour, but without spurs, it was
introduced by Alexander III. of Scotland in 1266, when that
prince took over the island from the Norwegians; he having
become familiar with the device at the English Court of
Henry III. (1216-72), whose son Edmund was for a short
time styled King of Sicily, and who quartered the Sicilian
arms with the royal arms of England. ^ The triquetra is
also met with in the armorial bearings of several noble
families in England, Germany, Switzerland, and Poland,
but now the legs are appropriately clothed in armour and
spurs are added; probably these are relics of the Crusades.
Truly "the Three Legs of Man" have run afar not only
in historical time and geographical space, but also in the
unseen world of symbolism.

In the section devoted to Religion I deal with the history
and migration of the fylfot, one of the most widely dis-
tributed symbols, as this particular instance forms a good
example of the method which should be adopted in studying
symbols and their meaning.

Pictography is so obvious a means for conveying informa-
tion that there is no difficulty in supposing it to have
originated independently among different peoples. Its use
is, and has been, very widely spread.

^ J. Newton, Athenceum^ No. 3385, September 10, 1892, p. 353;
and for further details cf. Manx Note- Book, January 1886.

^ Sir George Birdwood, Introduction to Count Goblet d'Alviella's
The Migration of Symbols.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 21^

Petroglyphs are known from great antiquity in Europe
and Asia. They are still employed in Australia; they are
found in New Zealand, but most of these, like many of those
which scattered throughout the continent of Australia, are
comparatively ancieot. They are common in some parts of
South Africa, where they are due to the artistic impulses of
the Bushmen; neither the Kafirs nor the Hottentots paint
human and animal forms on the rocks. As petroglyphs are
much more permanent than pictographs on more perishable
materials, they are more likely to be preserved from ancient
times, but it is probable that the latter were actually of
more frequent occurrence.

There is no single system of pictography. Everywhere a
figure of a man means a man, and that of a tree stands for
a tree, and to this extent pictographs can be deciphered by
any one. More precise information can be gleaned when
the figures are provided with some unmistakable determina-
tive, and are in a realistic attitude. In the vast majority of
cases a native interpreter is required to explain the exact
significance of the figures, or of the event which they
commemorate. Once explained, the representations are
usually found to be sufficiently appropriate. Although the
meaning of simple pictographs may be guessed at readily
enough, the elucidation of complex representations is a
very different matter, as there are usually some signs, sym-
bols, or determinatives of which the significance is
unknown.

In attempting to decipher pictographs, not only is it
necessary to have a thorough knowledge of the people who.
made them, but it must be borne in mind that characters
substantially the same, or " homomorphs " (to use Colonel
Mallery's term) made by one set of people, have a different
signification among others. Further, differing forms (" sym-
morphs") for the same general conception or idea may
occur. It is usually comparatively easy for any one to get
a meaning out of a pictograph; but it is quite a different

2l6 EVOLUTION IN ART.

matter whether that was the meaning which the inscriber
intended to convey.

I have dwelt at some length on pictographs, or ideograms,
as they are used to so large an extent by backward peoples
to convey ideas; but this is only the threshold of a much
larger and more important matter, the Art of Writing.

These early steps, as has already been mentioned, have
been traversed by various peoples, but fewer have attained
the next stage, while the last has proved a laborious and
tedious effort. " To mvent and to bring to perfection the
score or so of handy symbols for the expression of spoken
sounds which we call our alphabet, has proved to be the
most arduous enterprise on which the human intellect has
ever been engaged. Its achievement tasked the genius of
the three most gifted races of the ancient world. It was
begun by the Egyptians, continued by the Semites, and
finally perfected by the Greeks. From certain Egyptian
hieroglyphic pictures, which were in use long before the
Pyramids were erected, it is possible to deduce the actual
outlines of almost every letter of oui modern English
alphabet."!

The stages through which alphabetic writing has passed
are as follow: —

1. Pictographs, — Pictures or actual representations of

objects.

2. Ideograms. — Pictorial symbols, which are used to

suggest objects or abstract ideas.
Phonograms. — Graphic symbols of sounds. They
have usually arisen out of conventionalised ideo-,
grams, which have been taken to represent sounds
instead of things.

3. {A^ Verbal signs, representing entire words.

4. {B.) Syllabic signs which stand for the articulations of

which words are composed.

* Isaac . Taylor, The Alphabet, an Accoitnt of the Origin and
Development of Letters, 1883.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 21/

5. Alphabetic Signs or Letters^ which represent the
elementary sounds into which the syllable can be
resolved.

1. The least advanced of men can convey information,
that is, they can write by means of Pictographs.

2. Probably all of them also employ more or fewer
symbols or Ideograms^ such as the depicting of a turtle for
" land " by the North American Indians.

The next stage is that in which from pictures which
represent things or ideas were derived pictures which
represent sounds or Phonograms.

Our children, of their own initiative, to amuse themselves,
pass through the two earlier stages of writing. The stage
we are now considering is a common amusement for child-
ren, in the kind of conundrum known as the rebus. "In
the rebus the picture of an object is taken to denote any
word or part of a word which has the same sound as the
name of the thing pictured. As in the well-known rebus in
which the sentence, ' I saw a boy swallow a gooseberry,' is
represented by pictures of an eye, a saw, a boy, a swallow, a
goose, and a berry. If, for instance, like the ancient
Egyptians, we were to adopt a circle with a central dot as
our ordinary written symbol for the sun, this would be an
ideogram. But if we were to go on, and after the Egyptian
or Chinese method, were to use the same symbol to express
also the word * son,' we should have a phonogram of that
primitive type which has repeatedly served to bridge over
the gap between picture ideograms and phonetic char-
acters."

3. In all languages there are certain monosyllabic words
which are pronounced alike, but which have different
significations, for example, stork, stalk (noun and verb).
In order to indicate which was intended in phonography, it
would be necessary to add a determinative or explanatory
ideogram. Thus, if a figure of the bird represented the
first, the same figure of a bird with a flower or some leaves

2l8 EVOLUTION IN ART.

by its side would indicate a stalk, and a pair of legs by the
side of another bird would determinate the action of stalking.
The Chinese to the present day write in this cumbrous way,
as used to do the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians.

There is no need, however, to invent a rebus to show
what one is when Egyptian hieroglyphics are full of them.
I take the following from Dr. Isaac Taylor. The picture of
a lute was used symbolically by the Egyptian scribes to
denote "excellence." It then came to stand as a phono-
gram to express the word nefer^ "good." But in the
Egyptian language this sound represented two homophonic
[similarly pronounced] words, nefer^ " good," and 7iefer^ *' as
far as." Hence we fmd that the character may be used as
a pictorial ideogram [pictograph] to represent a lute, and as
a symbolic ideogram to mean excellence ; then as a phono-
gram for the preposition nefer, and lastly as a syllabic sign
to denote iie^ the first syllable of the word 7iefer.

4. The problem of phonetic denotation having thus
been solved, the syllabic signs were combined so as to form
compound phonograms on the principle of the rebus. For
example, the name of lapis lazuli was khesteb. Now the
word /^/2^^ meant to "stop," and the syllable teb denoted a
"pig." Hence the rebus " stop-pig " was invented to ex-
press graphically the name of lapis lazuli, and this is figured
by the picture of a man stopping a pig by pulling at its
tail.

The Japanese system of writing illustrates the later
development. They learnt the art of writing from the
Chinese, but as their language is polysyllabic, while the
Chinese is essentially monosyllabic, " the Chinese characters
which are verbal phonograms could only be used for the
expression of the polysyllabic Japanese words by being
treated as syllabic signs. A number of characters sufficient
to constitute a syllabary having been selected from the
numerous Chinese verbal phonograms, it was found that
the whole apparatus of determinatives (or ' keys,' radicals,

EVOLUTION IN ART. 2ig

or ' primitives/ as they are termed in describing Chinese
writing) might be rejected, being no longer indispensable
to the reader. By these two changes an almost incredible
simplification of the Chinese writing was effected. But
though syllabism is a great advance on a system of verbal
phonograms, yet it is necessarily somewhat cumbrous,
owing to the considerable number of characters which are
required."

Although the Japanese have invented one of the best
syllabaries which has ever been constructed, the development
stopped short there. " The fact that during more than a
thousand years it should never have occurred to a people so
ingenious and inventive as the Japanese to develop their
syllabary into an alphabet, may suffice to show that the
discovery of the alphabetic principle of writing is not such
an easy or obvious a matter as might be supposed."

5. The final step consists in employing a sign to represent
a sound. It is a more refined analysis of a word, and this
gives simple phonetic elements, few in number, but which
can be indefinitely combined.

The ancient Egyptians curiously just stopped short of the
final stage; they developed alphabetical signs more than
four thousand years B.C., but failed to make independent
use of them. Their innate conservatism appeared to
paralyse further growth ; truly the gods have not given all
the gifts to any one man, for they (like Hannibal) did not
know how to make use of their victory. When a word was
alphabetically written a phonogram was added to explain it,
and an ideogram (or pictograph) was added to explain the
phonogram. The word as finally written was an accretion
of various stages in its own evolution.

Those who would like to trace the processes by which
one alphabet has been developed must be referred to Dr.
Taylor's great work, from which I have abstracted so
much.

For the sake of convenience Egyptian scribes developed

220 EVOLUTION IN ART.

a hieratic writing from the hieroglyphics. Strangely enough
this was twice accompHshed, the early Hieratic was truly
cursive and much bolder than the later and more delicate,
though less modified Hieratic. The former was invented
before the period of the Hyskos or Shepherd .Kings, and
the latter, or Theban Hieratic, arose in the succeeding
Ramesidan dynasty.

The Semites, who dwelt in the Delta of Lower Egypt
during the five or six centuries of the Hyskos dynasty, seized
on the alphabetic symbols of the cursive Hieratic, which
was the secular writings as opposed to the sacred hieroglyphs.
Their language and mode of thought being different from
that of the Egyptian scribe, and having no sacred tradi-
tions to hamper them, they were able to break away from
the trammels of antiquity. They were wise enough to drop
the useless lumber of the phonogram and ideogram, and so
they dissected out, as it were, the alphabet from the cursive
Hieratic. This was done in order to have a ready and
simple method for recording business transactions. Along
with their wares the Phoenicians distributed along the shores
of the Mediterranean this far more valuable acquisition.
The gift of the knowledge of letters with its vast potentiali-
ties more than counterbalanced the sharp practices of these
keen traders.

It was reserved for yet another people, the Greeks, to
perfect the alphabet they had learnt from the Phoenicians
to an extent which the Semites were unable to accomplish,
and this improvement in notation enabled them to register
thoughts more ennobling than the records of commerce.
It is scarcely conceivable that Greece could have risen to
her intellectual pre-eminence if she had been shackled with
phonographic writing. Evolution in notation is necessary
for the evolution of mental processes.

The evolution of the art of writing clearly shows that it
was expedient for the utilitarian to destroy the aesthetic, for
it must be admitted that the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt

EVOLUTION IN ART. 221

were the most decorative of all known writing symbols.
Professor Flinders Petrie, in a lecture delivered at the Royal
Institute, in May 1894, stated that "the Egyptian treatment
of everything was essentially decorative ; the love of form
and drawing was in Egypt a greater force than amongst any
other ancient people. Babylon and China, from want of
sufficient artistic taste, allowed their pictorial writing to sink
into a mere string of debased and conventional forms; the
Egyptians, on the contrary, preserve the purely pictorial and
artistic character of their hieroglyphs to the end. The
hieroglyphs were a decoration in themselves; their very
position in the sentence was subordinated to the decorative
effect ; the Egyptian could not be guilty of the barbarism
seen on some of the Assyrian sculpture, where inscriptions
were scrawled right across the work without regard to design.
So far was this idea carried that many words or ideas were
represented by two distinct characters, one wide and the
other narrow and deep, so that the harmony of the design
should not be broken by an unsuitable element. The
result was that the Egyptians were rewarded by having the
most beautiful writing in the world." ^ The less the picture
became like what it was intended to represent the more
useful it became as a means for conveying thought. But in
the new-found method of expression aesthetics has vastly
gained, and from our present point of view we may regard
as the final term of the series, vivid written descriptions of
scenes and events or word-pictures.

^ Newspaper Report.

222

III. AVealth.

When dealing with the decorative transformation of
artificial objects I referred (p. 78) to the large axes which
are made in some of the islands in the archipelagoes off the
south-east peninsula of New Guinea, and I pointed out
how the desire for a reputation for wealth appears to have
resulted in the production of a useless article, which took a
great deal of time to fabricate.

Mr. H. Balfour ^ gives a parallel example in the case of
"the development of our own civic and state maces. In
these the end which was originally the handle end has now
become the ' clubbed ' end, through the small crown, which
originally embellished the handle, having gradually deve-
loped into the enormous head so characteristic of the
modern ceremonial mace; the two ends have changed
places, and the sometime ' business ' end is now the
smaller."

An analogous modification often occurs in votive objects.
In prehistoric as well as in recent times objects are dedi-
cated to certain shrines. Sometimes these may be objects
in actual use, but frequently they are specially made, and in
order to increase their value they are made in some more
precious material or with more elaborate workmanship.
For example, votive axes have the blade decorated and
even often perforated, so that it comes to be an elegant fret-
work axe-blade, artistic and valuable but utterly useless for
material purposes. This has happened amongst many
peoples and at various times.

^ II. Balfour, The Evolution of Decorative Art, 1S93, p. 73.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 223

But there is also a reverse process which operates in
votive offerings, which may partly be due to the idea that
the deities or powers to whom the offerings are made care
more for the idea of offering than for the object offered, as
at a later stage it was recognised that " to obey is better ,
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams";
(i Samuel xv. 22). It must, however, be confessed that,
another consideration has probably been operative, and
that is economy, and it is conceivable that this motive has
led to the reason being assigned that the idea of the gift, or '
the essence of the gift, was all that was necessary. ;

It is superfluous to detail many examples, as the follow-
ing will suffice to illustrate this retrograde tendency. It was
formerly a widely-spread custom to sacrifice attendants for
the dead. " In the seventeenth century the practice is
described as prevailing in Japan, where, on the death of a
nobleman, from ten to thirty of his servants put themselves
to death. The Japanese form of modern survival of such
funeral sacrifices is the substitute for real men and animals,
images of stone, or clay, or wood, placed by the corpse.^
The ceremonies (in China) of providing sedan-bearers and
an umbrella-bearer for the dead, and sending mounted horse-
men to announce beforehand his arrival to the authorities
of Hades, although these bearers and messengers are only
made of paper and burnt, seem to represent survivals of a
more murderous reality. "^ The Chinese, too, on certain
occasions make mock money in paper and then burn it as
an offering.

Associated with wealth is the evolution of money. Money
is essentially a symbol of value; coin is always of less
intrinsic worth than its nominal value, and as money trans-
actions increase the nominal value bears absolutely no
relation to the real value, as in the case of paper money.

In some parts of British New Guinea we find at the

^ E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (2nd ed.), 1873, p. 463.
2 Loc. cit.f p. 464.

224 EVOLUTION IN ART.

present time a very interesting intermediate stage between
mere barter and the evolution of money.

I have elsewhere^ pointed out that there is no money in
Torres Straits; but certain articles have acquired a generally
recognised exchange value. Some of the objects necessitate
a considerable amount of skilled labour; others, such as
certain shell ornaments, vary in value according to the size
of the shell, although, of course, the labour in fabricating a
small shell is very little less than that expended over a large
one. I noticed that, as with our precious stones, a com-
paratively small increase in size greatly enhances the value.
In the first case it is the labour that gives the value, in the
second it is the rarity. Thus these objects cannot be
regarded as money as they have an intrinsic value. Those
most generally employed are the dibidibi^ a round polished
disc worn on the chest, and formed from the apex of a large
cone shell ( Conus millepunctatiis) ; the wakvi or waiiri, a
shell armlet formed of a transverse section of the same shell;
a zvap or dugong harpoon, a long elegantly shaped instru-
ment cut out of a tree; a canoe.

A good ivaiwi, one which can be worn on the arm of
a man, is a very valued possession, the exchange value is
a canoe or a dugong harpoon. I gathered that ten or
twelve dibidibi are considered of equal value to any of the
above. The ornaments vary in size and finish, and the
value varies correspondingly, thus no table of equable
exchange can be drawn up.

A wife was formerly rated at the highest unit of exchange,
her value being a canoe, or a ivap^ or a wakvi.

Macgillivray^ states that in 1849 an iron knife or a glass
bottle (which, when broken into fragments form so many
knives) was considered a sufficient price for a wife. Now
the natives usually give trade articles to their prospective

^ A. C. Haddon, "The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of
Torres Straits, "yi??//-, Anth. Inst., xix., 1890.
■^ Voyage of the"- Rattlesnake,''' \%i^2.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 225

parents-in-law. My friend Maino, the chief of Tud, in-
formed me that he paid for his wife, who came from the
mainland of New Guinea, a camphor-wood chest containing
seven bolts {i.e.^ pieces) of calico, one dozen shirts, one
dozen singlets (jerseys), one dozen trousers, one dozen
handkerchiefs, two dozen tomahawks, one pound of tobacco,
one long fish spear, two fishing lines, one dozen hooks, and
two pearl shells, and he finished up by saying, " By golly,
he too dear ! " If the above price was actually paid, there
was some foundation for his exclamation. Once when he
sold me something he particularly demanded a tomahawk
in exchange, as he had to give one to his mother-in-law to
" pay " for his last baby, and he did too. It appears that
babies have to be paid for as well.

At the opposite end of British New Guinea, Sir William
MacGregor informs us that at Pannaet (Deboyne Island), in
the Louisiades, the canoes for which this island is famous
are cut out with adzes of hoop-iron, but "they sell the
canoes when made at from ten to fifty stone axes. They
do not use the stone axe as a tool in this part of the
country, but it still represents the standard of currency in
great transactions such as the purchase of a canoe, or a pig,
or in obtaining a wife. The natives always carefully explain
that, as concerns the wife, the stone axes are not given as a
payment for her, but as a present to the father of the girl.
Steel tomahawks will, however, now be accepted, at least in
some cases, in payment of a canoe, and no doubt the days
of the currency of the stone axe for these and all other
purposes are numbered" (July 1890).^ In Misima (St.
Aignan Island) also " they have entered the iron age, and
appear to have entirely given up the use of the stone axe
except as a medium for purchasing wives" (October 1888). 2

The evolution of the money symbol is a very interesting

1 Annual Report of British New Guinea, C.A, i, 1S92, p. (yd.

2 Further Correspondence respecting New Guinea^ 1890, C. 5883,
p. 251.

226 EVOLUTION IN ART.

history, and I would refer those who would hke to inquire
further into it to the masterly work by Professor Ridgeway."^
In the following brief sketch of this question I draw largely
from that book.

Among the Bahnars of Annam, who border on Laos,
** everything," says M. Aymonier, *' is by barter, hence all
objects of general use have a known relationship; if we
know the unit, all the rest is easy." After enumerating
certain exchange values, he continues, "i muk=\o mats^
that is to say, ten of those hoes which are manufactured by
the Cedans, and which are employed by all the savages of
this region as their agricultural implement. The hoe is the
smallest amount used by the Bahnars. It is worth lo cen-
times in European goods, and is made of iron." ^

" The Chinese likewise used hoes as money; but in the
course of time the hoe became a true currency, and little
hoes were employed as coins in some parts of China " {tsin^
agricultural implements). ^

At Ras-el-Fyk, in Dafour, the hoe also serves as currency,*
and in West Africa " axes serve as currency; these are too
small to be really employed as an implement, but are doubt-
less the survival of a period not long past when real axes
served as money. "^

At the time when the Chinese made their great invasion
into South-Eastern Asia (214 B.C.), they still were employing
a bronze currency under the form of knives, which were
135 milhmetres (5! ins.) in length, bearing on the blade the
character Mitth, and finished with a ring at the end of the
handle for stringing them. Under the ninth dynasty (479-
501 A.D.), they used knives of the same form and metal, but
180 mm. (7! ins.) in length, furnished with a large ring at
the end of the handle and inscribed with the characters

^ W. Ridgeway, The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight
Standards, 1892.

2 Loc. cit., p. 23. ^ Loc. ciL, p. 45.

^ Loc. cit, p. 22. ^ Loc. cit., p. 40.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 22/

Tsy Ku'-u Hoa. Next the form of the knife was modified,
the handle disappeared, and the ring was attached directly
to the blade ; but now, as weight was regarded of import-
ance, its thickness was increased to preserve the full amount
of metal, and the ring became a flat round plate pierced
with a hole for the string.^ Later on these knives became
really a conventional currency,^ and for convenience the
blade was got rid of, and all that was now left of the original
knife was the ring in the shape of a round plate pierced with
a square hole. This is a brief history of the sapec (more
commonly known to us as cash\ the only native coin of
China, and which is found everywhere from Malaysia to
Japan. ^

" Among the fishermen who dwelt along the shores of the
Indian Ocean, from the Persian Gulf to the southern shores
of Hindustan, Ceylon, and the Maldive Islands, it would
appear that the fish-hook, to them the most important of all
implements, passed as currency. In the course of time it
became a true money, just as did the hoe in China. It still
for a time retained its ancient form, but gradually became
degraded into a single piece of double wire. These lan'ns,
made both of silver and bronze, were in use until the
beginning of the last century, and bear legends in Arabic
character. Had the process of degradation gone on without
check, in course of time the double wire would probably
have shrunk up into a bullet-shaped mass of metal, just as
the Siamese silver coins are the outcome of a process of
degradation from a piece of silver wire twisted into the form
of a ring and doubled up, which probably originally formed

^ J. Silvestre, "Notes pour servir ^ la recherche et au classement
des monnaies et des medailles de Annam et de la Cochin-Chine
Yroin(i2i\se,''' Excursions ei jReconnaissances, No. 15 (1883), p. 395.

2 W. S. Ament, **The Ancient Coinage of China," American
Joitrn. ArchcBoL, iv., 1888, p. 284, Pis. XII., XIIL

^ H. C. Millies, Recherches stir les Monnaies des Indigenes de
VArchipel Indien et de la Peninsule Malaie^ 1S71.

228 EVOLUTION IN ART.

some kind of ornament. The bullet-shaped tical is now
struck as a coin of European form. Just as, perhaps, the
silver shells of Burmah became the multiple unit of a large
number of real cowries, so the fish-hook made of real silver
came into use as a multiple unit, when the bronze fish-hook
had already become conventionalised into a true coin."^

" Every medium of exchange either has an actual market-
able value, or represents something which either has, or
formerly had, such a value, just as a five-pound note
represents five sovereigns, and the piece of stamped walrus
skin, formerly employed by Russians in Alaska in paying
the native trappers, represented roubles or blankets. This
is an interesting parallel to the ancient tradition that the
Carthaginians employed leather money" (p. 47).

To employ the language of geology, we have found
evidence pointing to certain general laws of stratification.
In Further Asia we have found a section which presents us
with an almost complete series of strata, whilst in other
places where we have been only able to observe two or
three layers, we have nevertheless found that certain strata
are invariably found superimposed upon others just as
regularly as the coal seams are found lying over the carbon-
iferous limestone. As soon as the primitive savage has
conceived the idea of obtaining some article which he
desires but does not possess, by giving in exchange to its
owner something which the latter desires, the principle of
money has been conceived.

Shells or necklaces of shells are found everywhere to be
employed in the earliest stages. When some men began
to make weapons of superior material, as for instance, axes
of jade instead of common stone, such weapons naturally
soon became media of exchange; when the ox and the
sheep, the swine and the goat are tamed, large additions
are made to the circulating media of the more advanced

1 W. Ridgeway, The Origin of Mefallic OtrrcJicy and Weight
Standards i 1892, p. 27.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 229

communities; then come the metals; the older ornaments
of shells and implements of stone are replaced by those of
gold (and much later by silver), and by weapons of bronze
as in Asia and Europe, and by those of iron in Africa.

Copper and iron circulate either in the form of imple-
ments and weapons, such as the axes of West Africa, the
hoes of the early Chinese and modern Bahnars, and the
ancient Chinese knives, all of which remind us of the axes
and half-axes in Homer; or in the form of rings and
bracelets, like the manillas of West Africa and the ancient
Irish fibulae, or else in the form of plates or bars of metal,
ready to be employed for the manufacture of such articles,
as in the case of the iron bars of Laos, the iron discs of the
Madis, and the brass rods of the Congo. Again, we are
reminded of the mass of pig-iron which Achilles offered as
a prize.

It is of the highest importance to observe that such
pieces of copper and iron are not weighed, but are appraised
by measurement. We shall find that it is only at a period
long subsequent to the weighing of gold that the inferior
metals are estimated by weight.

The custom of capturing wives, which prevails among the
lowest savages, is succeeded by the custom of purchasing
wives. The woman is only a chattel on the same footing
as the cow or the sheep, and she is accordingly appraised in
terms of the ordinary media of exchange employed in her
community, whether it be in cows, horses, beads, skins, or
blankets. Presently male captives are found useful both to
tend flocks, and, as in the East and in the modern Soudan,
to guard the harem.

With the discovery of gold, ornaments made at first out
of the rough nuggets supersede other ornaments, and
presently either such ornaments or portions of gold in
plates or lumps are added to the list of media, and the
same follows with the discovery of silver. Such ornaments
or pieces of gold and silver are estimated in terms of cattle,

230 EVOLUTION IN ART.

and the standard unit of the bars or ingots naturally is
adjusted to the unit by which it is appraised. Thus we
find the Homeric talent, the silver bar of Annam, the Irish
unga all equated to the cow, and the Welsh libra^ Anglo-
Saxon libra^ similarly equated to the slave.

With the discovery of the art of weaving, cloths of a
definite size everywhere become a medium, as the silk cloth
of ancient China, the woollen cloths of the old Norsemen,
the toukkiyeh of the Soudan, and the blanket of North
America. This fact once more recalls Homer and makes us
believe that the robes and blankets and coverlets which
Priam brought along with the talents of gold to be the
ransom of Hector's body, all had a definite place in the
Homeric monetary system.

" We have seen the Siamese piece of twisted silver wire
passing into a coin of European style, and the Chinese
bronze knife ending by becoming cash, just as the Homeric
talent of gold appears, in weight at least, as the gold stater
of historical times. Thus in every point the analogy between
what we find in the Homeric Poems and in modern bar-
barous communities seems complete.

"We may therefore with some confidence assume that
we are at liberty to fill up the gaps in the strata of Greek
monetary history which lie between Homer and the begin-
ning of coined money on the analogy of the corresponding
strata in other regions. This assumption, resting on a
broad basis of induction and confirmed by a good deal of
evidence special to Greece and Italy, will be found to
explain the origin, not only of weight standards in those
countries, but of the types on the oldest coins, such as the
cow's head of Samos, the tunny fish of Olbia and Cyzicus,
the axe of Tenedos, the tortoise of Aegina, the shield of
Boeotia, and the silphium of Cyrene " (pp. 49, 50).

Professor Ridgeway's view is that while mythological and
religious subjects do occur on Greek coins, it can be shown
that certain coins, even in historical times, were regarded as

EVOLUTION IN ART. 23 1

the representations of the objects of barter of more primitive
times. -

The tunny fish continually passes in vast shoals through
the sea of Marmora from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
A representation of this fish appears invariably on the
electrum coins of Cyzicus. "We know that the articles
which form the staple commodities of a community in the
age of barter virtually form its money. In a city like
Cyzicus, whose citizens depended for their wealth on their
fisheries and trade, rather than on flocks and herds and
agriculture, the tunny fish singly or in certain defined
numbers, as by the score or hundred and the like, would
naturally form a chief monetary unit, just as the stock-fish
(dried cod) were employed in mediaeval Iceland. Are we
not then justified in considering the tunny fish, which forms
the invariable adjunct of the coins of Cyzicus, as an in-
dication that these coins superseded a primitive system in
which the tunny formed a monetary unit, just as the kettle
and pot countermarks on the coins of Crete point back to
the days when real kettles formed the chief medium of
exchange ?

" But far stronger evidence is at hand to show that the
tunny fish was used as a monetary unit in some parts of
Hellas. The city of Olbia, which lay on the north shore of
the Black Sea, was a Milesian colony, and was the chief
Greek emporium in this region. There are bronze coins of
this city made in the shape of fishes and inscribed 0Y,
which has been identified as the abbreviation of Ovvvo^,
tunny. When we recall the Chinese bronze cowries, the
Burmese silver shells, the silver fish-hooks of the Indian
Ocean, etc., we are constrained to believe that in those
coins of Olbia, shaped like a fish, we have a distinct proof
of the influence on the Greek mind of the same principle
which has impelled other peoples to imitate in metal the
older object of barter which a metal currency is replacing.
The inhabitants of Olbia were largely intermixed with the

^32 EVOLUTION IN ART.

surrounding barbarians, and may therefore have felt som6
difficulty in replacing their barter unit by a round piece of
metal bearing merely the imprint of a fish, while the pure-
blooded Greek of Cyzicus had no hesitation in mentally
bridging the gulf between a real fish and a piece of metal
merely stamped with a fish, and did not require the inter-
mediate step of first shaping his metal unit into the form of
a tunny.

The island of Tenedos, lying off the Troad, struck at a
very early date silver coins bearing for device a double-
headed axe. Pausanias, in the second century a.d., saw at
Delphi axes dedicated by Periclytus of Tenedos. It is
probable, according to Professor Ridgeway, that such double
^xes as those stamped on the coins of Tenedos formed part
pf the earliest Greek system of currency. The prizes offered
in the funeral games of Patroclus are of course merely
the usual objects of barter and currency, slavewomen, oxen,
tripods, talents of gold, and the like. " But he (Achilles)
set for the archers dark iron, and he set down ten axes and
ten half-axes; "1 that is, ten double and ten single-headed
axes. That such axes were evidently an important article in
Tenedos is proved by the dedication at Delphi, and may
not the axe on their coins represent the local unit of an
earlier epoch ?

The "tortoise" on the coins of Aegina has been
mythologised as an emblem of Aphrodite, but the connec-
tion is not very intimate. According to a fragment of
Ephorus, the Aeginetans took to commerce on account pf
the barrenness of their island. But they must have had
something to give in exchange to the people before they
could have developed a carrying trade, and Professor
Ridgeway suggests that the tortoise on the coins of Aegina
simply indicates that the old monetary unit of that island

^ " Ten double-headed axes he set and ten single," in the translation
by E. Meyers. The Iliad of Homer ^ xxiii. 850 (Macmillan & Co.),

EVOLUTION IN Akft<{/^^ '^^T'^^

was the shell of the turtle ("tortoise-shell"), which' was
considerably larger, and therefore more valuable for making
bowls than that of the land or mountain tortoise. The
earliest coins represent a turtle, for the feet are flippers
quite distinct from the legs of the later tortoises; also the
thirteen plates of the dorsal shield, or carapace, are not so
distinct in the turtle as in the tortoise, and in the older
coins these plates are not represented. The earliest coins,
too, have the incuse on the reverse divided into eight
triangular compartments, which may indicate the eight
plates of the ventral shield, or plastron, of all these animals.

The same line of argument applies to the Boeotian shield,
which has been confidently pronounced to be a sacred
emblem, but which we must now regard as a numismatic
symbol of a real shield. On the reverse of these coins the
incuse forms a rude X, bounded by a circle of dots, which
probably represents the back of the shield, as the frame of
an ox-hide shield consists of a circular rod with two cross-
bars.

"The idea of making the incuse represent the other
side of the object given in relief on the obverse seems to be
just the stage between a complete representation of the
object, as in the tunny of Olbia, and that evinced by the
early coins of Magna Grsecia, on which the reverse gives in
the incuse exactly the same form as that in relief on the
obverse."

The silphium plant of Cyrene, which yielded a salubrious
but somewhat unpleasant medicine, has also been held to
have a mythological symbolism, and without any evidence
it has been foisted on to the hero Aristacus, "the pro-
tector of the corn-field and the vine and all growing crops,
and bees and flocks and shepherds, and the averter of the
scorching blasts of the Sahara." " It seems far more
reasonable to treat it on the same principle as the others
just discussed. The silphium formed the most important
article produced in that region, and it is perfectly in

234 EVOLUTION IN ART.

accordance with all analogy that certain quantities of this
plant, and of the juice extracted from it, should be employed
as money. At the present moment tea is so employed on
the borders of Tibet and China, and raw cotton in Darfur."

Professor Ridgeway argues that the same holds good for '
representations of cattle on coins — the image of the cow or
the ox indicates that the gold piece so marked is a substitute
for that animal.

These researches of Professor Ridgeway's have thrown a
new light on some of the images on Greek coins. He has
transferred the symbohsm of this class of coinage from the
domain of religion to that of merchandise — from god to
mammon.^

^ Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, jun., has published a paper ("On
Bird and Beast in Ancient Symbolism," I'rans. Roy, Soc. Edinb.^
xxxviii. pt. i., 1895, p. 179), in which he combats Prof. Ridgeway's
theory, as being foreign to all we know of ancient symbolism. " We
must see fallacy in any theory which treats as nascent and primitive the
civilisation of a period of exalted poetry, the offspring of ages of ante-
cedent culture ; which sees but a small advance on recent barbarism in
ways of life simple in some respects, but rich in developed art and
stored with refined tradition ; that looks only for the ways and habits
and thoughts of primitive man in races supported by a background
of philosophical and scientific culture of an unfathomed, and may be
unfathomable, antiquity. Behind early Hellenic civilisation was all
the wisdom of Egypt and the East, and the first Greeks of whom we
have knowledge looked upon the old Heaven and the old Earth not
with the half-open, wondering eyes of wakening intelligence, but
with perceptions trained in an ancient inheritance of accumulated
learning." I print this extract, as I consider that D'Arcy Thompson's
reminder is needed in the present search after origins. With regard to
the point at issue, it appears to me that both may be right. Some of
the representations on Greek coins may have the significance which
Ridgeway ascribes to them, while others may bear the interpretation
given by D'Arcy Thompson, whose theory I shall refer to later.

235

IV. Magic and Religion.

For the sake of simplicity, in the Introduction I included
in the term Religion the relation of man to unseen powers.

^ These have always been recognised, and man has everywhere
attempted to put himself into sympathetic relation with

^Jjthem. It is, however, preferable to distinguish between
Sympathetic Magic and Religion proper, as the former is
impersonal and the latter is essentially personal in its
operation.

Sympathetic magic is, so to speak, the primitive proto-
plasm out of which natural science has been evolved, in
much the same way as, together with ancestor-worship and
totemism, it lies at the base of most religious systems.

I. Sympathetic Magic.

As Mr. J. G. Frazer has pointed out,^ primitive man has
the germ of the modern notion of natural law, or the view
of nature as a series of events occurring in an invariable
order without the intervention of personal agency. This
germ is involved in that sympathetic magic which plays a
large part in most systems of superstition.

One of the principles of sympathetic magic, or signature
lore as it is sometimes called, is that any effect may be
produced by imitating it. If it is wished to kill a person,

^ J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough : A Study in Comparative Religion^
1S90, p. 9.

236 EVOLUTION IN ART.

an image of him is made and then destroyed; and it is
believed that through a certain physical sympathy between
the person and his image, the man feels the injuries done
to the image as if they were done to his own body, and
when it is destroyed he must simultaneously perish.

Sometimes the magic sympathy takes effect, not so much
through an act as through a supposed resemblance of
qualities. Some Bechuana warriors wear the hair of an ox
among their own hair and the skin of a frog on their mantle,
because a frog is slippery and the ox from which the hair
has been taken has no horns and is therefore hard to catch;
so the warrior who is provided with these charms believes^
that he will be as hard to hold as the ox and the frog.

"Thus we see," continues Mr. Frazer, "that in sympa-
thetic magic one event is supposed to be followed nece^^
sarily and invariably by another, without the intervention
of any spiritual or personal agency. This is, in fact, the
modern conception of physical causation; the conception,
indeed, is misapplied, but it is there none the less. Here,
then, we have another mode in which primitive man seeks
to bend nature to his wishes. There is, perhaps, hardly a
savage who does not fancy himself possessed of this power
of influencing the course of nature by sympathetic magic. . . .
Of all natural phenomena there are perhaps none which
civilised man feels himself more powerless to influence than
the rain, the sun, and the wind. Yet all these are com-
monly supposed by savages to be in some degree under
their control."

Magic practices are, as a rule, primarily a kind of mimetic
representation combined with crude symbolism, or the
latter alone may be employed, as in the previously men-
tioned Bechuana custom.

We may regard pictorial representation of magic as
probably indicating a higher stage of culture.

Mr. H. Vaughan Stevens has recently made a number of
valuable observations in the Malay Peninsula; these have been

EVOLUTION IN ART. 237

edited by A. Griinwedel/ and they throw a new light on the
importance of decorative art in the psychic life of savages.
The Semang tribes are negritto in origin, that is, they belong
to the short, dark, frizzly-haired stock which probably were
the original inhabitants of that part of the world, and are
consequently a more primitive people than the Malays.

The Semang tribes, especially the Orang Panggang of
East Malacca, possess a kind of picture writing which, on
the one hand, serves to record mythological representations,
name-marks, etc., upon objects made of bamboo; on the
other hand it forms the foundation of complicated magic
patterns which these tribes are accustomed to employ as a
means of pnotection against illnesses. But in so far as these
patterns are incised in the bamboo as prescriptions for the
healing herbs to be employed, apart from the protecting
charm which lies directly in them, those elements which
go to make them up can also be described as a kind of
writing.

The magic patterns of the pure Semang from East
Malacca are found on three classes of objects —

1. The bamboo combs {tin-kig) of the women.

2. The bamboos {gor and gar) which serve as quivers for

the blow-pipe arrows and the tube of the blow-pipe.
These are the protective devices of the men.

3. The bamboos called gi^ which contain all the ordinary

patterns. With the exception of a remnant these
have sunk into oblivion. No example is known.
The combs are worn throughout the whole Semang
district, but on the western side of the mountain chain
of the Peninsula, from Kedah to Perak, these are used
more as ornament, and the originals for the composition of
the patterns are forgotten.

The patterns on the combs exhibit flowers, or the principal

1 "Die Zaubermuster der Orang Semang," Zeitschr. fiir EtJutologie^
XXV., 1893, p. 71; "Die Zaubermuster der Orang hutan," loc. cit.^
xxvi., 1894, p. 141.

238 EVOLUTION IN ART.

parts of flowers, which serve as simples against the disease.
The combs are only used by women against invisible
sickness, etc., such as fever; for injuries and wounds such
as those caused by a falling bough in the jungle, or the bite
of a centipede, other means are employed. The combs are
not used for combing the hair. The women wear eight
combs, sometimes even sixteen, which are placed horizontally
with the teeth embedded in the hair and the handles pro-
jecting outwards; when eight are worn, two are inserted in
the front, back, and sides of the head.

The choice of combs depends upon — (i) The diseases
which are raging near the tribe; (2) the diseases which
are most feared; and (3) the number of women there are
together.

According to the Semang, the winds bring these sicknesses
with them as the punishment for some sin which Keii, the
thunder-god, wishes to revenge. The wind-demon, which is
sent by Keii on this message, blows over the head of the
person and deposits the sickness on the forehead, from
whence it spreads over the body. The god Pie, however,
gives to the Semang a magical remedy which the winds
dare not approach, and so the impending punishment is
turned aside. If a woman is protected by the right comb
and the wind blows upon her head, the demon meets the
odour of the was and falls down to the ground. If the was
charm fails the /^ze/^/- charm comes to the rescue, so that the
demon cannot get any further, and recognising Pie's power,
it falls down and is carried away by the wind. If the illness
comes from behind it is held back by mos, that is the
representation which runs across the comb at the insertion
of the teeth. The calyx of a flower is called mos^ and
exactly as the flower lies embedded in its calyx, so the parts
of the handle named wets and pdwer reach under the vios
line, although one cannot see them, and are there just as
effective as above.

When several women meet they wear different combs to

EVOLUTIOM IN ART. 239

protect themselves and others from all kinds of diseases.
Different ivds patterns are necessary, as each sickness has
its own wind, and the wind does not bring any or all
diseases. As a rule a was is necessary for each disease,
without, however, excluding others, but sometimes it does
for about six. It does not often happen that the Semang
carves upon a comb a pattern for any other than the one
object in view.

The Semang women usually possess from twenty to thirty
combs, and they lend them to one another. When in the
huts and at night they lay them under the roof. They are
buried with the owner to keep the diseases from the spirit
which have been averted during life.

As to the origin of the custom, the Semang unanimously
declare that the patterns of the combs were the invention
of the god Pie for themselves, and were not borrowed from
any other folk. In former times the combs had only three
teeth. The teeth are merely a means for fastening. The
men wear no combs as their hair is kept short. Their
magical remedies are the gor's and gar^s. They say that in
very ancient times women carried bamboo sticks on which
were cut the whole seventy disease patterns. The gi were
stuck in the girdle.

The diseases for which the combs are effective attack
women only, and these, the men say, are mostly imaginary.
Illnesses which attack both men and women are kept off
by the quivers and blow-pipes {sujupit) of the men, as the
women are generally not very far off from the men.

The handle of a typical comb is divided into eight trans-
verse bands, each of which has its own name. Above the
broad central band {tin-tveg) are four narrow bands, while
below it are three narrow bands. The first and second
band of the upper series are called respectively was and
pdwer. The uppermost line, above zvds, is called tej>ij the
lowest line below the eighth band {nos), and immediately
above the teeth, is called inos.

240

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Was and pdwer are the protecting figures,

whose charm keeps off the diseases. Tept^

^ pdwer and mos are also parts of a flower, was

is the scent, the stamens and pistil are called

tept^ the line in the comb above the was

band has the same name, the lengthened tube

above the green calyx is known as pazver and

the calyx as mos. Two jungle flowers now

Fig. 117. — serve as paiver, one a kind of Ixora, but the

Ixora ; from botanical name of the other has not been

Stevens. identified.

In Figs. 118 and 119

we have two combs

of the Orang Semang,

which illustrate the

method of decoration.

They are intended for

two different diseases,

the nature of either of

Figs. 118, 119.— Magic combs of the which is obscure. The

Orang Semang ; from Stevens. pattern in the tin-weg

band of Fig. 118 evidently represents the magical flower. The

was pattern in Fig. 119 is faulty, it is etched in the original

comb as in the upper band of Fig. 120: Whereas the

/ »^^ / . i — I > '^ J \_j — elements a, b, c

^ V w w y g: -r'4r.:

asin lower band
of Fig.

W'WW~W~W"W~such slight

-2 V W 11 V V takes as t

120.

mis-
these

•A B C in the decora-

FiG. 120. — Diagram of the uppermost pattern of tion of a COmb

Fig. 119, with rectification of that pattern; may render the

from Stevens. ^^^gi^ p^^^^^^^^ ^^

po avail against the appropriate disease,

EVOLUTION IN ART.

If one looks through the patterns which represent
was and pdwer one speedily finds that many are identical
with each other, or are parts of the patterns in the fifth
band {tin-weg) which represent the illness. The following
account is given in explanation of this : as the magic patterns
were made by Pie, he washed, as he settled one pattern for
a definite disease, at the same time to make it known which
flower blooms most freely at the time when the illness rages,
and he gave to both a similar form. If was diTidi pdiver \iQXQ
obliged to get exactly the same figure, in order to prevent
confusion of the patterns with one another, he ordained
that differentiating marks should be added on the comb.

For us, who do not see the patterns with Semang eyes,
many deviations appear in the figures. One reason for this
is that the patterns of the combs are mostly incised by
young men and not by the older men, as is the case with
the quivers and blow-pipes. The young men, unskilled in
carving, and not always perfectly acquainted with the
patterns, cut the combs for their sisters and future wives.
One mistake in the pattern does not necessarily do away
with the efiicacy of a comb, as a Panggang man once said,
"It is like a gap or hole in a bird-trap : the bird can hop
through it, but it is always a question whether it sees the
gap."

All the figures of the combs, except the wds^ pdiver, and
tin-weg must be of the very simplest kind. The rule is that
they are borrowed from a was or pdwer pattern, but the
special characters must be omitted. The youths who copy
the combs overlook this and insert in the neighbouring
bands the complete wds a.nd pdwer patterns.

The magicians engrave various devices on pieces of
bamboo, and, as will be seen from the following examples,
these magic staves are supposed to be effectual for a great
many difficulties and adversities.

Fig. 121. — This bamboo shows as its middle figure an
Argus pheasant with its two long ocellated tail-feathers.

242

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig, 121. — Magical pict.o^ia;)h of the Orang hutan against the stings
of scorpions and centipedes; size of original 9f inches; from
Stevens.

EVOLUTION IN ART.

243

The wheel-like patterns at A
represent these eye-marks, the
angular marks at b. are the
wings of the animal. Left of
the Argus is a long, orange-
coloured centipede. The head
of the animal is drawn in the
direction towards the tail of
the Argus. The lines with
little dots on each side to thei"
right and left of the centi-
pede are the tracks which that
animal leaves on the skin of
a man. Two blue scorpions
are represented on the other
side of the Argus. The figure
at the end of their tails is a
swelling in the flesh of a person
who has been stung by them.
The female of this kind of
scorpion is more poisonous
than the male, and is said to
cause double stings. There-
fore the marks with two rows j)
of points at c denote the sting
of the female, that with one ^
row at D that of the male.

The significance of this s
bamboo is, "as the Argus
pheasant feeds on centipedes a
and scorpions, so its help is
invoked against them by strik-
ing the bamboo against the
ground" ^^^' 122.— Magical device of the

° ^^. ' , , OrangB<5lendas against a skin

Pig. 122 represents the de- disease; size of original 19

vices etched on a piece of inches; from Stevens.

244 EVOLUTION IN ART.

bamboo against two forms of a skin disease — the one
exhibits leprous white ulcers, the other hard knots on
and under the skin. The lowermost marking, a, when
one holds the bamboo with the open end uppermost,
represents the bank of a river, in which frogs have
sunk holes. The dots and lines are these holes imprinted
in the soft slime, some being under the water, others
being above it. The zigzag lines at b represent frog's
legs; these limbs of the animal are abbreviations for the
whole animal, which is always conventionalised. Over these
frogs one sees at c a pattern which is used to represent
different things; for example : (i) an ant-hill; (2) a Hantu
of an illness in the human body, whose effect is felt like the
crawling and biting of ants, and indeed this Hantu lives in
forsaken ant-hills ; (3) the skin marked by this disease ; or
(4) even the seeds of a melon, cucumber, etc. Here the figure
represents an ant-hill on the ground. Out of the ground
there grow climbing plants (d), whose winding round the trees
is represented by the lines forming the ovals ; the little lines
between these egg-shaped figures represent the body of the
partially very voluminous hanas. The Uttle lines on the out-
side of the twists when they are long represent thorns ; but
when they are mere points they indicate the tracks of insects'
claws on the bark. In our picture, as the lines are midway
between long streaks and dots, they represent ants in
two groups, which are running up and down the lianas.
Immediately under the line above d one sees four
figures (1-4), which are respectively a bird, a butterfly, a
caterpillar, and a tree-frog. The band at e indicates a
tree. The figures are to be read off from right to left,
commencing at the vertical line x, which represents the
trunk of the tree without leaves ; to the left are five
similar figures, which are the fully developed leaves of
the tree. To the left is a dark beam with leaf-marks on
the right side only, these are the undeveloped young leaves
at the top of the tree. Further to the left is a dark

EVOLUTION IN ART.

245

beam, on each side of which are zigzags {y y) ', these are
branches.

The black line to the left at z, z, represents the end of
the lianas which are drawn in d; these having sprung from
the ground have reached the branches of the tree.

To the left of this is the top-
most part of the tree, with unde-
veloped leaf-shoots on the left side.
The sudden dwindling of this line
is to show the tapering of the tree
stem towards its top.

Above this the pattern c is re-
peated, and the three rows above
the line show the spots on the skin,
which are supposed to look like
melon seeds; the rows respectively
stand for the head, body, and feet
which are thus affected.

Lastly, fish-scales are drawn to
represent the leprous form of the
disease; these are also in three
rows for the head, body, and feet.
They increase in size in order to
show that they will gradually spread
over the whole body if not cured
in some way. Just at the place
where the different rows of patterns
end (when one reads from left to Fig. 123.— Rain-charm of the

Orang Belendas ; size of
the original io| inches;
from Stevens.

right) there is a group of dots on

the scales, which represent the last

stage of the disease; incurable

holes out of which blood flows. They are supposed to be

like the wounds caused by the stings of any kind of

poisonous fish. These holes seldom appear on the legs.

The whole drawing is the remnant of an ancient pattern
which was employed as a charm by the old magicians of the

246 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Orang Belendas. The object of the pattern is even at the
present time known to the laity, but the story is probably
lost as to how the figures came to be put together in this
way.

Fig. 123 is a copy of a ^' fooft-tong,^^ which the man who
owned it would not sell to Mr. Stevens. Its use is to pro-
duce rain when the paddy-fields are suffering from an
insufficient monsoon.

The oblique lines represent the rain driven by the wind,
the lines being the downpour and the dots are the rain-
drops. The lines from left to right stand for the north-east,
and those from right to left for the south-west monsoon.
The curved lines mean a storm. The repetition of the rain-
figures means " much rain."

Next to the rain on the right is a double row of tortoise^
eggs (double = many), as indicative of the tortoise, which is
a representative of dampness, moisture, and mud.

The middle row of figures represents young ^^ piyuttg'^
fruit. The piyung has fruit when the rainy season begins,
and loses the ripe fruit at its close. Hence it is drawn as
symbolic of the rainy season. There now are, as a matter
of fact, piyung trees that have fruit in the other months.
Stevens showed some of these to the Orang Belendas, and
was informed that in the time of their ancestors the piyung
trees had ripe fruit at the rainy season. Whether that was
the case in their original home, or whether another variety
existed, has yet to be settled. Probably the tradition of the
Orang Belendas is correct, even if it cannot be cleared up
on all points.

The decoration of one bamboo is a formula to enable a
man who wishes to build a house to easily find the necessary
materials. Below is a band filled with cross-hatching, like
trellis-work, meant for the wall of a house, and standing for
the whole house; above this are several very diagrammatic
representations of burnt trees which have remained after the
^ Probably a mud-tortoise.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 24;^

firing of the jungle, a forked branch of tree which is used as
a prop, pahn leaves for thatching, etc. The rest of the
bamboo is divided into longitudinal bands, most of which
look like attempts at decorative patterns, but they really
signify a liana with many leaves^ the frame-work of the roof
of the house, a ladder, split leaves interlaced for thatching
rattans, while a zigzag line means the long path which goes
from side to side, and thus indicates the obstacles which
befall the leaves for the thatch whilst they are being carried
through the jungle.

One design is supposed to protect the harvest and the
' plantations round the house from injurious animals. In it is
represented a very diagrammatic house. On the one side
are plants with tubers growing on the sides of a hill, for the
Orang Belenda generally clear the sides of a hill for their
plantations and houses. On the other side of the house are
depicted maize, the keladi {caladiuni) with its edible tubers,
three sugar-canes with the edible shoots at the roots,
another plant of maize, tapioca with its edible roots, a
variety of yam with its tubers, and a banana ; in addition
there are six immature trees, and the punctate background
denotes grass. The upper part of the bamboo represents
those animals which may destroy the gifts of the soil. These
are a caterpillar, a rat, two iguanas (monitors or lace-
lizards, which go after hens' eggs) ; next each lizard is a
tree with leaves where they like to hide; a row of dots on
each side of the tree-trunks denote the upward and down-
ward tracks of the animals at night. There is also a tortoise
with its young one, and a pair of crescentic lines indicate
the pool where the reptile lives.

Another carved bamboo helps women to catch fish, and
also protects them from poisonous ones.

To the uninitiated many patterns would appear to be
simple decorative devices, but Mr. Stevens has found that
they have definite meanings; for example, rattan may be
conventionally represented by a straight or a waved line, or

248 EVOLUTION IN ART.

by -two waved or zigzagged lines which, when appUed to-
gether, form a series of ovals or diamonds. A cross-hatched
band may stand for a house, the marking indicating a wall
or the floor. Zigzags, like those in Fig. 122, b, indicate frogs'
legs, these stand for frogs themselves, and these again are
symbolic of water.

From the foregoing it is evident that it is only by making
careful inquiries from the natives themselves that the mean-
ing of most of the devices of savages can be elucidated.
What we are apt to consider as mere decoration may have a
very definite magical or symbolic significance.

Mr. Goodyear states^ that Lieutenant Frank Gushing
informed him that the patterns which the Zunis borrow
from foreign ware are supposed to endow their own pottery
with the virtues of the foreign material and manufacture,
and that their use of borrowed patterns has this purpose.

The same author,^ referring to the decorative art of
Ancient Egypt, quotes as follows from Professor Maspero: —
" The object of decoration was not merely to delight the
eye. Applied to a piece of furniture, a coffin, a house, a
temple, decoration possessed a certain magical property,
of which the power or nature was determined by each
word inscribed or spoken at the moment of consecration.
Every object, therefore, was an amulet as well as an
ornament."

The tying of magic knots is a common expedient in
sorcery, as the following extracts from a short paper by Dr.
March ^ will prove. The malevolent tying of a knot
brought mischief upon a man, to be averted only by counter-
plotting and counter-knotting. Sickness was caused by the
invasion of a demon, or by spells WTought by an enemy;
and evil spirits had to be exorcised, and the knot of the
spell-bound to be loosed.

^ The Architeciitral Record, iii., 1 893, p. 139. - Page 145.

^ 11. Colley March, "Magic Knots," Trans. Rochdale Lit. and
Set. Soc.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 249

The magical texts, found in a biliteral form, written in
the Accadian and the Assyrian tongues, furnish examples of
which the following are specimens : —

May the god of herbs

Unloose the knot that has been knitted.

Take the skin of a suckling that is still ungrown,
Let the wise woman bind it to the right hand and double it
on the left.

Knit the knot seven times,
Bind the head of the sick man.

So may the guardian priest cause the ban to depart
From him, and unloose the bond.

Amongst the Fins and the Norsemen evil spells could be
wrought by malevolently twisting into a magic knot the
fibres of certain trees, sometimes the birch, but more often
the willow; and to unloose the knot was the surest way of
undoing the mischief.

In the Sigurd Saga, Sigurd boasts to Eystein, "On the
way to Palestine I came to Apulia, but, brother, I did not
see thee there. I went all the way to Jordan and swam
across the river. On the bank there grows a bush of
willows, and there I twisted a knot of willows which is
waiting there for thee. For this knot I said thou shouldst
untie, brother, or take the C||rse that is bound up in it."

Tying knots as a means of witchcraft is still in force in
the British Islands, as may be seen in the pubhcations of
the Folk-Lore Society. ^ These practices need not neces-
sarily be with evil intent, as the lovers' knot had for an
object the firm binding of the lovers' affection to each
other.

It is probable that many of the knots carved on ancient

1 Cf. for example, Folk-loTC, vi., 1895, j^p. 154, 160; Proc. Roy.
Irish Acad. (3), ii., 1893, p. 818.

250 EVOLUTION IN ART.

monuments in Northern Europe have reference to this
magical practice, and it is conceivable from what is known
to occur elsewhere that a representation of a knot might
possess all the virtue of a real knot.

But knots in Scandinavian art have also a symbolic
significance and may be associated with Midgarth's Worm
and the serpents in the Norse pit of perdition. On portals
from Veigusdal Church, in Scetersdal (now in the Chris-
tiania Museum), are carved incidents from the favourite
legend of Sigurd. On one of them, according to Dr. March,i
may be seen the avaricious and ill-fated Fafni slain and
utterly dismembered, passing into a maze of beautiful scroll-
work. The same story is illustrated on two sides of the
Halton Cross; here, however, the writhing knotted throes
that elsewhere signify Fafni's death take the form of a knot,
Fafni himself not being represented.

2. Totemism.

In the following brief account of totemism I borrow
largely from a small but peculiarly valuable book by Dr.
Frazer.2 "A totem is a class of material objects which a
savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that
there exists between him and every member of the class an
intimate and altogether special relation. ... As distin-
guished from a fetich, a tote||^ is never an isolated indi-
vidual, but always a class of objects, generally a species of
animals or plants.

"Considered in relation to men, totems are of at least
three kinds: — (i) The clan totem, common to a whole
clan, and passing by inheritance from generation to genera-

^ H. C. March, "The Pagan-Christian Ovedap in the North,"
Tians. Lane, and Cheshire Ant. Soc, ix., 1892.

^ J. G. Frazer, Totemism, 1887. (An expansion of the article on
" Totemism " in the Encyclopedia Britannica, ninth edition.)

EVOLUTIOxM IN ART. 251

tion; (2) the sex totem, common either to all the males or
to all the females of a tribe, to the exclusion in either case
of the other sex; (3) the individual totem, belonging to a
single individual and not passing to his descendants." The
first is by far the most important, and we will confine our-
selves to it alone.

" The clan totem is reverenced by a body of men and
women who call themselves by the name of the totem,
believe themselves to be of one blood, descendants of a
common ancestor, and are bound together by common
obligations to each other and by a common faith in the
totem. Totemism is thus both a religious and a social
system. In its religious aspect it consists of the relations of
mutual respect and protection between a man and his totem ;
in its social aspect it consists of the relations of the clans-
men to each other and to men of other clans. In the
later history of totemism these two sides tend to part com-
pany;" the social system sometimes survives the religious,
or the reverse may obtain.

The members of a totem clan call themselves by the
name of their totem, and commonly believe themselves to
be actually descended from it. For example, I found that
the following animals were totems in Torres Straits : dog,
dugong, cassowary, crocodile, snake, turtle, king-fish, shark,
sting-ray, giant-clam, etc. " No cassowary-man would kill a
cassowary; if one was seen doing so his clansmen would
'fight him, they feel sorry. Cassowary he all same as
relation, he belong same family.' The members of the
cassowary clan were supposed to be especially good runners.
If there was going to be a fight a cassowary man would say
to himself, ' My leg is long and thin, I can run and not feel
tired; my legs will go quickly, and the grass will not en-
tangle them.' ... If a dog-man killed a dog his clansmen
would. ' fight ' him, but they would not do anything if an
outsider killed one. A member of this clan was supposed
to have great sympathy with dogs, and to understand them

252 EVOLUTION IN ART.

better than other men. . . . No member of any clan might
kill or eat the totem of that clan. This prohibition did not
apply to the totem of any clan other than that to which the
person belonged."^

The reader is referred to Mr. Frazer's book for analogous
beliefs and practices among various peoples. The relation
between a man and his totem is one of mutual help and
protection. If a man respects and cares for the totem, he
expects that the totem will do the same by him.

" In order, apparently, to put himself more fully under
the protection of the totem the clansman is in the habit of
assimilating himself to the totem by dressing in the skin or
other part of the totem animal, arranging his hair and
mutilating his body so as to resemble the totem, and
representing the totem on his body by cicatrices, tattooing,
or paint" (Frazer, p. 26). As a matter of fact, there are
comparatively few definite statements that markings on the
person represent the totem of that person, but there can be
little doubt that this is of wide occurrence and probably has
been universal. Some of the best authenticated examples
come from North America. Hints have come from Australia.
I have in Torres Straits seen four old women who had their
totems cut into the small of their backs; these were the
dugong (2), snake, and sting-ray (?), and I was informed
that the men used to scarify the shoulder or the calf of the
leg with the totem device, or they carried about with them
pieces of their totems or eflSgies of them.

The latest information on this subject is that collected by
H. Vaughan Stevens.^

The Orang Sinnoi, Orang Bersisi, Orang Kenaboi, Orang
Tumior declare that they are descended from one and the
same folk, but that each tribe inhabited a separate island

' A. C. Haddon, "The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres
Straits, "y(?z^r//. Anth. Inst.y xix., 1890, p. 393.

^ "Die Zaubermuster dcr Orang hutan," Hrolf Vaughan Stevens,
edited by Albert Grtinwedel, Zeitschr. f. EthnoL, xxvi., 1894, p. 141.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 253

before the general immigration into Malacca took place
under Bertjanggei Besi. The Orang Tumior were an
exception to this collective migration, as they had long
before, independently, gone to Malacca.

The tradition of this tribe is very vague, but it is certain
that they lived a long time separated from the other members
of the group. It appears that they learnt at that time tat-
tooing from another people, and confounded painting the
face with tattooing.

For each of the three tribes, Orang Sinnoi, Orang Bersisi,
and Orang Kenaboi, there was a distinct pattern, which was
identical as regards the way it was laid on and the materials
employed, but which varied in form. In each of the three
tribes the chief and the ordinary man and woman have
the same race-marks. Only among the Orang Sinnoi
the women and ordinary men had a particular pattern for
the breast. The sorcerer, or medicine-man, in each of the
three tribes wore during an act of magic a painting suitable
to the occasion; when not performing, he wore his usual
painting.

The following is given as the origin of the pattern of the
totem and its further development into the patterns of the
different families : — In the olden time, when the people of
the Orang Belendas still lived under their chiefs and under-
chiefs, paintings were made on the face for all assemblies,
which were the old indigenous patterns for the peninsula.
But as the group became broken up owing to the influx
of the Malays, and intermarried with foreign and weakened
folk, the patterns fell through and sub-divisions arose.

Among all the three tribes (Sinnoi, Kenaboi, and Bersisi)
there was once a powerful clan, which bore the snake totem.
Owing to the many changes they had to undergo, the
members of this totem separated from one another and
founded new families in different parts of the peninsula.
The totem varied according to the practice of the folk, each
newly-developed clan modified the ground pattern, one took

254 EVOLUTION IN ART.

a python, one a cobra, another a hamadryas, etc. ; they all
retained the snake and varied their pattern according to the
species. Similarly arose the sub-divisions of the fish (sting-
fish) and leaf clans.

These totem figures of the separated families then became
used only to mark out objects appertaining to them; they
were scratched on the blow-pipes and used as a face-painting
when the whole family assembled together on festivals or
on important debates. As the great assemblies of all the
groups fell into disuse, the old stem-marks gradually became
worthless, so that, to-day, but few know the appearance of
the old stem-marks.

As regards the materials used, all the Orang Belendas
agree in saying that a red earth was employed, which is not
to be found on the peninsula. The so-called " anatto " {Bixa
orelland) is used as a substitute for this earth, but it is not
worth much, as it fades away in about an hour. The black
colour is made with charcoal, the white with lime. The
red colour is always laid on with the finger, consequently
the stripe is narrower with the women than with the
men.

These observations of Mr. Stevens, together with hints,
rather than definite statements, which have been made from
various parts of the world, suggest the conclusion that the
painting, tattooing, or scarifying of designs on the body is
mainly due to totemism.

A good deal of body-painting has other significances, as
when it is done for religious ceremonies or for inspiring
terror among the enemy when on the war-path; but it would
probably be fair to assume that the origin of what may
be termed domestic tattooing or scarification belongs to
totemism. Here, again, is a fascinating and unworked field
for research.

There is a very practical reason for the custom of marking
the body with the totem. The religious aspect of totemism
has been briefly described, this is the relation between a

EVOLUTION IN ART. 255

man and his totem; but there is also the relation of the
men of a totem to each other and to men of other totems,
or the social aspect of totemism, which deserves a passing
notice.

"All the members of a totem clan regard each other as
kinsmen or brothers and sisters, and are bound to help and
protect each other. The totem bond is stronger than the
bond of blood or family in the modern sense. ... To kill
a fellow-clansmen is a heinous offence. In Mangaia [Hervey
Islands] ' such a blow was regarded as falling upon the god
[totem] himself; the literal sense of ''■ ta aiua'"' [to kill a
member of the same totem clan] being god-striking or
god-kilHng.'^'i

Persons of the same totem may not marry or have sexual
intercourse with each other. Amongst some peoples this
rule is rigidly adhered to; the penalty for infringing this rule
may be the vengeance of supernatural powers, but most
frequently the clan steps in and punishes the offenders.
Amongst the more primitive totemistic peoples the death
penalty is usually enforced, but in any case the punishment
is always severe. When other social conditions modify
totemism these sexual restrictions are weakened and the
punishment for offences is diminished.

There are some Australian tribes in which the members
of any clan are free to marry members of any clan but their
own; but more frequently an Australian tribe is divided into
groups of clans, and a person can marry only into certain of
these groups; an exogamous clan-group is known as a phratry.
Thus a man is a possible husband to all the women of one
or more phratries of his tribe, but he is brother to all the
women of the remaining phratries.

"A remarkable feature of the Australian social organisa-
tion is that divisions of one tribe have their recognised
equivalent in other tribes, whose languages, including the

1 W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, p. 38. Quoted
by Frazer, he. cit. , p. 58.

256 EVOLUTION IN ART.

names for the tribal divisions, are quite different. A native
who travelled far and wide through Australia stated that ' he
was furnished with temporary wives by the various tribes
with whom he sojourned in his travels; that his right to
these women was recognised as a matter of course; and that
he could always ascertain whether they belonged to the
division into which he could legally marry, though the
places were one thousand miles apart, and the languages
quite different.' "^

I am not aware that any one has attempted to study the
totem and divisional body-marks of the Australian tribes.
This can only be done through careful and laborious
investigations conducted among the natives; it cannot be
accomplished in the study or in museums. If Australian
anthropologists do not bestir themselves without delay
this information will be irrevocably lost. Every year
passed makes it more difficult to do, and soon it will be
too late.

The origin of tattooing or scarifying of the person receives
a fresh significance from these Australian customs. The
marks appear to be, not so much tribal distinctions for
political purposes, but clan badges of social significance with
the object of preventing persons from falling into the sin of
unwitting clan incest; they are, in fact, religious symbols
which make for social purity.

It is obvious that the knowledge of these symbols has to
be learnt by the young people, and hence this forms an
important part of the information of lads imparted during
the initiation ceremonies. The main religious object of
these initiation ceremonies is the assimilation of the youth
with his totem, and the consequent formal adoption into the
clan of that totem. Thence follows the social aspect of that
adoption, and the newly-made man is instructed in his
social duties; he is taught the code of sexual permissions and

^ Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Knrnai, p. 53; cf. Brougli
Smylh, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. p. 91, quoted by Frazer, p. 67.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 25/

prohibitions, and the knowledge of personal marks and
gestures by means of which he can communicate his totem
to, or to ascertain the totems of, strangers whose language
he does not understand.

It is a common, possibly a universal custom, for totem
istic peoples to decorate their belongings with their totems,
This is well known to occur in North America. The Thlin-
kets paint or carve their totem on shields, helmets, canoes,
blankets, household furniture, and houses. In single com-
bats between chosen champions of different Thlinket clans,
each wTars a helmet representing his totem. In front of the
houses of the chiefs and leading men of the Haidas are
erected posts carved with the totems of the inmates. As
the houses sometimes contain several families of different
totems, the post often exhibits a number of totems, carved
one above the other. Or these carvings one above the
other represent the paternal totems in the female line,
which, descent being in the female line, necessarily change
from generation to generation. The totem is painted or
carved on the clansman's tomb or grave-post, the figure
being sometimes reversed to denote death. It is always the
Indian's totem name, not his personal name, which is thus
recorded. Other examples will be found in Mr. Frazer's
valuable little book.

I have already (p. 17) referred to the delineation of
totem animals on drums, pipes, and other objects from
Torres Straits and the adjoining coast of New Guinea. Two
representations of a totem are usually placed symmetrically on
the object; I rather suspect that this is the rule. The casso-
wary is the most frequent animal on the drums, and I have
reason to believe that only a certain clan, or clans, can beat
the drums, in which case it is evident that the cassowary
men are the chief if not the sole musicians.

When the totem representations are realistic in character
there is no difficulty in recognising them; but this is by no
means the usual case. Abundant evidence has been given

258 EVOLUTION IN ART.

in this book of the degeneration of animal forms into simple
decorative devices.

Many savages, however, lay no stress upon realism. A
certain simple or complex mark represents a given object,
it may not in the very least resemble that object any more
than the written or printed name of an animal bears any
relation to that animal. The mark is a sign for that object,
and if it can be recognised, it answers its purpose. In many
cases it can be shown that the mark is in reality a degraded
picture of the object, in a vast number of examples we have
no evidence.

On looking through collections of Australian weapons in
museums, or in glancing over the illustrations to works on
Australia, one is struck by the fact that a large number of
objects are decorated with simple devices, and further that
there is a very great deal of uniformity in the designs. Con-
sidering the size of that continent and the numerous tribes
of its sparse native population, the paucity of artistic
motives is very remarkable. The conclusion is pretty
obvious, these designs must be representations of totems.
At present we have no proof of this, nor are there sufficient
data for the collation and assignation of the designs.

Dr. E. Grosse ^ is the sole anthropologist who has studied
Australian art, but he has not been able to do more than
enunciate general principles, owing to the absence of
authoritative information from the natives. It is to be
hoped that residents in Australia will learn all they can from
the natives about their art before the knowledge is lost.

A slight acquaintance with decorated objects from Aus-
tralia will reveal the very common occurrence of angular
designs — zigzags, chevrons, diamonds, and so forth. As Dr.
Grosse truly says : ^ " One is accustomed to describe these
primitive ornaments as geometrical; and then it is not
difficult to confound the name with the thing, so one
quotes the geometric pattern occasionally as evidence for

^ E. Grosse, Die Anfdnge ifer Kunsly 1894, p. 112.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 259

the natural predilection of the , simplest people for the
simplest aesthetic motive, but no proof is advanced for this
peculiar predilection, because in the bulk of the philosophy
of art the a priori method remains unshaken. All primitive
ornaments are not what they seem to be. We shall see
that they have at bottom nothing whatever in common with
geometric figures. . . It is certainly not always easy to
recognise the original form of a primitive ornament. When
one considers the zigzag or the diamond pattern of an
Australian shield, it appears that our assertion is without
doubt that this is destitute of animal forms, and it will
appear doubly certain when we acknowledge that in most
cases we cannot directly know it. It was certainly a wonder
to us when we knew it. The ornament of the Australians
has been by no means systematically investigated. Even in
the comprehensive work of Brough Smyth it is dismissed in
some very general and very superficial remarks. In fact, no
one has so much as taken the pains to ask the natives the
meaning of the different patterns."

Dr. Grosse then goes on to point out that " most of the
ornament of the lower folk, as far as it has been investigated
and as the Australian should be studied, is known to be
imitations of animal or human forms. Nowhere has orna-
ment so markedly a geometrical character as among the
Brazilian tribes. Their rectilinear patterns suggest to a
European, who contemplates them in a museum, anything
else rather than natural forms. But Ehrenreich, who has
studied them on the spot, has irrefutably demonstrated that
they represent neither more nor less than animals or parts
of animals." In the section which deals with zoomorphs I
describe some of these remarkable patterns, and to avoid
repetition I would refer the reader to that description.

We must now review all the evidence which is before us,
and slender though it is, there is sufficient to justify Dr.
Grosse in arriving at his general conclusions.

P. Chauncy, in Appendix A. to Brough Smyth's work

260 EVOLUTION IN ART.

(ii. p. 251), writes: "Some of the ancients took much
delight in ornamenting their shields with all sorts of figures
— birds, beasts, and the inanimate works of Nature. In
like manner, the natives of Western Australia — at least
some tribes north from Perth — adorn their narrow shields.'
Brough Smyth (i. p. 294) says: ''In ornamenting their rugs
they copied from nature. One man told Mr. Bulmer ^ that
he got his ideas from the observation of natural objects
He had copied the markings on a piece of wood made by
the grub known as Krang; and from the scales of snake-
and the markings of lizards he derived new forms. The
natives never, in adorning their rugs or weapons, as far a
Mr. Bulmer knows, imitate the forms of plants or trees.
On p. 284 he says: '' On a few of the weapons appear rudt
figures of men and four-footed animals. One figure of .1
man shown by lines on a club is in the dress and attitude
of a native dancing in a corroborree. The carvings ar^
confined to their weapons of wood. Not one of the bon-
implements in my possession has a single line engraven 01
it. There are peculiarities in the arrangement of the line
on the ornamented shields of the West Australian natives
which suggest that some meaning — understood only by th*
warriors themselves — is conveyed by such representations.
The natives of Victoria often used forms the meaning of whicli
is discoverable now. ... In hke manner, the natives of th.
Upper Darling represented on their shields figures in imita
tion of the totems of their tribes. One in my possession
has engraven on it the figure of an iguana. Collins - states,
that in ornamenting their weapons and instruments, eacli
tribe used some peculiar form by which it was known tn
what part of the country they belonged." In the Intro
duction (p. liv.) we read, " There are, amongst some tribes,
conventionalised forms, evidently; and it is of the utmos

^ The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers in Gippsland.

^ An Account of the English Coloiiy in New South Wales, 1804

r- 377.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 26 1

importance to ascertain to what extent these are used, and
by what tribes they are understood." These remarks are
as apphcable to the designs on weapons and other objects as
to the message-sticks to which our author was then more
particularly referring. After contrasting the drawings of the
native human figure by the Australians with the rude
drawings of men made by European children, he continues
(i. p. 285): "In like manner the natives have conventional
forms for trees, lakes, and streams; and in transmitting
information to friends in remote tribes they use the conven-
tional forms, but in many cases modified, and in some cases
so simplified as to be in reality rather symbols than diagrams
or pictures." " They often record events deemed worthy of
note on their throwing-sticks " (ii. p. 259).

Brough Smyth describes the various kinds of angular
patterns delineated by the natives of Australia, and con-
cerning the figures cut on certain boomerangs and other
missiles from Queensland, he says (I p. 285), " All these
forms have a meaning intelligible to the blacks of that part
of the continent."

" The information which Bulmer has preserved," writes
Dr. Grosse, " solves the problem of Australian ornament.
It does not tell us how we can interpret it, but it does tell
us why we can know next to nothing about it. If the
whole form of an animal is represented as an ornamental
motive, it is possible to recognise it even in a diagrammatic
distorted representation, for this at least, as a rule,
approaches the original form; but in most Australian
patterns only portions of animals occur, and the natives
most frequently delineate their signs for skins; in this case
it is next to impossible for a European to elucidate their
signification, especially as the implicated natural forms are
almost always conventionally rendered. Our explanation
is, as we previously stated, not strictly proved; but the old
doctrine, which takes primitive ornament for freely con-
structed geometrical figures, is just as little so."

262 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Dr. Grosse maintains that his interpretation is in harmony
with what is known of the nature of primitive folk, and
reminds us that Ehrenreich has shown us that appearances
may be deceptive. He then goes on to suggest that the
decoration on a certain shield that he figures is an imitation
of a snake's skin, that on another shield the representation
of a bird, and the diamonds and zigzags scored on other
shields as conventional representations of feathers, hairs, or
scales. Those interpretations may or may not be correct,
and the reader should be on his guaid not to take sup-
positions for facts. Dr. Grosse may have more evidence
than he has been able to present to his readers; but, while
adopting his main thesis, I do not think that, without such
evidence, we can identify the originals of the designs.

" Besides such skin-patterns," continues Dr. Grosse,
" Australian ornament makes use of representations of
entire men and animals. On clubs and throwing-sticks one
frequently finds the engraved outlines of kangaroos, lizards,
snakes, and fish, and especially frequently the figure of a
corroborree- dancer in a characteristic attitude. The delinea-
tion of these figures is mainly crude and conventional; but
in spite of this their meaning is nearly always quite intelli-
gible."

" The Australian warrior stands in the same relation to
his kobong [totem] animal as the European knight did
towards his heraldic animal ... and as the European
warrior paints a bear or an eagle on his shield, so the
Australian ornaments his with a representation of a kan-
garoo or a snake's skin. The knowledge that the orna-
ments on Australian weapons are to a large extent heraldic
designs, clears up at the same time two points which we
have already mentioned, but have not yet elucidated — the
frequent employment of animal skin-patterns, and their
peculiar conventional rendering. The native whose kobong
[totem] is perhaps a very large animal — and in this position
most find themselves — manifestly can decorate his shield

EVOLUTION IN ART ^63

with no more suitable clan-mark and no more efficacious
fetich than the skin of his heraldic animal. The actual
skin may or may not have been employed, and in this latter
case an engraved or painted representation was substituted.
These representations are scarcely ever true to nature, most
of them remind one in their angular and stiff regularity
more of a plait-work than of a pelt or plumage." Dr. Grosse
goes on to point out that this conventional treatment is in-
tentional on the part of the Australian native, and is not due
to lack of skill either in the delineation of animals or in
wood-carving. "The fact is these skin-markings are her-
aldic designs ; but heraldic drawing aims at truth to nature
as little in Australia as in Europe. It therefore by no means
happens that the actual pattern of a kangaroo or of a snake
should be drawn true to nature, but it comes about that a
kangaroo or snake-pattern represents a definite clan."

Although the greater part of Australian decorative art is
probably totemistic in origin, there is a residue, the elucida-
tion of which must be sought in other directions, but these
do not at present concern us.

Mr. Andrew Lang has turned his attention to many an-\/
thropological subjects, and that of "the art of savages"^
has not been passed over by him ; but he has perhaps plunged
into it without due consideration. Doubtless he himself
would now modify the statement that " the absence of the
rude imitative art of heraldry among a race which possesses
all the social conditions that produce this art is a fact
worth noticing, and itself proves that the native art of one
of the most backward races we know is not essentially
imitative." Instead of " the patterns on Australian shields
and clubs, the scars w^hich they raise on their own flesh,"
being " very rarely imitations of any objects in nature,"
we may now regard most of them as probably indicating
such objects.

It is, perhaps, scarcely going too far to assert that a very
* A. Lang, Custom and Myth ^ 1884, p. 276.

264 EVOLUTION IN ART.

considerable part of the decorative and glyptic art of many
primitive peoples has been inspired by totemism; but it
must be remembered that we have no positive evidence of
totemism among a very considerable number of peoples.
As animals are the most frequent totems, so zoomorphs and
their derivatives are as constantly in evidence in the art of
these people.

The artistic representations become modified as totemism
itself becomes modified. I can only very briefly allude to
some of the probable stages in the later evolution of totem-
ism. The attribution of human qualities to the totem is
the essence of totemism, and the tribal totem tends to pass
into an anthropomorphic god. Mr. Frazer points out that
there are often numerous sub-totems associated with each of
the main totems, and suggests that there is a sort of life-
history of totems, " as sub-totems they are growing ; as clan
totems they are grown ; as sub-phratric and phratric totems
they are in successive stages of decay." He also puts for-
ward the view that these subordinate totems are regarded as
incarnations of the gods or god in process of evolution, and
as the latter rise more and more into human form, so the
former " sink from the dignity of incarnations into the
humbler character of favourites and clients ; until, at a later
age, the links which bound them to the god having wholly
faded from memory, a generation of mythologists arises
who seek to patch up the broken chain by the cheap method
of symbolism. But symbolism is only the decorous though
transparent veil which a refined age loves to throw over its
own ignorance of the past."

So far I have mainly referred to the employment of the
representation of totem animals as badges, but they are also
made use of to indicate descent. Ancestor worship is an
important element in the religion of many peoples, and the
art which illustrates this naturally varies according to the
plane of culture at which a given people have arrived.
When a people are in a totemistic plane of culture their

EVOLUTION IN ART. 265

ancestors will usually be represented as animals, the same
holds good for those that have but recently emerged from
this phase. This we know is the explanation of some of
the well-known totem-posts and animal carvings of the
natives of British Columbia, and it probably holds good for
many of the intricate grotesque carvings from New Ireland.

When the totem has been evolved into an anthropo-
morphic god, human {i.e. god) forms are represented in
the genealogy, as occurs on the decorated adzes of the
Hervey Islands (pp. 270-274).

It is incorrect to term all worship of or attention paid to
animals as " Totemism." In a great number of cases this
may have been the origin of a cult, but it is a mistake to
apply the lower term when the cult is sublimated into a
higher form of religion. That a considerable part of the
religion of ancient Greece had its origin in Totemism is
generally admitted; but the animal attributes of most of
their deities would not characterise the religion of the most
cultured Greeks as totemistic.^ The ox, the bear, the
mouse, wild beasts and birds, and similar associates of the
Olympian hierarchy, whatever they were to the ancients, are
to us milestones which marked the road traversed by
Hellenic religion ; the Egyptian had been petrified at an
earlier phase.

In the sacred bird of Western Oceania, w^e can probably
trace the commencement of totemistic sublimation.

The cult of the frigate-bird is characteristic of Melanesia,
and apparently also extends to the Pelew Islands. Dr.
Codrington {The Melanesians, 189 1, p. 145) informs us
that at Florida in the Solomon Group they pray as follows
to " Daula, a tindalo generally known and connected with

^ Cf. A. B. Cook, " Animal Worship in the Mycenaean Age,''^ Joti> n.
Heltaiic Studies, xiv., 1894, p. 81. Mr. Cook says: "On the whole,
I gather that the Mycemiean worshippers were not totemists pure and
simple, but that the mode of the worship points to its having been
developed out of still earlier totemism" (p. 158).

266 EVOLUTION IN AkT.

the frigate-bird [a iindalo is the ghost or spirit of a man
endowed with inana, that is superhuman power or influence] :
* Do thou draw the canoe, that it may reach the land; speed
my canoe, grandfather, that I may quickly reach the shore
whither I am bound,' etc. Daula is invoked to aid in
fishing . . . after a good catch he is praised." On p. i8o we
read, "The sacred character of the frigate-bird is certain;
the figure of it, however conventional, is the most common
ornament employed in the Solomon Islands, and is even
cut upon the hands of the Bugotu people; the oath by its
name of daula is solemn and binding in Florida; where
Daula is a findalo, many and powerful to aid at sea are the
ghosts which abide in these birds." Who Daula was,
when he was a living man, has " passed far away from any
historical remembrance" (p. 126).

In his interesting little book on The Evolution of Decora-
tive Art, Mr. H. Balfour gives illustrations of conventional
representations of the frigate-bird in tTie Solomon Islands
(Figs. II, 26). In Figs. 26, 27, 25, he shows a gradation
between a "bird-like canoe charm," through a "human-
headed bird canoe-charm," to a " canoe fetich," the latter
having a very prognathous human head.^ The mergence
of a frigate-bird's into a human head may be due, as Mr.
Balfour suggests, to one design acting upon the other, or it
may be the artistic expression of the cult described by
Dr. Codrington.

^ In a letter Dr. Codrington writes : " I do not think that the very
prognathous human head has anything to do with a bird. If you
look at the very excellent coloured frontispiece to Brenchley's Voyage
of the Ciira^oa, representing a canoe on a voyage, you will see that all
the men are excessively prognathous. The original is in the Maidstone
Museum. I have looked at my few Solomon Island things— a common
bowl supported by two human figures, which are just the same. A
carved bit of soft stone and the head of a betel lime stick, things just
cut for amusement, have the same prognathism. In fact I believe
that the ordinary representation of the human head is such, the more
prognathous the better it is liked. "

EVOLUTION IN ART. 267

The canoes of the Solomon Islands often have as a figure-
head the carved representation of the upper part of a man
who holds in his hands another human head.^ The human
figure is possibly an image of the itfidalo in Daula. (Dr.
Codrington states that a ti7idalo is always the spirit of a real
deceased man.^) The carvings of birds on the bow of a
canoe are practically invocations to the sacred and powerful
frigate-bird.

The face or head carried in the hands of the human
figure-heads ("canoe god," " charm," or "fetich") "repre-
sents that taken when the canoe was first used." A canoe
of importance "required a life for its inauguration." Dr.
Codrington {loc. cif., p. 296) alludes to other adjuncts to the
bow of canoes which give protection and success.

3. Religion.

The opening remarks in the section dealing with sym-
pathetic magic were largely borrowed from Dr. Frazer, and I
again have recourse to that author for the following sketch
of the incipient religion of primitive folk.

The savage fails to recognise those limitations to his power
over nature which seem so obvious to us. In a society
where every man is supposed to be endowed more or less
with powers which we should call supernatural, it is plain
that the distinction between gods and men is somewhat
blurred, or rather has scarcely emerged.

1 "It is certain that, according to the Florida people (and their
neighbours who use the word), a tindalo was once a man ; but there
are some whose names they know and of whom they know nothing as
men. I am by no means of opinion that ihere was once a man named
Daula. The name of the frigate-bird being kaula in Ulawa is against
that (k = t=:d). Rather daula is the nan>e of the bird, and the birds
are vehicles of tindados. So as every tindalo who takes up his abode
in a shark is Bagea in Florida (a common shark being bagea), so every
tindalo in a frigate-bird is Daula."— Dr. Codrington in a letter to
the author.

26Z EVOLUTION IN ART.

The conception of gods as supernatural beings entirely
distinct from and superior to man, and wielding powers to
which he possesses nothing comparable in degree and
hardly even in kind, has been slowly evolved in the course
of history.

At first the world is regarded as a great democracy; but
with the growth of his knowledge man realises more clearly
the vastness of nature and his own feebleness ; this, however,
enhances his conception of the power of those supernatural
beings with which his imagination peoples the universe. If he
feels himself to be so frail and slight, how vast and powerful
must he deem the beings who control the gigantic machinery
of nature !

Thus, as his old sense of equality with gods slowly
vanishes, he resigns at the same time the hope of directing
the course of nature by his own unaided resources, that is,
by magic, and looks more and more to the gods as the sole
repositories of those supernatural powers which he once
claimed to share with them.

With the first advance of knowledge, therefore, prayer and
sacrifice assume the leading place in religious ritual; and
magic, which once ranked with them as a legitimate equal,
is gradually relegated to the background, and sinks to the
level of a black art. It is now regarded as an encroachment,
at once vain and impious, on the domain of the gods, and
as such encounters the steady opposition of the priests,
whose reputation and influence gain or lose with those of
their gods. Hence, when at a late period the distinction
between religion and superstition has emerged, we find that
sacrifice and prayer are the resource of the pious and
enlightened portion of the community, while magic is the
refuge of the superstitious and ignorant.

Throughout the whole of this slow evolution ornamental
art has attempted to visualise the religious conceptions of
the period. It would probably be more correct to regard
the pictorial representations of religion as usually illustrating

EVOLUTION IN ART. 269

a past rather than a present aspect of belief. For a drawing,
like a creed, fixes a type, and the form has a tendency
to be repeated unconscious of the fact that the spirit
may have burst its bonds and soared into a higher
region.

Not only does the motive of religious art vary accord-
ing to the stage of evolution of the religion which it
illustrates, but the art itself is subject to modification as
it enters into new phases of what I have termed its life-
history.

Totemism is one phase of religion, but owing to its great
importance in the economy of primitive peoples I have
treated it in an independent section. As totemism
gradually shades off into god-worship so its artistic symbol-
ism is merged into that of divinities, but it often persists to
an unexpected extent.

It is only possible for me to touch lightly on a few of the
aspects of religious art from the anthropologist's point of
view.

As the gods were being evolved it was very important
for men to retain the remembrance of those family ties
between them and mankind which were in danger of
being snapped through the length to which they were
drawn and the degree of attenuation which consequently
ensued.

The statements of tradition as to the descent of mortals
from gods are re-enforced by the representations of artists
of the unlettered races, just as they are enshrined in the
written cosmogonies of more cultured folk; the main
difference being that any one may understand the one if he
knows the written characters, whereas the other is practically
a pictograph, and requires the interpretation of the natives
who have the traditional knowledge of the symbols.

We are probably justified in assuming that very early in
time (and it is still widely spread among backward peoples)
was the custom of carving or painting the pedigree of the

2/0 EVOLUTION IN ART.

man from the god — of the human from the divine. As
the god is lost down the ages in the totem so too his eikon
is merged into the resemblance of some animal-form. In
the intermediary stage we have those monstrous forms
which the enlightened pagans endeavoured to rationalise
and even to spiritualise. " Yet half a beast is the great god
Pan."

The beautiful wood-carving formerly executed by the
natives of the Hervey Group in the South Pacific affords an
excellent example of the relation of religion to decorative
art.

The Rev. Dr. W. Wyatt Gill states that a significance is
"invariably attached to ancient Polynesian carving," and
he and a few other missionaries have given suggestive
hints, but without reference to the actual designs.

Dr. H. Stolpe, of Stockholm, was the first ethnographer
to study Polynesian art from a scientific point of view, and
his paper 1 on Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savages
is a model of this particular kind of research. He asserts
" That the carved ornament in Polynesia always, had a
meaning. . . . Polynesians cling tenaciously to ancient
customs, though often they are no longer capable of
accounting for their original meaning. ... If one asks
the reason of a device or a custom, one usually gets no
satisfactory information. . . . Should any one, therefore,
to-day, ask a native of these islands whether the
ornamentation here delineated has any significance, and
the reply should be ' no,' I could not recognise in it
any decisive evidence. Our previous investigations sufifice
of themselves to prove that the forms of development of
the old primitive images, highly conventionalised, 7mist

^ H. Stolpe, Utveckiingsforefeelser i Nafurfolkens Ornamentik.
Ymer, 1890. Translated into English by Mrs. March, " Evolution
in the Ornamental Art of Savage People," Trans. Rochdale Lit.
and Set. Soc, 1892; and into German, Mittheil Anth. Gesell. Wien,
1S92, xxii. p. 43.

EVOLUTION OF ART.

271

have a symbolic significance. They symbolise, they stand
in place of, the primitive image. They are to be con-
sidered as a sort of cryptograph. By
means of perpetual reiteration of certain
ornamental elements, they suggest the
divinity to whose service the decorated
implement was in some way dedicated."
A dozen years ago Dr. Stolpe stated that
the linear ornaments on the carved
Mangaian adzes were for the most part
to be regarded as transformed figures of
human beings, or especially as divine
beings. (Fig. 124.)

Mr. C. H. Read, of the British Museum,
independently^ arrived at a similar con- Fi^- 124.— Stretch-
elusion to Dr. Stolpe's, and Dr. March ^ 'a'L'lZl u[.t'
has carried the argument a step further.
Dr. Stolpe proved that a design generally
known as the K pattern, but which it
is better to call the tiki-tiki pattern,
sometimes inter-
rupted, but generally
continuous, is in real-
ity a string of human
figures, the two hori-
zontal zigzags being
hmbs, and the vertical ^ b c

bars that join them ^^^- 125-— Rubbings from the handles of
being the headless syn.bolic adzes from the Hervey Islands.

, . . A, l^ree Library Museum, Belfast; B, C,

bodies. (Fig. 125, A.) Belfast Nat. Hist. Mus. One-third

gaia, in the Berlin
Museum ; from
March, after
Stolpe. Two-thirds
natural size.

2b^ slist: ^^

These figures, which

natural size.

^ C. H. Read, " On the Origin and Sacred Character of certain
Ornaments of the S.E. Pacific," /^wr. An!h. Inst., xxi., 1891, p. 139.

- H. Colley March, " Polynesian Ornament a Mythography; or a
Symboli.sm of Origin and Descent," y.?/^/-. Anth. Inst., xxii., 1893,
P- 307-

272

EVOLUTION IN ART.

almost cover the handle of a Mangaian paddle or adze,
are obviously related to the female forms that are carved

on the terminal of its shaft
(Figs. 127, 128), and are mor-
phologically derived from
them by a process of evolu-
tion.

The headless figures are
quite recognisable in Fig.
125, A, but the fore-arms and
shanks of each of them are
absent, their places being
taken by the upper arms and
thighs of the contiguous
figures. In b the serial in-
dividuals are separated by
narrow vertical clefts ; the
latter persist in c, but the
two boundary lines between
the rows of figures are fused
into a single line.

In Fig. 126 we have a large
area (the blade of a paddle)
divided into a number of
parallel lines between which

mmm

hmV4m><Hhhhh

Fig. 126. — Rubbing of part of the
decoration of a Mangaian
symbolic paddle, Norwich
Museum. Natural size.

are diamonds, which may or
may not be connected by horizontal lines. A careful in-
spection will show that the vertical lines are continuous
body-lines ; the horizontal lines are the same as those in
Fig. 125, A, but the two fines are fused into one; the zigzags
are clearly limbs. The absence of the horizontal lines
simplifies the pattern, and so each diamond consists in its
upper part of the leg, and in its lower part of the arms of
human figures whose bodies are represented by the vertical
lines.

The pattern in the lower half of Fig. 127 can be derived

EVOLUTION IN ART.

273

from the last by the introduction of an intermediate series
of vertical Hnes.

Curvilinear patterns, as in the lower part of Fig. 128, are
common on objects from these islands ; they are evidently
derived from the thighs of serial human forms, as in Fig.
127, and Plate VI., Fig. 13.

Fig. 127. — Rubbing of part of the car- Fig. 128. — Rubbing of "part

ving of the handle of a symbolic
paddle from the Hervey Islands, in
the Natural History Museum, Bel-
fast. One -half natural size.

of the terminal of a paddle-
shaped implement in the
Vienna Museum"; from
March,after Stolpe. Two-
thirds natural size.

"It is abundantly certain," adds Dr. March, "that the
forms that crown the shaft are those of women, for they
are invariably distinguished by pendant-pointed breasts.
The solitary exception that Dr. Stolpe has been able to
find is one in appearance only, for in his Fig. 23 the
breasts are really fused into a single cone, exactly as are
the legs in his Fig. 24 " (p. 322).

Dr. March's contribution is that these carved shafts of
sacred paddles and adzes .were pedigree-sticks. Descent
is traced through the male line as a rule among the

274 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Polynesians, but it is certain that some tribes traced their
descent through the female line. Dr. Gill states that this
was in some places simply a matter of arrangement. Dr.
Gill tells us that the designs on these shafts were called
^^ tiki-tiki-iangata ;''^ iangata means a man, or in this com-
bination connotes human, for m a Polynesian word com-
pounded of two nouns, that which comes last has a
secondary, explanatory, or adjectival force. Tiki was the
first man, and when he died, ruled the entrance of the
under-world. The name signifies a "fetched" soul; the
spirit of a dead man the frequentative or plural tiki-tiki
must mean spirits in succession, or "ancestors." "The
conclusion now drawn is that tiki-tiki-tangata were the
mulfitudinous human links between the divine ancestor and
the chief of the living tribe. But to what ancestry did
these pedigrees of female lineage assert a claim? From
what goddess was it the pride of Mangaians to be descended,
unless from the mother, the wife and the daughter-wife of
Kongo — from Tu-metua, Taka, and Tavake.

" In Mangaia all the gods were called the children of Vatea,
and of these Tane was one. His name indicates the genera-
tive principle in Nature. In Mangaia he was especially the
drum-god and the axe^-god; he presided over the erotic dance
as well as over the war-dances. Gill observes ^ that ''Tane
viata ariki' Tane with the royal face, was enshrined in a
sacred triple axe,^ which symbolised the three priestly families
on the island of Mangaia. This axe was buried in a cave,
and has disappeared. The K pattern which covers the shafts
of the sacred Mangaian axe,^ is an assertion of a Tane
pedigree, the tiki-tiki-tangata of the clan. ' Awake
Tane ! ' was the invocation,^ ' Awake unnumbered progeny
of Tane!'" (March, p. 331).

1 Probably an adze, not an axe.

2 W. Wyatt G'\\\y Jo (lings from the Pacific, 1885, p. 224.

3 W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, 1840, i. p. 343.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 27$

4. Religious Symbolism,

The study of religious symbols^ is not only a very
extensive and extremely attractive undertaking, but it is one
of peculiar difficulty, for with it is combined, not a danger,
but a certainty of falling into errors. There is hardly a sub-
ject upon which such diverse views can be proposed and
even maintained with a fair amount of presumptive evidence.

The danger of making mistakes is, however, considerably
lessened if a scientific method of study is adopted, and if
speculation is reduced to a minimum. No better example
of the method of such a study is to be found than in Count
Goblet d'Alviella's book on The Migration of Symbols.'^
It is upon this valuable book that I have largely drawn in
compiling the following account.

The meaning of the term Symbol, like the objects we con-
note by it, has undergone a transformation from a concrete
reality to an abstraction. Originally applied amongst the
Greeks to the two halves of the tablet they divided between
themselves as a pledge of hospitality, in the manner of our
contract form, detached along a line of perforations from the
counterfoil record, it was gradually extended to the engraved
shells by which those initiated in the mysteries made them-
selves known to each other, and even to the more or less
esoteric formulas and sacramental rites that may be said to
have constituted the visible bond of their fellowship. Then
the meaning became amplified, and "the term came to
gradually mean everything that, whether by general agree-
ment or by analogy, conventionally represented something
or somebody." ^

I have previously (p. 212) given Colonel Garrick Mallery's
definition of the word, which sufficiently indicates the mean-
ing generally applied to it.

A pictorial symbol has the following life-histbry: —

1 Cf. pp. 119, 122, 213. 2 The Migration of Syvibols, 1894

^ Loc. cit.^ p. I.

276 EVOLUTION IN ART.

First, it is simply a representation of an object or a
phenomenon, that is, a pictograph. Thus the zigzag was the
mark or sign of lightning.

Secondly, "the sign of the concrete grew to be the
symbol of the abstract. The zigzag of lightning, for
example, became the emblem of power, as in the thunder-
bolts grasped by Jupiter; or it stood alone for the supreme
God; and thus the sign developed into the ideograph;" ^

Thirdly, retrogression set in when new religions and new
ideas had sapped the vitality of the old conceptions, and the
ideograph came to have no more than a mystical meaning.
A religious or sacred savour, so to speak, still clung about
it, but it was not a living force within it; the difference is as
great as between the dried petals of a rose and the bloom-
ing flower itself. " The zigzag, for instance, was no longer
used as a symbol of the deity, but was applied auspiciously,
or as we should say, for luck."^

The last stage is reached when a sign ceases to have even
a mystical or auspicious significance, and is applied to an
object as a merely ornamental device.

"By symboHsm," writes Count Goblet d'Alviella, "the
simplest, the commonest objects are transformed, idealised,
and acquire a new and, so to say, an illimitable value. In
the Eleusinian mysteries, the author of Philosophoumena
relates that, at the initiation to the higher degree, " there was
exhibited as the great, the admirable, the most perfect
object of mystic contemplation, an ear of corn that had
been reaped in silence; and two crossed lines suffice to
recall to millions of Christians the redemption of the world
by the voluntary sacrifice of a god."

As that author points out, " We live in the midst of sym-
bolic representations, from the ceremonies celebrating a birth
to the funeral emblems adorning the tomb; from the shak-
ing of hands all round of a morning to the applause with

1 H. Colley March, " The Fylfot and the Futhorc Tir," Trans,
Lancashire and Cheshire Ant. Soc, 1886.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 2/7

which we gratify the actor, or lecturer, of the evening. We
write as we speak in symbols.

" It is sentiment, and above all, religious sentiment, that
resorts largely to symbolism ; and in order to place itself in
more intimate communication with the being, or abstraction,
it desires to approach. To that end men are everywhere
seen either choosing natural or artificial objects to remind
them of the Great Hidden One, or themselves imitating
in a systematic manner the acts and deeds they attribute
to Him — which is a way of participating in His life."
The symbols with which we will here occupy ourselves
are not those of acts or rites, but those of objects or
emblems.

In all but the last stages of its career a symbol is a living
sign, now this vitality is very real, and by virtue of it, strange
modifications take place.

For example, when a nation that employed a particular
symbol came into contact with another nation that had a
somewhat similar symbol, the two symbols, if quite alike,
were indistinguishable, and one passed for the other; but
if there were slight diff'erences between the symbols a pro-
cess of amalgamation took place, and they approximated
more and more towards one another. In either case the
meanings of both would doubtless commingle, and a
more energetic vitality would ensue from the cross-fertilisa-
tion.

St. Anthony's cross, T {crotx pote?icee^ " gibbet-cross "), is
found, with almost the same symbolic signification, in Pales-
tine, in Gaul, and in ancient Germany, in the Christian
Catacombs, and amongst the ancient inhabitants of Central
America.

Among the Phoenicians and kindred peoples this cross

was an alphabetical sign, tau, and it was also used separately

as a symbol. From a passage in Ezekiel^ we learn that it

was accounted a sign of preservation, and was marked upon

1 Ezekielix. 4-6.

2/8 EVOLUTION Ix\ AkT. ^^^^

the forehead, like its corresponding Indian symbol.^ The
symbolic signification of the tau is explained by its re-
semblance to the Key of Life, or crux ansata of Egypt, so
widely diffused throughout all Western Asia.

" This iau was unquestionably the emblem of life, and,
therefore, of the greatest virtue. M. Letronne, in his re-
searches on the Christian monuments of Egypt, has shown
in the most conclusive manner that the first Christians of
that country adopted this sign, possibly to establish that
Christ was pre-eminently the source of life, or as a prophetic
sign. All the gods of the ancient Egyptian mythology bore
in their hand the sign of Christianity, the monogram of
Christ ; they were, according to the first Christians of Egypt,
supposed to announce the coming of Jesus."^

The Double Hammer of the Celtic Tarann and of the
Teutonic and Scandinavian Thor is a symbol of the light-
ning. "Thor was the sun-god proper; god of the sun in its
active aspect; the thunder-god likewise, and thus the wielder
of the hammer or axe (named Mjolnir, 'the crusher') repre-
sentative of the thunderbolt, rendered in the form T. Thor
was also lord of the Under-World, and guardian against the
monsters that infested its precincts; he was likewise a pro-
tector against sickness, and was much worshipped by the
franklin and peasant classes."^

" To this day a representation of the hammer of the God
of Thunder may be found on the barns and stable-doors of
some German villages. It is stated that in the northern,
midland, and eastern counties of this country — wherever, in
fact, the Teutonic element has made its strongest imprint
some old church bells still bear the same sign as a char:
against the tempest.

'*As applied to Thor, this tree-shaped cross symbol

111
rnJ

^ Schliemann, Ilios, p. 350.
^ G. Ferrero, Les Lois Psychologiqties du Symbolisme, 1895, p»
142.
^ The Earl of Southesk, Origins of Pictish Symbolism, 1893, p. 12,

EVOLUTION IN ART. ^79

sustains his double quality as the fiery Cleaver of the
Clouds, who even as such represents the principle of
fertility and the Sanctifier of the fruitful union of hearts."^

Karl Blind has also drawn attention to a mediaeval
German church legend which affords a good example of
the persistence of pagan ideas and of the pagan-christian
overlap. "Thus Trauenlob makes the Virgin Mary say
of God the Father— ' The Smith from the Upper-Land
(Heaven) threw his hammer into my lap {schdz)J"^

Amongst the early Christians it was a form sometimes
given to the Cross of Christ, itself called the Tree of life;
but if they made of it a symbol of Hfe, it was spiritual life
that it typified to them; and if they sometimes gave it the
form of the patibulum (gallows), it was because such was
the instrument employed among the Romans in the punish-
ment by crucifixion.

In Central America, where, according to M. Albert
Reville, the Cross was surnamed the Tree of Plenty, it
assumed also the form of the tan. This pre-Columbian
American Cross, T, was a symbol of fertility because it
represented the rain-god; it is, in fact, an abbreviated rain-
shower (as will be seen on reference to Figs. 62-64).
Similarly the four-rayed cross represented the four quarters
whence comes the rain, or rather the four main winds
which bring rain, and it thus became the symbol of the
Tlaloc, god of rain and waters, fertiliser of earth and lord
of paradise, and lastly, of the mythical personage known by
the name of Quetzacoatl. From North to South America
the Latin cross symbolises " the Father of the four winds "
(Argentine Republic), " the old man in the sun who rules
the winds " (Blackfeet Indians), or similar personages. But
all crosses are not the four quarters of the wind, as will be
seen on reference to Figs. loo d, e, 102 a. For an account

1 Karl Blind, "Discovery of Odinic Songs in Shetland," Nineteenth
Century, June 1879, pp. 1097, 1098.

2 Karl Blind, " Troy found again," Antiquary^ 1884, p. 200.

2So ^ EVOLUTION IN ART.

of the American cross, Colonel Mallery should be con-
sulted, Tenth Ann. Rep., p. 724.

Mr. Beal, in the same number of the Indian Antiquary,
which contains Mr. Thomas's remarks on the Svastika

(March 1880), has shown that in Chinese l-W is the symbol^

for an enclosed space of- earth, and that the simple cross -}-
occurs as a sign for earth in certain ideographic groups.^

The four-rayed cross, separate or inscribed within a circle,
is a very common symbol of the sun in prehistoric Europe.
/ As different waves of culture drifted across Europe, as
/ new religions permeated the mass of the people, the stream-
borne symbols found physical and spiritual analogues among
the indigenous symbolism, and union naturally took place.
In some cases, at all events, the cross fertilisation, as I have
termed it, resulted in a higher or more spiritual meaning
animating the old symbols; thus the symbol of the Avenger,
the crushing Hammer of God, became that of the God
Redeemer of the world.

When symbols become merely the dry-bones of defunct
religions they may retain a certain magical quality, but then
they pass out of religion and enter the domain of magic,
where in fulness of time they may be born anew and start a
fresh career as the symbols of modern science.

Besides this natural approximation of analogous symbols
and symboHsm, there is a more conscious and com-
plex amalgamation, a heteromorphism. As Count Goblet
d'Alviella says,^ "At other times the symbolic syncretism is
intentional and premeditated; whether it be in the desire to
unite for the sake of greater efficacy, the attributes of
several divinities in a single figure, as is shown in certain
pantheistic figures of Gnostic origin ; or a wish to state, by
the fusion of symbols, the unity of the gods and the identity
of creeds, as in the mystic monogram wherein the

1 Max Muller in Schliemann, laos, 1S80, Eng. edn., p. 349.
^ Loc. a't.y p. 264.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 28 1

Brahmaists of contemporary India have testified to their
religious eclecticism by interweaving the Oin of the Hindus
with the Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross.

" Sometimes, too, the sacerdotal interest must have
tended towards accentuating the analogies rather than the
dissimilarities of symbols, in order to assist the absorption
or unification of the doctrines which they represented.
Finally, w^e must take into consideration the popular
tendency towards syncretism, which, when not held in check
by a rigorous orthodoxy, acts upon symbols, as well as upon
creeds, by introducing into the new form of worship the
images consecrated by a long veneration. Or else it is the
innovators themselves who take advantage of symbolism in
order to disguise, through borrowing from antique forms,
the newness of their doctrine and, if need be, to transform
into allies the emblems or traditions which they are unable
to boldly extirpate.

" Need I recall to mind Constantine choosing as a
standard that labarum which might be claimed both by the
religion of Christ and the worship of the sun ? The Abbe
Ansault has shown, firstly, that heathen nations used as
religious emblems Greek, Latin, Maltese, pattees^ gatnmees^
pofencees, ansees, trejlees^ and other crosses; and, secondly, that
the Christian Church has always accepted these different
forms of the cross as the representation of its own symbol.

" Buddhism was even less scrupulous. In some of its
sanctuaries it did not hesitate to preserve the images of the
worship paid by the natives of India to the sun, to fire,
or to serpents, whilst ascribing these rites to its own
traditions. The Solar Wheel thus became easily the Wheel
of the Law; the Cosmic Tree represented the Tree of
Knowledge, under which Sakya Muni attained the perfect
illumination; the seven-headed serpent Naga was trans-
formed into the guardian of the impression left by the Feet
of Vishnu, itself to be attributed henceforth to Buddha, and
so on."

2^2 EVOLUTION IN ART.

The learned author from whom I have borrowed so much
gives numerous examples of this process of the transference
and amalgamation of symbols, and 1 must refer the reader
for these details to the book itself.

A. The Meaning and Distribution of the Fylfot.

The fylfot, or "fully- or many-footed " cross, is the Anglo-
Saxon name for that form of cross whose extremities are
bent back at right angles (Fig. 130). It is otherwise known
as the *' gammadion," " tetraskele," "croixgammee," "croix
cramponnee," not to mention various other names, and in
India " svastika "; but when the feet are turned to the left
it is called " sauvastika "; both these words have much the
same meaning, and signify "it is well." At the present day
in Asia, this " mystical mark made on persons or things to
denote good-luck " (as Monier Williams describes it in his
Sanscrit dictionary) is clearly in the third stage of its life-
history, and its meaning must have been introduced after its
primary significance was lost.

At the risk of being somewhat tedious I will give a brief
account of the distribution of this ancient symbol, than
which there are very few others so widely distributed. ■

Dr. Schliemann found it represented exceeding numerously
on objects (Fig. 130, a, e) from the "second" or "burnt
city " of the mound at Hissarlik.

In Greece, as in Cyprus and at Rhodes, it first appears on
pottery with painted "geometrical" ornamentation (Fig, 130,
f), that is in the second period of Greek ceramics. Later
it is found on the vases, with decorations taken from living
objects (Fig. g) which appear to coincide with the develop-
ment of Phoenician influences on the shores of Greece.
Lastly, it became a favourite symbol on coins not only of
Greece proper and the Archipelago, but also of Macedon,
Thrace, Crete (Fig. 130, m), Lycia (Fig. 130, i), and Paphla-
gonia (Fig. 130, h).

EVOLUTION IN ART. 283

From Corinth, where it figures amongst the most ancient
mint marks, it passed to Syracuse under Timoleon, to be
afterwards spread abroad on the coins of Sicily and of
Magna Graecia.

In Northern Italy it was known even before the advent
of the Etruscans, for it has been
met with on pottery dating from the
terramara civilisation. It appears
also on the roof of some of those
ossuaries in the form of a hut
(PI. I., Fig. c), which reproduce
on a small scale the wicker huts
of the people of that epoch. In
the Villanova period it adorns vases

with geometrical decoration found _ ^^ , ,

^° ^1 . • All J J. Fig. 129. — Hut-shaped os-

at Caere, Chmsi, Albano, and at s^ary; I. Taylor, (?r4^/«./
Cumae. Finally, it appears in Ro- the Aryans, p. 176.
man mosaics.

It is singular that at Rome itself it has not been met with,
so Count Goblet d'Alviella informs us, on any monument
prior to the third, or perhaps the fourth century of our era.
About that period the Christians of the Catacombs had no
hesitation in including it amongst their representations of
the Cross of Christ, and they used it to ornament priestly
garments. At Milan it forms a row of curved crosses round
the pulpit of St. Ambrose.

It was widely distributed throughout the provinces of the
Roman Empire (Fig. 130, s, t), especially among the Celts,
from the Danubian countries to the West of Ireland (Fig.
130, K, u); but in many cases it is difficult to decide whether
it is connected with imported civilisation or with indigenous
tradition.

In England it not unfrequently occurs on Roman votive
altars. In Ireland, however, and in Scotland, the fylfot
seems to have marked Christian sepulchres. For example,
a fylfot occurs on either side of an arrow on an ogham

284

EVOLUTION IN ART.

Fig. 130. — Various forms of the Fylfot or Svastika. A. Whorl from
Hissarlik (1987), 7 m., third city, The Burnt City or Ilios ;
B. Do. (1861), 3I m., fifth city ; C. Do. (1990), 4 m., fifth city;
D. Do. (1873) ; E. Detail from whorl (1993), 5 m., fourth city; f.
Lotus derivative on a large amphora, with "geometric " decoration,
Cyprus ; G. Solar goose and lotus design on a Rhodian vase, from
Salzmann, Nkropole de Camire ; H. Coin from Selge, Pamphylia j
I. Symbols on Lycian coins ; K. Triskelion on a Celtiberian coin ;

EVOLUTION IN ART. 285

Stone (Fig. 130, w) in an abandoned graveyard at Aglish,
County Kerry, which is believed to belong to the sixth
century.

In Pagan Scandinavia it occurs with other symbols
(Fig. 130, x), but it there ended by combining with, doubt-
less (as Count Goblet d'Alviella points out) under the
influence of Christianity, the Latin Cross. It ornaments
early Danish baptismal fonts, and according to Mr. J.
A. Hjaltalin, it '* was still used a few years since as a
magic sign, but with an obscured or corrupted meaning,"
in Iceland. It arrived in that island in the ninth century,

A.D.^

" Amongst the Slavs and Fins it has not yet been found
save in a sporadic state, and about the period of their
conversion to Christianity only. We may remark, by the
way, that it is very difficult to determine the age and
nationality of the terra-cotta or bronze objects on which it
has been observed in countries of mixed or superposed
races, such as Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, and Bohemia.

1 Karl Blind, '* Discovery of Odinic Songs in Shetland," Nineteenth
Century^ June 1879, p. 1098.

L. On a silver bowl, Etruria ; also on Chinese ware ; M. Coin from
Cnossus, Crete ; N. Ancient Indian coin ; o. On coin from Ujjan,
Central India; P. Footprint of Buddha (so-called), Amaravati
Tope, India ; R. Thibetian symbol ; s. Roman altar at High
Rochester, dedicated to Minerva by Lucius Cascilius Optatus ; T.
Roman altar at High Rochester, dedicated to the standards of the
faithful of the Varduli by Titus Licinius Valerianus ; U. Celto-
Roman altar at Birdoswald, dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus
(lOM), apparently by Dacians garrisoned in Ambloganna ; the
four-rayed wheels were solar symbols among the Gauls ; w. Ogham
stone, Aglish, County Kerry ; x. Ancient Scandinavian symbols ;
Y. Legend on church bell, Hathersage, Derbyshire, 161 7. A-E, P.
H. Schliemann, Ilios; F, g. Goodyear, Grammar of the Lotus; H,
L, O, X. R. P. Greg, Archcsologia, xlviii., 1885; I, K, M, N, R.
Count Goblet d'Alviella, The Migration of Symbols ; s, T, U,
w, Y. H. Colley March, Trans. Lane, and Cheshire Ant. Soc.y
1886. For further details the reader is referred to these authors.

286 EVOLUTION IN ART.

" In the Caucasus, M. Chantre has met with it on ear-
drops, ornamental plates, sword-hilts, and other objects
found in burial-places dating back to the bronze period and
the first iron age.

" Amongst the Persians its presence has been pointed out
on some Arsacian and Sassanian coins only.

"The Phoenicians do not seem to have known, or, at
least, to have used it, except on some of the coins which
they struck in Sicily in imitation of Greek pieces,

" It is not met with either in Egypt, in Assyria, or in
Chaldsea."!

The svastika is of common occurrence in India, and is
employed alike by Hindus and Buddhists. It was used for
ear-marking cattle, appears on the oldest known Indian coin
(Fig. 130, n), on which are other interesting symbols, and
occurs frequently at the beginning and the end of the most
ancient Buddhist inscriptions; similarly it initials the legend
SCA. MA. RIA. O.P.N, at Appleby, in Lincolnshire; and
at Hathersage, Derbyshire, a fylfot occurs on a church bell
in the initial G of the legend Gloria in Excelsis Deo,
161 7. (Fig. 130, Y.) The svastika represents, according to
Buddhist tradition, the first of the sixty-five marks which
distinguished the Master's feet, and the sauvastika is the
fourth and the third, a kind of labyrinth which is akin to
the latter. It is inscribed thrice on each sole and on each
digit of the famous sculptured footprints of Gautama at
Amardvati. (Fig. 130, p.)

" Even at the present day, according to Mr. Taylor, the
Hindus, at the time of the new year, paint a svastika in red
at the commencement of their account books, and in their
weddings and other ceremonies they sketch it in flour on
the floors of their houses. It also figures at the end of
manuscripts of a recent period — at least under a form
which, according to M. Kern, is a development of the
tetraskele"^ (/.^., a variety with rounded angles).

^ Goblet d'Alvjella, loc, «'/., p. 40. ^ Loc. cit.^ p. 42.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 287

The Buddhist women of Thibet ornament their skirts
with it, and it is placed on the breast of the dead. A
Thibetian form is seen in Fig. 130, R.

The Buddhists introduced it into China (Fig. 130, l)
and Japan, where it adorns vases, caskets, and the repre-
sentations of divinities; it is even figured upon the
breasts of certain statues of Buddha. According to M. G.
Dumoutiqr, it is nothing else than the ancient Chinese
character che, which implies the idea of perfection, of ex-
cellence, and would seem to signify the renewal and the
endless duration of life. This suggests that the symbol was
brought by the Chinese across Asia in their wandering from
the West to their present home; but against this view must
be put the fact of its absence in Chaldea and Assyria; and
we know it has been introduced by the Buddhist mission-
aries. In Japan, according to M. de Milloue, it re-
presents the number 10,000, which symbolises that which is
infinite, perfect, excellent, and is employed as a sign of
felicity.

Schliemann^ also records the fylfot in Africa, on bronzes
brought from Coomassie by the English Ashantee expedition
in 1874. It is known from South America, on a calabash
from the Lenguas tribe; in North America, on pottery from
the mounds; and from Yucatan, on Zuni pottery, as also
on the rattles made from a gourd which the Pueblos Indians
use in their religious dances. I have heard that bronze
representations of the fylfot have been obtained from excava-
tions in Ohio, the details of which will shortly be published.

There can be no doubt that the fylfot throughout Eur-
Asia had a symbolic significance, which in many places it
still retains. Its longevity is due to this cause alone;
occasionally, when it was copied by peoples who did not
understand or appreciate its symbolism, it degenerated into
a mere ornamental device.

Although all phases of symbolic meaning are interesting,
1 JHos, 1880, Eng. edn., p. 353.

/■

288 EVOLUTION IN ART.

I must restrict myself to origins and to a few of the later
developments of this particular symbol.

The interpretations of the fylfot have been particularly
varied, and these have been further complicated by this
sign having been confounded with the crux ansata of the
Egyptians, the tau of the Phoenicians, the vajra of India,
the Hammer of Thor, or the Arrow of Perkun. All these
have a clearly defined form and meaning, and even if the
fylfot "ever replaced one of them— as in the catacombs it
sometimes takes the place of the Cross of Christ — it only
did so as a substitute, as the symbol of a symbol." ^

Some archaeologists have ascribed a phallic import to the
fylfot, others recognise in it the symbol of the female sex;
"but it may very well have furnished a symbol of fecundity,
as elsewhere a common symbol of prosperity and of salva-
tion, without therefore being necessarily a phallic sign."^
These are probably secondary meanings superadded to a
primitive and less abstract conception.

It has been held to indicate water, storm, lightning, fire,
or even the Indian fire-drill, the "mystic double arani,"
mentioned in one of the Vedic hymns to Agni, the fire-god.
These views have been combated by Greg,^ Colley March,*
and Goblet d'Alviella.^ Mr. Greg contends that the fylfot
is a symbol of the air or sky, or rather of the god who
rules the phenomena of the atmosphere, by whatever name
men may call him. Dr. March's theory is that it symbolises
axial rotation, and not merely gyratory motion ; in fact, the
axis of the heavens, the celestial pole, round which revolve
all the stars of the firmament once in twenty-four hours.
This appearance of rotation is especially impressive in the
Great Bear, the largest and brightest of the Northern

1 Goblet d'Alviella, loc. ciL, p. 4$. ^ Loc. cit., p. 45.

3 R. P. Greg, "The Fylfot and the Swastika," ^r^/^<^^/^.^"m, 1885,
p. 293.

4 H. Colley March, " The Fylfot and the Futhorc Tir," Trans. Lane,
and Ches. Ant. Soc, 1886. ^ Loc. cit., pp. 44 et seq.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 289

constellations. . . . About four thousand years ago, the
apparent pivot of rotation was not where it is now, but
occupied a point at a Draconis much nearer to the Great
Bear, whose rapid circular sweep must then have been far
more striking than it is at present. In addition to the name
Ursa Major, the Latins called this constellation Septentriones,
' the seven ploughing oxen ' that dragged the stars round the
pole, and the Greeks called it eAi/cr/, from its vast spiral
movement." 1

There is no need to follow Dr. March in his explana-
tion, and we must now turn to the view which has been
supported by the greatest number of investigators, who
" have succeeded, by their studies of Hindu, Greek, Celtic,
and ancient German monuments, in establishing the fact
that the gammadion has been, among all these nations, a
symbolic representation of the sun or of a solar god." Count
Goblet d'Alviella reinforces this theory by the following
considerations : —

1. The form of the fylfot. — To be convinced that the
branches of the fylfot are rays in motion it is only necessary
to cast one's eyes on the manner in which, at all times, the
idea of solar movement has been graphically expressed.
Thus on a whorl from Troy, crooked rays, turned towards
the right, alternate with straight and undulating rays, all of
which proceed from the same disc (Fig. 130, e).

2. The triskele^ formed by the same process as the tetra-
skele^ was an undeniable representation of the solar 7noveme7tt.
— On coins from Asia Minor the triskele is frequently repre-
sented as three legs, and on Celtiberian coins (Fig. 130, k) the
face of the sun appears between the legs. On the coins of

1 We read in the fifth book of the Odyssey (v. 270) how Odysseus
*• sate and cunningly guided the craft with the helm, nor did sleep fall
upon his eyelids, as he viewed the Pleiads and Bootes, that setteth late,
and the Bear, which they likewise call the Wain, which turneth ever in
one place, and keepeth watch upon Orion, and alone hath no part in
the baths of Ocean."

290 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Aspendus in Pamphylia the three legs are combined with
animal representations of the sun, the eagle, the wild boar,
and the lion ; and on certain coins of Syracuse the triskele
permutes with the solar disc above the quadriga and the
winged horse. In various places transition occur between
the tetraskele and triskele (Fig. 130, i). I have already
(p. 213) referred to the ultimate fate of the triskele.

3. The imag&s oftenest associated with the fylfot are represen-
tations of the sun and the solar divinities. — The fylfot and
the solar disc are, in a way, counterparts, not only amongst
the Greeks, the Romans, and the Celts, but also with the
Hindus, the Chinese, and the Japanese. The two are often
combined into one figure, and the rays have been converted
into horses' heads^ as on Gallo-Belgic coins, or into cocks'
heads and lions' busts which take the place of the rays of
the triskele on Lycian coins. Professor Goodyear points
out that the fylfot is associated on Cyprian and Rhodian
pottery with the goose (Fig. 130, g), deer, antelope, ibex,
ram, horse, lion, etc. All of these are solar animals. It is
associated with the lotus (Fig. 130, f), which is also a solar
symbol.

4. In certain symbolic co7nbi?iat:ons the fylfot alternates
with the representation of the sun. — Among the Jains of
modern India, a considerable Hindoo sect, the sun appears
to be represented by the svastika, and this symbol and the
solar disc constantly replace each other on the ancient coins
of Ujjain in Central India (Fig. 130, o), and Andhra in the
Deccan. Another proof of the equivalence between the
fylfot and the sun, or, at least, the light of the sun, is found
amongst the coins of the ancient city of Mesembria in
Thrace. Professor Percy Gardner states, "Mesembria, as
it stands, is simply the Greek word for "noon " or mid-day
([leo-rjfxPpta) ; and there can be no doubt that the Greek
inhabitants would suppose their city to be the place of
noon ; and among the coins of Mesembria occurs ME24^."
Five-rayed and three-rayed (triskele) sun symbols were

EVOLUTION IN ART. 291

associated with Apollo on coins of Megara, now Mesembria
was founded by a colony of Megarians.

Sometimes three solar discs or three fylfots, or combina-
tions of both, occur (Figs. 130, b, c), and in these Count
Goblet d'Alviella sees a symbolic representation of the three
diurnal positions of the sun, and suggests that when four
symbols occur crosswise, as frequently happens (Fig. 130,0),
they " relate to four different positions of the luminary, which
would, perhaps, suggest no longer its daily course, but its
annual revolution marked by the solstices and equinoxes."^

^ The importance of astronomical lore in the cults of ancient civilisa-
tions is being more forcibly brought home to us as the remains of
antiquity are being more critically and sympathetically investigated.
Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson, Junr., has recently published a sug-
gestive paper (" On Bird and Beast in Ancient Symbolism," Tians.
Roy. Soc, Edin.^ xxxviii., Pt. I, 1895, p. 179) in which he suggests
that many of the Greek representations of animals on monument or
coin indicate not the creatures themselves but their stellar namesakes.
M. J. Svoronos ("Sur la signification des types monetaires des
anciens," Bull. Correspondance Hellenique, 1894) had simultaneously
and independently arrived at a similar conclusion, but D'Arcy
Thompson carries the argument a step further, and attempts to show
that the associated emblems correspond to the positions relative to one
another of the heavenly bodies, in some cases to the configuration of
the sky at critical periods of the year, or at the festival seasons of the
cities to which the coins belong.

" The stellar symbolism that I here advocate is, I maintain, a
different thing from the sun-myths, dawn-myths, and so forth, which
are now to a large extent deservedly repudiated. We cannot ascribe
to the civilised nations of antiquity the puerile conceptions of nature
that are congruent with a stage of awakening intelligence and with the
crude results of untrained observation. Rather are we dealing with
the elaborated gain of ages of scientific knowledge, with the thoughts
of a people whose very temples were oriented to particular stars, or to
critical points in the journey of the sun ; whose representations of Art,
on frieze and pediment, in tragedy and epic, were governed by what
would at first appear to be a tyrannical convention, which convention,
however, so far from hampering their genius, seems, under the influ-
ence of a wholesome restraint, to have moulded their art into more
beautiful, more poetic, and more sanctified forms. , . . The dominant

292 EVOLUTION IN ART.

The fylfot would seem to occasionally replace the moon.
On coins of Cnossus, in Crete (Fig. 130, m), the Lunar Cres-
cent takes the place of the solar disc in the centre of the
fylfot ; in such instances it may have been applied to the
revolutions or even the phases of the moon.

Various suggestions have been made with regard to the
reversed fylfot or sauvastika, but it is still uncertain whether
this is of primary (Max Miiller, Birdwood, Colley March) or
secondary importance (Greg, d'Alviella).^

The last theory of the origin of the fylfot that I need
mention is that propounded by Professor Goodyear^ in the
following words : — " There is no proposition in archaeology
which can be so easily demonstrated as the assertion that
the swastika is originally a fragment of the Egyptian
meander, provided Greek geometric vases are called in
evidence." Professor A. S. Murray long since suggested
that the " crosses which Dr. Schliemann calls svastikas, but
which, in fact, appear to be only the simplest form or
element of the meander pattern."^ Sir G. Birdwood says:

1 P. Gardner, "Ares as a Sun-god," Numismalic Chionicley xx.,
N.S., 1880, p. 59.

2 The Grammar of the LoHts, p. 352.

^ *' On the Pottery of Cyprus," Appendix to General L. V. di
Cesnola's Cyprus^ 1877, p. 410.

priesthood, whose domain was knowledge, holding the keys of trea-
sured learning opened the lock with chary hand, and veiled plain
speech in fantastic allegory. In such allegory Egyptian priests spoke
to Greek travellers, who came to them as Dervish-pilgrims or Wand-
elnde Studenten. ... At Olympia, in the beginning of each Leap-
year cycle, the noblest youth of Greece raced, round the symbolic
pillars, their horses emblematic of the Horses of the Sun ; thereby
glorifying a God whom they thus ignorantly worshipped. Even so, we
read in the Second Book of Kings [xvii. 16; xxi. 3, 5; xxiii. 5] how|
their Phoenician cousins worshipped with like ceremony the same God.
And all the while, in the evening and the morning, priests and irpbaTroKoL
watched, measured, and compared the rising and setting of sun and
stars, in temples that were astronomical observatories, to the glory of a
religion whose mystery was astronomic science."

EVOLUTION IN ART. 293

" I believe the Buddhist swastika to be the origin of the
key-pattern ornament of Chinese decorative art."^ Professor
Goodyear makes him say that of Greek decorative art as
well.

It is a pity that Mr. Goodyear has pledged himself so
fully as in the statement just quoted, as it is apt to make
critics more captious as to his main thesis. If the fylfot is
a detached intersection of the meander pattern, why did not
the Egyptians hit on it ? Granting that the meander may
have had an indirect origin from a natural object in the
Mediterranean countries, there is no proof that any religious
or magical meaning was attached to it The manner in
which the fylfot was employed proves that it certainly had
a symbolic signification. The strongest argument adduced
by Professor Goodyear is in the case of some *' geometric-
ally " decorated Greek vases, in which between solar geese
and other symbols occurs a small panel, which is variously
decorated with a fylfot, or an element or varietal detail of
the meander pattern. ^ But this, after all, may prove to be
nothing more than that the Greeks noticed that the fylfot
occurred in certain varieties of the meander pattern which
had been arrived at from quite a different source. This
occurrence of the fylfot in these patterns was quite
accidental; it would be better to say that a fylfot design
could be picked out from these patterns rather than to
suggest that it was inherent in them. Granting the sacred
associations of the fylfot, the fact that it could be separated
from a pattern which itself may have had a recognised
association with the symbolic lotus would probably appeal
to a symbol-loving people. If they recognised that the
fylfot on the one hand, and the lotus on the other, were
sun-symbols, the isolation of the associate of a sun-symbol
into another sun-symbol would be a pleasing exercise of
ingenuity. I do not pretend to say that this has occurred,

1 The Industrial Arts of India, 1880, i. p. 107.

2 Loc. cit,, p. 353.

294 EVOLUTION IN ART.

but it is to me quite a possible alternative. The sequence
which Professor Goodyear seeks to establish appears to me
to be nothing more than the birth of an analogy.

Before a judgment upon the Chinese meander pattern
can be pronounced it would be necessary to make a detailed
study of that pattern on objects from that part of the world,
and I have not access to the requisite data.

We now come to the interesting question of the birth-
place of this important symbol.

It was long ago remarked that the fylfot is almost exclu-
sively an Aryan symbol. It is completely absent among the
Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, and even the
Phoenicians, although these middle-men traded useful
objects and sacred symbols indiscriminately. The Semites
did not employ it.

Although widely spread and venerated among the
Tibetians (Fig. 130, r), the Chinese (Fig. 130, l), and the
Japanese, it can be proved that these Mongolian peoples
have adopted it along with Buddhism from India.

As a recognised religious symbol it is unknown among all
the other peoples of the globe.

The conclusion is evident that the fylfot was a sym-
bol before the swarming-off of the Aryan hordes. There
seems little doubt that it was originally an emblem of the
sun. It may, in certain combinations, have come to
symbolise the apparent daily movement of the sun, and
perhaps also the annual change of seasons. Some see in it
the symbol of a sun-god, others believe it to be the god of
the sky, or air, who in the course of time was variously
known as Indra, Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, etc. Lastly, it has
been promoted to signify " the emblem of the divinity who
comprehended all the gods, or, again, of the omnipotent
God of the universe.'' This latter is certainly not a primi-
tive conception, and we have no evidence that this meaning
was ever read into the symbol.

Count Goblet d'Alviella points out that in Europe the

EVOLUTION IN ART. 295

geometric style of ornamentation embraces two periods,
that of painted and that of incised decoration. "Now
in this latter period, which is everywhere the most ancient,
the gammadion is only found on the whorls of Hissarlik
and the pottery of the Terramares. We have, therefore, two
early homes of our symbol, one on the shores of the
Hellespont, the other in the north of Italy.

" Was it propagated from one country to another by the
usual medium of commerce? It must be admitted that at
this period the relations between the Troad and the basin of
the Po were very doubtful. Etruria certainly underwent
Asiatic influences; but whether the legendary migration of
Tyrrhenius and of his Lydians be admitted or not, this
influence was only felt at a period subsequent to the
'palafittes' [pile dwellings] of Emilia, if not to the Necro-
polis of Villanova.

"There remains, therefore, the supposition that the
gammadion might have been introduced into the two
countries by the same nation.

"We know the Trojans came originally from Thrace/
There is, again, a very plausible tradition to the effect that
the ancestors, or predecessors, of the Etruscans, and, in
general, the earliest known inhabitants of northern Italy,
entered the peninsula from the north or north-east, after
leaving the valley of the Danube. It is, therefore, in this
latter region that we must look for the first home of the
gammadion. It must be remarked that when, later on, the
coinage reproduces the types and symbols of the local
religions, the countries nearest the Danube, such as
Macedon and Thrace, are amongst those whose coins
frequently exhibit the gammadion, the traskele, and the
triskele. Besides, it is especially at Athens that it is found
on the pottery of Greece proper, and we know that Attica
is supposed to have been primitively colonised by the
Thracians. 'The nations who had invaded the Balkan
peninsula and colonised Thrace,' writes M. Maspero,

296 EVOLUTION IN ART

'crossed, at a very early period, the two arms of the sea
which separated them from Asia, and transported there
most of the names which they had already introduced
into their European home. There were Dardanians in
Macedon, on the borders of the Axios, as in the Troad, on
the borders of the Ida, Kebrenes at the foot of the
Balkans, and a town, Kebrene, near Ilium.' ^ Who will
be astonished that these emigrants had taken with them,
to the opposite shore of the Hellespont, the symbols as well
as the rites and traditions which formed the basis of their
creed in the basin of the Danube ?

" Even when it occurs in the north and west of Europe,
with objects of the bronze period, it is generally on pottery
recalling the vases with geometric decorations of Greece
and Etruria, and later, on coins reproducing, more or less
roughly, the monetary types of Greece. It seems to have
been introduced into Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
and Iceland, in the same manner as that in which the runic
writing was brought from the Danube valley to the shores of
the Baltic and the ocean. It may have penetrated into
Gaul, and from there into England and Ireland, either
through Savoy, from the time of the * palafittes,' or with
the pottery and jewelry imported by sea and by land from
the East, or, lastly, with the Macedonian coins which repre-
sent the origin of Gallic coinage.

" We have already seen how it was brought among the
islands of the Mediterranean, and into Greece proper, then
from Greece to Sicily and even Southern Italy. It must be
observed that even at Rome it seems to have always been
connected with the traditions of the East. We must not
forget that the Christianity of the Catacombs was likewise a
religion of Oriental origin."

So much for the western fylfot. The oriental form even
in the extreme east of Asia can be traced without difficulty

1 G. Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples de P Orient, 1886,
p. 241, quoted by Count G. d'Alviella.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 297

to the svastika of India. There can be no doubt that the
fylfot and the svastika are genetically allied, but it is not at
present very easy to demonstrate all the links of the chain.
Here again I quote from Count Goblet d'Alviella.

"The svastika does not appear on the coins struck in
Bactriana, or in India, by Alexander and his Indo-Greek
successors. Even amongst the Indo-Scythians, whose
coinage copies the Greek types, it is only visible on
barbarous imitations of the coins of Basu Deva. On the
other hand, as we have shown, it adorns the coins of
Krananda and the most ancient monetary ingots of India.
Moreover, Panina, who already makes mention of the
svastika, is sometimes considered to have lived in the
middle of the fourth century B.C. It might therefore be
possible that the Hindus had known the svastika before
feeling in their arts, and even in their symbolism, the
influence of the Greek invasion.

" Yet, for the best of reasons, it is neither the Chaldaeans,
the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, nor even the Egyptians, who
can have imported the gammadion to Hindustan.

" There only remain, then, the Persians, whose influence
on the nascent arts of India was certainly felt before
Alexander. But in Persia itself the gammadion only
appears as an exception on a few rare coins approaching
our era.

" Perhaps we would do well to look towards the Caucasus,
where the antique ornaments with gammadions, collected
by M. Chantre, lead us back to a civilisation closely enough
allied, by its industrial and decorative types, to that of
Mycenae.

" Until new discoveries permit us to decide the question,
this gap in the genealogy of the svastika will be equally
embarrassing for those who would like to make the gam-
madion the common property of the Aryan race, for it remains
to be explained why it is wanting amongst the ancient
Persians. It is right, too, to call attention to its absence

298 EVOLUTION IN ART.

on the most ancient pottery of Greece and the Archipelago,
where it only appears with geometric decoration.

" If the gammadion is found amongst none of the
nations composing the Egypto-Semetic group; if, amongst
the Aryans of Persia, it never played but a secondary
and obliterated part, might it not be because the art and
symbolism of these different nations possess other figures
which discharge a similar function, whether as a phylactery,
or else as an astronomical, or a divine symbol ? The real
talismanic cross of the countries stretching from Persia to
Lybia is the crux ansata, the key of life of the Egyptian
monuments. As for their principal symbol of the sun in
motion, is it not the Winged Globe ? There would seem to
be between these figures and the gammadion, I will not say
a natural antipathy, but a repetition of the same idea.
Where the gammadion predominates — that is to say, in
the whole Aryan world, except Persia — the Winged Globe
and the crux afisata have never succeeded in establishing
themselves in good earnest. Even in India, granting that
these two last figures really crossed the Indus with the
Greek, or the Iranian symbolism, they are only met within
an altered form, or with a new meaning.

" In brief, the ancient world might be divided into two
zones, characterised, one by the presence of the gammadion,
the other by that of the Winged Globe as well as of the crux
ansata; and these two provinces barely penetrate one another
at a few points of their frontier, in Cyprus, at Rhodes, in
Asia Minor, and in Lybia. The former belongs to Greek
civilisation, the latter to Egypto-Babylonian culture.

" As for India, everything, so far, tends to show that the
svastika was introduced into that country from Greece, the
Caucasus, or Asia Minor, by ways which we do not yet
know. However that may be, it is owing to its adoption
by the Buddhists of India that the gammadion still prevails
amongst a great part of the Mongolian races, whilst, with
the exception of a few isolated and insignificant cases which

EVOLUTION IN ART.

299

Still survive amongst the actual populations of Hindustan,
and, perhaps, of Iceland, it has completely disappeared from
Aryan symbolism and even folk-lore."

300 EVOLUTION IN ART.

B. The Psychology of Symbolism.

Signer G. Ferrero^ has investigated the psychological
laws of symbolism, using that term in its widest aspect.
After giving a sketch of the history of the Fylfot, which is
largely borrowed from that by Count Goblet d'Alviella, he
proceeds to give its psychological interpretation in the
following words (p. 148): —

" I believe that this symbol of the motion of the sun
became transformed into a mystic symbol, precisely because
it was a metaphorical symbol. The signification of a picto-
graphic symbol can not be forgotten, for the sensation of
the symbol directly recalls the image or the idea of the
object; there are not in that case intermediate states of
consciousness which can be eliminated. But when it
concerns a metaphorical symbol, these intermediate states
of consciousness exist, for the symbol must be interpreted,
especially if a very imperfect and rude delineation is in
question, whose relation to the object represented is of
the slightest. The figure of a tree directly recalls to me
the idea or image of the tree; but a circle drawn with three
or four legs does not directly suggest to me in itself the
precise idea of the motion of the sun ; there is at least the
possibility of different interpretations, and at all events
there must be an original and mdependent act of in-
terpretation. The significance of the symbol, finally, can
only be known if one undertakes an investigation of in-
duction and interpretation, or if one associates with an
inspection of the symbol the remembrance of an explana-
tion which has been given, or of an interpretation which we
had formerly discovered for ourselves.

"Now this state of consciousness, which serves for the inter-
pretation of the symbol, would have been necessary if the
symbol of the cross had ministered to the needs of existence,

^ Guillaume Ferrero, Les Lois Psychologiques du Symbolisme^ 1895*
(Translated from the Italian. ) I am indebted to my friend Havelock
Ellis for the reference to and loan of this book.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 30I

to commerce or politics, for example ; but as it was a reli-
gious symbol whose use did not vary according to the truth
and the exactness of its interpretation, it is evident that this
state of consciousness would become useless in the long run,
and the brain would relieve itself of it in a short time. The
croix gat?tmee (fylfot) was, like genuflexions and the other
mimic symbols of ceremonial, a symbol employed in rela-
tion with the divinity; accordingly, the same cause which
rendered useless in the ceremonial the state of conscious-
ness, which we have called 7,^ has rendered useless the state
of consciousness which could interpret the solar significa-
tion of the cross. It was, in short, a religious symbol
employed in relation to God ; rightly or wrongly interpreted
as it may be, prayer and other propitiations tended to the
same result; the state of consciousness which served for
its interpretation was then not necessary, and the brain little
by little relieved itself from it. This state of consciousness
being eliminated, it was forgotten that the sign of the cross
represented the sun, because this was a metaphorical symbol
too vague to directly recall the idea of solar movement.

" When the state of consciousness which served for the
interpretation of the design was gradually eliminated, all the
religious sentiments which had the sun and its cult for their
object were addressed to the cross; that is why it has
become the object of so profound a veneration, without
any one knowing its signification or origin ; the cross reaps
for its profit the inheritance of the solar cult of which it has
ceased to be a symbol, in order to become almost a divinity
by itself. The cross thus became a mystic symbol of which
the applications became very numerous, and even very
confused.

"All this, I repeat, is only a supposition, but it may enable
us to afiirm that, whatever may be the origin of the cross,
its evolution, very probably, can only be explained from the
point of view of the theory of the ideo-emotional arrest."
^ See note on next page.

302 EVOLUTION IN ART.

A. Note on Metital Inertia.

SiGNOR G. Ferrero has studied what he terms " mental
inertia " and " the law of least effort," as applied to the mind,
and he finds that the mental operation may stop short at
certain points; thus he distinguishes (i) mental arrest^ (2)
emotional arrest^ and (3) ideo-emotional arrest.

(i.) The first is due to a deficiency in logic ; as, for
example, when machinery was first introduced, the work-
men smashed the machines, regarding them as the cause of
the fall in wages, and being ignorant of the fact that the
altered conditions were caused by complicated economic
conditions, and not by the machines.

(2.) An analogous phenomenon occurs in the domain of
the emotions. An emotion is not isolated, it is always one
link of a chain. The emotions are always associated with a
more or less great number of images or ideas which define
them. But the image or the idea of the thing which should
define the emotion sometimes dwindles or entirely dis-
appears j it then follows that the emotion, instead of being
associated with the image or with the idea of this thing, is
associated w^th the symbol which represents this thing ; it
stops short at the symbol instead of projecting itself beyond
the symbol towards the thing represented.

This is the emotional arrest. It is notorious that in
religion the adoration which should be paid to God in
heaven is often arrested at the images which represent the
divinity, as when the elders of Israel said, " Let us fetch the

EVOLUTION IN ART. 303

ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that,
when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand
of our enemies . . . and the PhiHstines were afraid, for they
said, God is come into the camp."^

(3.) There is yet a third psychological process by which
the confusion between the symbol and the thing symbolised
is possible; it is the ideo-emotional arrest. In an analysis of
the mental state of a man who performs acts of social cere-
monial, this author finds (p. 133) that "to each completed
act there corresponds, in the spirit of man, three states of
consciousness, quite distinct and associated : —

" I. The desire to cause the man to be favourable to him
in whose presence the ceremonial act is accom-
plished (a);
'* 2. The idea that the ceremonial act can serve this

purpose {P);
" 3. The idea that the act can serve this purpose because
the suppliant understands that he who has put
himself in the position where he is unable to do
harm cannot have any dangerous intention (y).
"The mental state of those who entreat tlie gods was, in
this primitive period, composed of the same three states of
consciousness, quite distinct but inter-related: —

" I. The desire to make the divinity favourable to one-
self (a) ;
"2. The idea that certain acts or practices (prayers,

visits, etc., etc.) conduce to this result (^);
" 3. /The idea of the reason for which these acts have this
power — that is to say, the conviction that they are
adapted to the character attributed to the divinity

(7)-

" It is evident that if we compare the mental state of men

who are in harmony with ceremonial observances in this

primitive period of ceremonial with the mental state of

civilised men who still observe ceremonial, social, and

^ I Samuel iv. 3, 7.

304 EVOLUTION IN ART.

religious rules, we find that in the mental state of civilised
men the third state of consciousness — that is to say 7, has
been eliminated. In fact, we have remarked that, among
civilised man, the performance of a ceremonial act is deter-
mined by the desire to render himself favourable to, or at
least not to offend another person or a God (a), and from
the idea that these acts can produce this effect (/3); without
knowing why (that is to say that y has been eliminated). .

" We have seen that by the law of mental inertia, a state
of consciousness — image, idea, emotion — cannot last for
ever, after the exciting cause has ceased to act, for a state
of consciousness is sl transformation of energy, and it
finishes when it has exhausted its initial quantity of force.

" Only the states of consciousness which, being necessary
for the needs of existence, are preserved by permanent
excitation, — be this excitation simple and direct or com-
plex and indirect — can have an apparently eternal persist-
ence; the duration of useless states of consciousness is
limited.

"This is true for individuals or bodies of men. To each
institution, to each custom, etc., there correspond in the
mind of man a certain number of associated ideas, which
have determined alike its birth and transformation; but,
according to this lav/, only the ideas which are necessary
should be preserved in this association of ideas; the others
should be gradually eliminated.

"This interesting psychological phenomenon of /deo-
emotional arrest concludes by profoundly modifying ideas
and feelings. It modifies ideas, for it induces what I have
termed a menial arrest: the ideation, in fact, by the loss of
the state of consciousness y, is arrested at /?; and the mind
is contented to know that a certain act will produce a
certain effect, or will express a certain sentiment, without
troubling itself with the cause, without seeking for an
explanation. It modifies, and, so to speak, .displaces the
feelings, for it produces that what I call an emotional arrest:

EVOLUTION IN ART. 30$

in fact, when the idea of the true character of the cere-
monial act is lost, the act is no longer a sign of certain
inclinations of sentiment, but itself becomes an object of
veneration. We see men who pay attention only to cere-
monial and who neglect the feelings on which it should be
based , , . they believe they have fulfilled their religious
duties, even if love and devotion are wanting, if they have
not neglected the ceremonies. It is the same with the
social ceremonial; for the majority of men, social duty does
not consist in loyalty, in mutual affection, in a spirit of
justice towards others, but in ceremonial observances; and
when the ceremonial code is not violated they are persuaded
that they have nothing for which to reproach themselves.
It is a true emotio7ial arrest^ for the sentiments of social
and religious duty are, so to speak, arrested midway in
purely external acts,"^

' Loc. cit.y p. 139.

3o6

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF STUDYING
DECORATIVE ART.

There are two ways in which art may be studied — the
aesthetic and the scientific.

The former deals with all manifestations of art from
a purely subjective point of view, and classifies objects
according to certain so-called "canons of art." These may
be the generally recognised rules of the country or race to
which the critic belongs, and may even have the sanction
of antiquity, or they may be due to the idiosyncrasy of the
would-be mentor.

In criticising the art of another country it must be
remembered that racial tendencies may give such a bias as
to render it very difficult to treat foreign art sympathetically.
Western Europe and Japan are cases in point. Dogmatism
in aesthetics is absurd, for, after all, the aesthetic sense is
largely based upon personal likes and dislikes, and it is
difficult to see what sure ground there can be which would
be common to the majority of people.

The aesthetic study of art may very well be left to pro-
fessional art critics.

We will now turn to a more promising field of inquiry,
and see what can be gained from a scientific treatment of
art. This naturally falls into two categories, the physical
and the biological.

I am n@t aware that much has been done towards
establishing a physical basis for art. The pleasurable

EVOLUTION IN ART. 307

sensations which Hne, form, and colour may give rise to
are doubtless analogous to those caused by musical sounds,
but with this difference, that the latter are caused by the
orderly sequence of particular vibrations, whereas the
vibrations of the former are synchronous. It is possible
that not only must the character of these vibrations be
taken into account, but that the structure of the human
eye and personal equation must be allowed for in an
analysis of the pleasurable sensations caused by any work
of art. These remarks necessarily refer only to the forms
of things; their meaning and the sensations thereby evoked
belong to the domain of psychology.

3o8

. I. Application of Biological Deductions to
Designs.

»At present, however, we are only concerned with the
biological treatment of art. Nor need surprise be felt
if an attempt is made to deal with art as a branch of
biology. For is not art necessarily associated with in-
telligence? Is not intelligence a function of the brain?
And is not the brain composed of some form of protoplasm ?
Art is thus one only of the myriad results of the activity of
protoplasm. If this be true, art must be subject to the same
general laws which act on all living beings, i

The fundamental law in biology is that expressed in the
well-known aphorism, Onine viviim e vivo (" All life from
life "). The belief in abiogenesis or spontaneous generation,
as now taking place, has completely disappeared from bio-
logical teaching.
^ In studying savage art we are irresistibly forced to an
analogous conclusion. \ By carefully studying a number of
designs we find, providing the series is sufficiently extensive,
that a complex, or even an apparently simple pattern, is the
>» result of a long series of variations from a quite dissimilar
original, i The latter may in very many cases be proved to
be a direct copy or representation of a natural or artificial
object. From this it is clear that a large number of patterns
can be shown to be natural developments from a realistic
representation of an actual object, and not to be a mental
creation on the part of the artist.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 309

There are certain styles of ornamentation which, at all
events in particular cases, may very well be original, taking
that word in its ordinary sense, such, for example, as zigzag
lines, cross-hatching, and so forth. The mere toying with
any implement which could make a mark on any surface
might suggest the simplest ornamentation to the most
savage mind. This may or may not have been the case,
and it is entirely beyond proof either way, and therefore we
must not press our analogy too far. It is, however, surpris-
ing, and it is certainly very significant, that the origin of so
many designs can now be determined, although they are of
unknown age. ^

/It is therefore not too much to say that savages do not ▼
deliberately invent patterns or designs; in other words, ^*
artistic expression is the result of a pre-existing visual
impression. I "

) Great difficulty presents itself when we apply this state-
ment to communities of a higher culture; but there is no ^
reason for believing that the case is different for barbaric .
races from what it is among the more savage.r

It is when we come to highly civilised people that
the problem becomes well-nigh insoluble. People often
designedly "invent" patterns, and imagine that such de-
signs are truly original. It is impossible to prove whether
or no the artist has ever seen either a similar pattern, or at
all events the elements of which his design is composed.
It is very difficult to conceive that the latter is not the case.
All that we can do is to fall back on the simple conditions,
and we have already seen what obtains there.

This argument is strengthened by the fact that those who
wish to " invent " new designs so often have recourse to
objective assistance. I The students in our schools of art are d
instructed to study natural forms, especially plants. 1 Not only
have they to manipulate the plant as a whole, but the
flower has to be dissected, and even such details as the
cross-section of the seed capsule are taken into account

3IO EVOLUTION IN ART.

Intelligent selection and rejection and judicious grouping
may give rise to an infinitude of designs and patterns.

More mechanical aids are often pressed into service, and
the compasses and other drawing instruments are employed,
perhaps as often on the chance of a pleasing combination
resulting or being suggested, as to elaborate some definite
idea. The well-known Japanese pattern books afford a
good foreign example of this method.

/ Instructors have not overlooked such optical aids as the
kaleidoscope or analogous apparatus for pattern-making. )

f Once a design is started, be it the simplest of geometrical
forms or a representation of a definite object, its subsequent
fate is subject to vicissitudes very similar to those which
beset the existence of any organism. /

I Organisms have offspring which at the same time resemble
and differ from their parents. [

This is the commonest experience one meets with in
studies in ornament; certain simple patterns, on account of
their simplicity, may be indefinitely repeated, and that
without appreciable variation. Like simple chemical com-
pounds, they are stable because there are few combining
elements, and these are well linked together.

On the other hand, the more complex the original idea
the greater opportunity there is for variation, in fact
variation is inevitable. Just as in the highly unstable
molecules which build up protoplasm, there is practically
no alternative except for metabolism to take place.

In no case havfe we a series of designs which are known
to be, so to speak, genetically related. We cannot say that
this was a copy of that, and that of some other known form,
and so on. Neither have we in Palaeontology. A student
of the latter science brings together as many specimens as
he can from different geological horizons, and finding that
the forms of a more recent deposit resemble with but slight
differences those from an earlier formation, he not un-
reasonably concludes that the former were descended from

EVOLUTION IN ART. 31 1

the latter, and that the differences in the species are to be
accounted for by the fixing and isolating of variations
such as are commonly to be met with in members of one
family.

The biologist, recognising the great importance of the
theory of evolution, now rears generation after generation of
animals to see how far actual experience will bear out
theoretical deductions, and by this means definite facts are
being accumulated. The credit of first applying this prin-
ciple to art IS due to General Pitt-Rivers. He gave a certain
drawing to some one (a) to copy; his rendering was sent
on to another person (b) to copy, this copy was handed on
to a third individual (c), and so on, each copyist having
only the preceding person's performance before him. In
each case fresh variations occur according to the greater or
less imitative skill of the artist. The General has collected
some very curious examples of series of this kind.

Mr. H. Balfour,! following this suggestion, describes
how he started a similar experiment. He says, " An original
drawing of my own, representing a snail crawling over a
twig, was given out to different people to be copied as I
have described. In a series of twelve to fifteen copies thus
obtained, the snail's shell gradually leaves the snail and be-
comes a kind of boss upon the twig, and finally the design is
turned upside down; the artists at this stage being con-
vinced that the sketch is intended to represent a bird,
the 'horns' of the snail having become the forked tail
of the bird. It is seen that the extremes of the series
are absolutely unlike each other, but in no case are any
two adjacent sketches very dissimilar."

Unfortunately, in the examples given in the earlier pages
of this book, as in those presented by other writers, we are

^ H. Balfour, " The Origin of Decorative Art as illustrated by the Art
of Modern Savages," Midland Naturalist, xiii., 1890; The Evolution
of Decoiative Art, 1893, p. 24; ** Evolution in Decorative Kxi,'' Journ.
Soc. Arts, xlii., 1894, p. 458.

312 EVOLUTION IN ART.

not in a position to definitely affirm that one particular
design is genetically related to another one. We have the
same difficulty in palaeontology; but the impossibility of
absolute proof does not weaken the strong presumptive
evidence in its favour.

We are also brought face to face with another interesting
zoological parallel, and that is the co-existence of primitive,
intermediate, and late types. It is not always easy to
suggest explanations in zoology why some forms should
persist and others disappear, but these difficulties are no
argument against evolution having occurred. Amongst
savage peoples we often find a surprising number of inter-
mediate stages, but one explanation is ready to hand. The
original is usually always before them, and all stages in the
evolution of a design are decorative; they are all " fit" enough
to survive, and the majority of them may persist for an
indefinite time. In the animal world small changes in the
environment may produce far-reaching effects on organisms,
and the persistence, not the change of type, is the greatest
marvel.

In zoology it appears that the more complex animals, or
perhaps rather the more complex members of a group, vary
more than the simpler. It would be interesting to work
out whether the same occurs in patterns. I am inclined to
think that this will be found to be very generally the case.
Increased variation occurs because there is more material to
vary. The next step is to determine what directions the
variations take.

/ Development may take place (i) with a general tendency
towards complexity, or (2) towards simplification, or (3)
these two may be coincident. That is, there may be (i) an
upward or specialising evolution, or (2) degeneration, or (3)
selection, which implies partial elimination and a specialisa-
tion of the selected details. /

/ (i) Not many examples present themselves of the
evolution of a particular motive as a whole; as usually

EVOLUTION IN ART. 3-15

one portion of it diminishes and another increases.) ^What
may be termed symmetrical evolution must necessarily be j>,
of rare occurrence. \ An example will be found in the pro-
gressive development of a fish-hook into an ornament in
Torres Straits (p. 76, Fig. 44).

Occasionally one meets with examples of a considerable
amount of partial complexity without a degradation of the
remainder.

(2) The simphfication of original types is of extremely \
common occurrence in decorative art. This has often [
impressed itself on those who have interested themselves
in handicrafts of savages. In addition to the numerous
examples I have brought together in this book I need only
refer to the pioneer observations of Sir John Evans in 1849
in his well-known study ^ of the degeneration which occurred
in the Gaulish and British copying of the gold stater of
Philip II. of Macedon. Later,^ he says, "those varieties
appear to have become more or less persistent, which, in
the ' struggle for existence,' have presented advantages over
the present form in their relation to external conditions.
But in the succession of types of these British coins, the
requirements which new types had to fulfil in order to
become to a certain extent persistent, were, firstly, to
present facility of imitation, and secondly, symmetry of
form. The natural instincts of uncivilised man seem to 1
lead to the adoption of simple yet symmetrical forms of
ornament, while in all stages of culture the saving of trouble
is an object of universal desire.^ The reduction of a com-
plicated and artistic design into a symmetrical figure of easy
execution was the object of each successive engraver of the
dies of these coins, though probably they were themselves

^ " On the Date of British Coins," Numismatic Chronicie, xiii.,
1850, p. 127.

'^ Ancient British Coijis, 1864, p. 27.

^ I venture, however, to question whether this is in reality very
operative among savages.

314 EVOLUTION IN ART.

unaware of any undue saving of trouble on their part, or the
results which ensued from it."

] While degeneration is of so frequent occurrence in the
history of decorative art, one must not assume that this
\ t. must invariably be the case; every series must be judged
(*). independently. | One commonly finds that the earlier
representations of glyptic art were crude and highly con-
ventional, but they became more life-like as the artists
gained more command over their material, and perhaps
at the same lime the fabricators or the purchasers were
gradually educated to prefer greater truth to nature.

(3) The third alternative is by far the most frequent.
Typical examples are to be met with in the rich field of the
decorative art of the Papuan Gulf. Fig. 13, p. 36, will
serve as an example: here each star-like figure is the remains
of two human faces; the eye-spot is the amalgamation of
the two pairs of eyes, the lateral angled lines represent the
cheek-folds, and the curved lines next to these are the lower
eye-lashes of each face, and nothing more of the faces
persists.

\ It would be absurd to endeavour to make the evolution
of decorative art run on all fours with that of animals, as
y3>-^ there are certain art forms which have no parallel in
zoology. / In patterns, for example, the two essential ele-
ments are symmetry and repetition ; the latter implicates not
only the whole design but portions of it as well. Thus, if
in an early stage of a realistic design there is a blank area,
the vacancy will usually be filled up by repetitions of that
detail of the whole design which is nearest to it. For
example, the scroll pattern of the Massim district of British
New Guinea originates, as we have seen, from serial repeti-
tions of a bird's head. In the simplest forms of this pattern
there are blank triangular areas, but these are usually filled
up by a series of crescentic lines (Fig. 26), which are repeti-
tions of the curve bounding the base of each triangle. In
the Elema district the designs have an increasing tendency

EVOLUTION IN ART. 315

towards angularity, so, similarly, areas unoccupied by the
main design are very frequently filled up with chevrons, as
in Fig. 16.

I The objection to this method of treating art may be urged
that the decorated objects, whatever their nature may be,
are inanimate, that they are merely pieces of wood or stone,
and that they are therefore not to be compared with living
beings. It is perfectly obvious that ethnological objects '^^ '^
cannot change themselves or develop themselves into any-
thing else. On the other hand, though animals are alive
they also have no voluntary power to alter themselves, nor
can they develop themselves in any direction. They are
almost as passive as fabricated objects. (

\^The small amount of change which may occur in the
adult existence of an animal (I purposely exclude all changes
which take place during development and growth) are due
to forces acting upon the animal, and to which the animal g<9
more or less responds ; they are not self-induced. The
zoological and ethnological specimens, in this respect, are
in precisely the same case. 1

\The direction which evolution takes, whether it makes for a
more highly sensitive being or for degeneration, has reference J^-
to offspring alone and not to their parents, immediate or
remote. ) There is no conscious and protracted effort on the
part of a particular group of animals to evolve in a deter-
minate direction, this latter is circumscribed by the environ-
ment. Thus it comes about that consciousness has no part
in evolution whether of an animal or of a pattern. The off-
spring of an animal vary more or less from the parent just y
as copies of designs vary, and both are alike subject to an
external selection. If this selection proceeds sufficiently
long in one general direction, a distinct and non-relapsing
variation is established, and so on indefinitely.

One distinction between the evolution of animals and

that of patterns must not be lost sight of: in the former

'the survival of the fittest appears to be mainly due to an

3l6 EVOLUTION IN ART.

elimination of the un-fittest, whereas in the latter there is a
certain amount of conscious selection.

A further argument against this view may be urged from
the standpoint that however unconscious the evolution of
the lower animals may be, the case is very different with
man. He is conscious and self-conscious, and he can direct
his own evolution. In the first place, "Can he do so?"
and in the second, " Has he done so ? " First let us see
what has happened.

I suppose it is one of the best established teachings of
history that the evolution of a nation has not been con-
sciously directed by the individuals which compose it. A
few men may have sought to guide the course of politics or
to adjust its foreign policy; but their efforts are futile unless
supported by the people themselves, and the luxuriousness
of living of the majority, the laxity of their morals, or some
other irresponsible factor, may entirely wreck individual
effort. Nations as a whole have blindly worked out their
own salvation or ruin in just the same way as a group of
animals living in geological times may have survived to the
present day or may have become extinct.

The essential conservatism of the human mind is a fact
of prime importance. Savages, children, and the less
intelligent of the civilised races are similar in this respect.
This has long been recognised, and that " there is no new
thing under the sun " is an oft-repeated, widely-recognised
truism. In proportion as change is rare, so progress is slow.
It is only the happy coincidence of certain combinations
which acts as a stimulant to variation, but this appears to
have an increasing tendency to occur. The more savage
the race the more conservative it is as a rule.

Just as the tendency to variability is of necessity a
steadily increasing factor in the evolution of animals, so it
is in man, and proportionately more so as he is raised above
the level of the brute. Increase of complexity leads to that
instability which is the mother of variability.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 317

Th/^ above-mentioned statements are merely expressions
of facts known to all. It will probably be admitted that
among less civilised peoples their evolution may have been
undirected by themselves; but with increased complexity
comes augmented mental power, and it may be urged that
this may, so to speak, take the helm; but I would venture
to ask, Is there much evidence in support of this view ?
The mind of man is subject, like his body, to the ordinary
operations of the universe, his individuality is apparent
rather than real, and just as one may move to and fro on
the face of the earth yet at the same time the traveller and
the bed-ridden person are revolving round the axis of the
earth at the same rate, and are equally trundling with the
globe through space, so, too, mind cannot escape from the
forces which act on the body.

It is believed by some that there were periods in the
history of organisms when evolution took place more
rapidly than at other times; perhaps this was due to
variability occurring more extensively, which again may
have been partly due to changes in the environment. ) There
is no reason to believe that variation (which is the material
that makes evolution possible) occurs uniformly. ^ There is
no need to touch further upon these yet unsolved problems
of Biology; at all events we find that in decorative art
evolution has been spasmodic or discontinuous, that there
are periods of quiescence and of activity. \ I have already
suggested that the isolation of a people and uniformity in
their existence will tend to stagnation in art, and that
intercourse with other peoples, whether by trade, war or
migration, serves as a stimulus to artistic expression.

To return to our more immediate subject, consciousness
of purpose has extremely little to do with human evolution,
nor has it much more to say to the evolution of patterns
among primitive peoples.

The selection of one design instead of another, or of a
particular part of a design, is a conscious act, but probably

3l8 EVOLUTION IN ART.

in the great majority of cases an unreasoning one. And the
selection is Hmited to that individual object. It is incon-
ceivable that a savage should copy or adapt a certain design
because it promises to develop into a more pleasing pattern.
While there is a certain amount of conscious selection, the
variation as a whole of any design is an entirely unguided
operation so far as the intelligence of the human units is
concerned.

3^9

II. The Geographical Distribution of Animals
AND of Designs.

No part of the study of Biology is more fascinating than
that which deals with the geographical distribution of organ-
isms, especially when treated by such a master as Alfred
Russel Wallace. The geographical distribution of art is as
yet uninvestigated, but with careful and capable handling
we may expect it to yield results not less interesting than
those of the distribution of animals. It is needless to point
out that the subject is peculiarly difficult, but as John Ray
said two hundred years ago concerning the study of Natural
History, " much might be done did we but endeavour, and
nothing is insuperable to pains and patience."

It will not be superfluous to here indicate the general
lines upon which such an inquiry may be profitably made,
taking the experience of zoologists as our guide in this
matter.

It is a matter of general experience that animals are not
uniformly scattered over the globe. The absence of all
land mammals and of snakes from New Zealand; the
occurrence of the monotremes only in Australia and New
Guinea; that the American opossums are the only mar-
supials found out of Australia and a few adjacent islands;
the absence of bears in Africa and of lemurs in America, are
a few of the myriad cases in point.

By tabulating the denizens of different countries, the
latter can be grouped according to their animals, and in

520 EVOLUTION IN ART.

this way zoologists have formed zoological regions, which-
may be further subdivided into sub-regions or provinces.
All such divisions are characterised (i) by their characteristic
animals, (2) by their peculiar animals, and (3) by the absence
of certain groups of animals. The negative character in this
case being perhaps the most valuable one.

Organisms may in a rough manner be distributed into
zones corresponding with climate, which may be horizontal
and largely dependent upon latitude, or vertical and directly
dependent upon altitude, which varies, however, according
to latitude. Such a kind of distribution is much more
manifest in plants than in animals.

Further, there is a phenomenon known as "discontinuous
distribution," which is one of great importance. For example,'
the tapirs are only found in Central America and in the
Malay Archipelago, the camel group in South America and
the deserts of Asia, the ostrich group in South America,
Africa, Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand. It is
needless to multiply examples. The explanation is simple
enough. The tapirs are representatives of old generalised
ungulates of early tertiary times that formerly lived in the
northern hemisphere, but which have since become ex-
terminated in the region of their origin and abundance, and
have survived at only two extreme points of their old
habitat. Ancestral camels are common in the tertiary beds
of North America; the one group wandered southwards, and
finding competition less keen on the plateaux of South
America, were enabled to develop into llamas, alpacas,
and so forth. The other group was modified so as to
exist in the deserts of Asia, the less specialised forms in
the intermediate countries having died out. The same
general argument applies to the ostrich group, and in the
rhea of South America, the ostrich of Africa, the casso-
wary of New Guinea, the emu of Australia, the diminutive
apteryx and the gigantic extinct moas of New Zealand we
have outliers, so to speak, of an extremely ancient group of

EVOLUTION IN ART. 32 1

birds, the other members of which have become exterminated
in the intermediate districts.

Then again, there may be what are termed " local types
and species," forms which differ but slightly from the
characteristic or " central " type of the species, and which
are restricted to special regions. For example, in an island
off a mainland there are often what are termed "insular
varieties," and in an archipelago it is of frequent occurrence
that each island is characterised by possessing its peculiar
varieties and even peculiar species. Isolated geographical
features, such as commanding and separated mountains, may
have what may equally be termed " insular faunas," or again,
the various valleys of a mountain chain may have appreciable
faunistic differences.

The reason for this is not far to seek. These varieties
differ from others merely by being intensified by local
conditions and by isolation. Variation is more widespread
than is generally supposed, but granting freedom of inter-
course over a wide area and a stability of environment,
the extreme variations are less liable to occur, and, further-
more, it is the average organism which is the most stable.
Thus a fairly constant mean level is maintained. The
isolation of portion of such a uniform population introduces
new factors, and the isolated individuals tend to arrive at
a condition of stable equilibrium which must of necessity
be different from that of the parent stem.

Colonies are probably of rare occurrence in the zoological
world. By such I mean the sudden peopling of a district
by an animal new to that part of the country. An example
of how this may occur is illustrated by the sporadic
excursion into Europe of Pallas' sand-grouse. It will be
remembered that a few years ago large numbers of this
Siberian bird made their appearance in Europe. Similar
inroads are on record for past years.

Supposing the conditions were favourable, the sand-grouse
might very well have established itself in one or more

322 EVOT.UTION IN ART.

localities, and then formed colonies in the true sense of the
term. Artificial colonies are being continually formed by man :
witness the rabbits in Australia and the pheasant in England.

The dispersion of animals is caused by the favouring
conditions of physical features, or by the carrying power
of winds and currents. The isolation of animals is also
similarly caused; winds and currents may be in such a
direction as to prevent migration, and the physical features
may be otherwise unfavourable to dispersion.

We now have to apply these general remarks to the
province of art, and to see how far similar conclusions may
be drawn.

The conclusions of the synthetical zoologist who studies
the problems of zoogeography, as it is sometimes called, are
entirely dependent upon the tedious labours of the analy-
tical or systematic zoologist. General conclusions are worth
nothing if the data upon which they are erected are untrust-
worthy; hence an accurate identification of the fauna of a
country is an absolutely necessary precursor to any theorising
upon its affinity.

This self-evident proposition equally applies to the
geographical distribution of art-forms. It is first of all
necessary to determine the exact nature of any given pattern
or design. I have often called attention to the danger
which there is in assuming that similarity is identity, the
most instructive example of this being exhibited in the fret-
pattern group and the allied scroll-patterns. Instances
could be multiplied were it necessary. One of the main
objects of the present volume is to emphasise this fact, and
to demonstrate that the signification of a design, that is,
what it really is, can only be ascertained by an exhaustive
study of that particular region where it occurs or from
whence it has been derived. Analysis must precede
synthesis. This has not yet been attempted on a large ^
enough scale, and so it is at present impossible to deduce-
wide generalisations.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 3^3

^' Art is subject to two prime factors — (i) the solidarity of
,the human race, and (2) ethnic idiosyncrasy. It is the
extreme difficulty in distinguishing between these two
factors which complicates the comparative study of customs
and beliefs.

To the second of these we owe, for example, the evolution
of the various forms of fret and scroll pattern, and to the
first of them their world-wide retention as patterns.

It is difficult to avoid the expectation that whatever
artistic provinces may be defined in the future, they will
ultimately prove to be related to racial divisions.

Possibly certain stages of artistic evolution may be deter-
mined through which the artistic development of all the
more cultivated people have passed. These stages, should
they be established, are illustrations of the solidarity of
mankind, but the precise level to which the art of par-
ticular country or district has attained, or the direction it has
taken (irrespective of the stage of development), these are
ethnic idiosyncrasies.

Before the geographical distribution of art can be mapped
out it will be necessary to accurately define the various
artistic expressions, and to discriminate between designs,
which though apparently similar are fundamentally distinct.
Not till then will it be possible to determine whether par-
ticular designs are world-wide in distribution on account of
the essential identity of human thought, or whether they are
not really different patterns which admit of being grouped
into definite regions having a more or less ethnic value.

It is not sufficient to attempt a rapid solution of this
problem by assuming that artistic and ethnic boundaries are
coterminous. My study of Papuan art indicates that the
artistic expression of a people is more delicate than the
characters usually utilised by ethnologists, and that, whereas
the physical anthropologist can at present barely distinguish
between the natives of contiguous districts, their art at once
suggests distinctions, and then a fresh appeal has to be

324 EVOLUTION IN ART.

made to the physical anthropologist for a more searching
investigation.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that in some
countries art is more uniform, certainly so in countries
which have long been civilised.

In Australia the art appears to be very uniform, this may
be chiefly due to the fact that the Australians, though sub-
divided into numerous tribes, are nevertheless a very homo-
geneous people.^ It is true that some anthropologists have
sought to distinguish primitive divisions among these
people ; but these endeavours have not yet been thoroughly
established, and no investigations have as yet been made as
to whether the arts and crafts of the Australians support
these conclusions. Another factor in the uniformity of
Australian art arises from the fact that all the Australians
are virtually on the same level of evolution The uniformity
of condition of life and environment induces uniformity in
art.

This latter fact may account for the general resemblance
in artistic treatment which yet more distinct peoples may
exhibit who live under very similar conditions; their ethnic
idiosyncrasy may be levelled by the monotony of their
environment.

Lastly, uniformity may be arrived at, as in most civilised
countries of to-day, by continual and rapid intercourse
between peoples. It is just this condition, together with a
certain amount of stability in the environment, which makes
for the uniformity and fixation of species in the animal world.

I am inclined to believe in an ethnical feeling for art, but
much more work will have to be done to establish this as a
fact. In our detailed study of the decorative art of British
New Guinea we find a sudden and very characteristic
change in Papuan art when we come to the Massim district.

* I by no means wish to imply that a homogeneous people implies a
pure race ; a people composed of several elements, if well mixed up and
isolated for a long time, may become fairly homogeneous.

EVOLUTION IN ART. *J25

The characteristic Papuan ornamentation by means of
straight lines and angles suddenly gives way to a variety of
scrolls and loops, straight lines, except as bounding a
pattern, rarely occur, and angles are more rare than bowed
lines are in other parts of New Guinea. The fades of the
style of decoration is exactly reversed. This surely has
a deeper significance than tribal distinction, and it was
noticing this fact which first led me to study New Guinea
art. The explanation which suggested itself to me was one
which subsequent investigation has confirmed— namely, that
it is one expression of the influence of a foreign race on the
Papuans of the region in question. Professor E. T. Hamy
has marshalled numerous facts in support of this view in an
able paper ("Etude sur les Papouas de la Mer d'Entre-
casteaux," Revue d''Ethfiographie^ vii., 1888, pp. 503-519),
to which I have already referred.

So far then as present evidence goes, we may assert that
the ornamentation of the indigenes of New Guinea is
essentially composed of straight lines and angles. The
characteristic fretwork and carving of Netherlands New
Guinea — notably that of Geelvink Bay — is clearly due to
foreign influence. The same also applies, as we have just
seen, to the opposite corner of New Guinea. Future re-
search must determine the amount and geographical exten-
sion of analogous influences in these portions of New
Guinea, and also extend this line of inquiry to other
parts of the world.

In seeking to establish artistic provinces we must note
(i) the characteristic forms and designs, (2) those that are
peculiar to the district, and (3) the deficiencies.

To take examples : — (i) the white lotus {Nymphcea loins)
is as decidedly characteristic of the decorative art of Ancient
Egypt as the frigate-bird is of that of the Solomon Islands
or of the Massini district of British New Guinea ; but these
are not peculiar to these districts, as both the lotus and the
frigate-bird motives extend beyond the regions named.

326 EVOLUTION IN ART.

{2) The employment of highly conventionalised and
degenerate human figures to cover comparatively large areas
is, so far as I am aware, peculiar to the Hervey Group,^ as
also is the device of nature-printed ferns on tapa in certain
Polynesian islands.

(3) The absence of the frigate-bird as a decorative motive
throughout the greater part of British New Guinea is as
important a fact as its presence ni a comparatively small
district. The absence of scroll designs, and practically of
sigmoid lines, in Torres Straits and Daudai and throughout
the greater part of the Central District of British New
Guinea, is as significant as their occurrence in the Massim
district; or their general absence in Eastern Polynesia with
their prevalence in New Zealand.

What is known as a zonal distribution in organisms only
occurs in anthropology when a district is inhabited by
different peoples that live concentrically to one another.
Such, for example, as the Negritto populations which
inhabit the centre of the Mollaccan Peninsula or the centre
of some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago and are
surrounded by Malay peoples; here we have a core, so to
speak, of one type of decorative art surrounded by a
different type.

Discontinuous distribution occurs in art as well as zoology,
and the solution of each problem must be attempted from
the scientific standpoint.

A good example of such a problem is to be found in the i
distribution of the fret and scroll patterns to which I have I
frequently alluded. Further study is necessary before we j
can say definitely whether a given fret or meander pattern \
has been independently evolved, or whether it has spread
from elsewhere. In our study the problem is more com-
plicated than in zoology, for a multiple origin of a given

1 Dr. W. Hein has just published a well illustrated paper on an thro
pomorphic designs amonij the Dyaks (Borneo), Ann. k.k. na'. Hof
museums y Vienna, x., 1895, p. 94.

Evolution in art. ^2^

design or pattern is always possible and often probable,
whereas this is not known to occur for a single species of
animal. Discontinuity in distribution in ethnography may
mean either that the form has a multiple origin or that it
has migrated without establishing itself in the intermediate
districts, or that it has disappeared from those districts.

It is evident that every pattern or set of patterns in the
first instance has to be separately studied in a limited area,
in order to determine whether it is of indigenous or foreign
origin. No casual application of general principles will
suffice, for it is possible that in certain cases a design may
be apparently fairly uniformly distributed over a certain
area, and on the face of it one might be tempted to regard
this as a case of uniform distribution, whereas on a more
minute examination it may be found that the designs are
analogues and not homologues, that they have spread from
different centres of origin, and thus the apparent uniformity
of distribution may be essentially invalid. I suspect this is
largely the case in the meander and scroll patterns.

We often find that a particular type of decoration occurs
over a certain area, but within the limits of that district
there are several distinct varieties. Students at home
usually have a great difficulty in studying this problem
owing to the very imperfect and unsatisfactory way in
which objects are labelled by collectors. In my memoir
on The Decorative Art of British Neiv Guinea I have
attempted to work out the local varieties both of form and
decoration of the lime spatulas of the Massim district.
According to the material at my disposal, it does seem that
certain types are characteristic of, if not peculiar to, par-
ticular groups of islands. The more or less complete
isolation of tribes or peoples, owing to geographical con-
ditions or inter-tribal wars, is sufficient to account for local
types and insular varieties, even when the people all belong
to the one stock. If that stock is a mixed one, variations
are much more likely to occur than if it is a pure race

328 EVOLUTION IN ART.

or a people that have become homogeneous by prolonged
isolation.

Local types may, however, be due to the presence of a
Colony from another district. There are numerous examples
of this in Melanesia, where colonies of Polynesians have
arrived from more eastern island groups in Oceania, and as
I have pointed out, there are Melanesian colonies in British
New Guinea. To use a geological term, these are ethno-
logical outliers.

As decorated objects must be conveyed by man, the
means for their dispersal and the barriers which militate
against it are the same as those which operate on human
migrations; but there is one difference. Where men go
we may assume that they carry their artistic efforts and
proclivities with then), but decorated objects may be carried
further than the actual distance covered by the manufac-
turer, or even than the recognised middleman or trader.

This brings us to a very important aspect of the subject,
and that is the question of trade-routes. Trade-routes are
culture-routes, and in order to appreciate the history of
culture it is necessary to know the directions in which it
flowed. Until we have a more complete knowledge of the
ancient trade-routes of Europe we cannot recover the
history of pre-historic Europe. The information, for this
is being rapidly accumulated, and for a summary of our
information I would refer the reader to Mr. George Coffey's
"Origins of Pre-Historic Ornament in Ireland." ^ I would
support my position with the following quotations from
Count Goblet d'Alviella:—

"Whatever the similarity of form, and even of meaning,
may be between two symbolic figures of different origin,
it is proper, ere we assert their relationship, to show the
probability, or at least the possibility, of international rela-
tions which would have served as a vehicle for transport.

^ /own. Roy. Soc. Antiq. of Ireland, v. (sth ser.), 1895, P- 3^ J
cf. also the quotation from Mr. Arthur Evans, p. 142, ante.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 529

This point once set at rest, it remains to be seen who was
the giver and who the receiver. ^

" Whether we start from Japan, from Greece, from India,
or even from Lybia, from Etruria, or from Gaul, we ahvays
arrive, after many halting-places, at two great centres of
artistic diffusion, partially irreducible as regards one another,
Egypt and Chaldcca — with this difference, that, towards the
eighth century before our era, Mesopotamia took lessons
from Egypt, whilst Egypt learnt little of any country. ^
Not only did symbols follow the same paths as purely
ornamental schemes, but they were also transmitted in the
same manner, at the same periods, and in nearly the same
proportion. Concerning symbols as well as artistic pro-
ducts, we everywhere find, by the side of aboriginal types,
the deposit of a powerful current which has its more or
less distant origin in the symbolism of the banks of the
Euphrates, or the Nile. In a word, the two classes of
importations are joined together to such a degree that in
writing the history of art we write to a great extent the
history of symbols, or, at least, of their migrations."^

These quotations from Count Goblet d'Alviella enunciate
the right method of studying symbols. He points out, as
I have again and again insisted for patterns, that mere
resemblance must not be mistaken for identity; before two
similar symbols in different countries can be regarded as
being the same symbol, it must be proved that there has
been direct or indirect intercourse between those countries.
Hence the primary importance of the study of trade routes,
for these are also culture routes, and patterns and symbols
are the flotsam and jetsam of the influences that flow along
them.

We may then recognise several main influences which
may make for the distribution of designs — (i) the swarmings
of p,eoples; (2) the establishment of organised or adven-

* Loc. cit.y p. 260. ^ Cf. pp. 143, 144, 149 ante.

^ Loc. cit.j p. 263.

330 EVOLUTION IN ART.

tjtious colonies; (3) the inroads of armies; (4) a general
drift which is so sHght as to be scarcely appreciable; and
(5) trade, which usually proceeds along definite routes, and
it is these that armies also generally follow.

A word of caution is necessary in dealing with trade-
routes. Whereas the decorated objects pass along them
and are distributed far and wide, it does not always neces-
sarily follow that the ornamentation itself is naturalised. It
is probable that in many cases a certain style of decoration
is associated with a particular kind of object, and it might
not occur to people to transfer that decorative style to other
objects, or at all events the process would doubtless be
slow.

One very good reason is that the indigenous objects are
already decorated, a type of ornamentation is associated
with a type of object and the feeling of expectancy demands
for its satisfaction that this shall continue to be the case.

Again, we know that the majority of peoples do not
appreciate new designs or patterns. They know nothing
about them, they have no associations with them, they take
no interest in them. In other words, it may take a long
time for an exotic to become naturalised.

An example of this occurs in British New Guinea. The
great annual trading voyages between the Motu and the
Gulf tribes have not, so far as I am aware, had the least
influence on the art of the two peoples; neither in technique
nor designs have I seen any object which indicated that
a borrowing had taken place. I consider this a strong
argument in favour of the value of art in ethnological
inquiries.

331

II r. General Remarks on the ^^F.T^OD of Study.

I HAVE endeavoured in the foregoing pages to formulate and
illustrate some of the principles underlying the evolution of
decorative art. The subject is so vast that it would be im-
possible to deal with it adequately unless a series of memoirs
could be devoted to it. ( Here, however, I have been more
concerned with the method of study; I have not at-
tempted to seriously investigate even a single department,
and various branches of the subject have either been merely
hinted at or entirely passed over./

In all studies a right method is of fundamental import-
ance, and in an attempt to understand the meaning of
decorative art, as in other matters, a slight deviation from
the right method of procedure may lead one far from
the truth. Nothing is easier than to be led astray by super-
ficial resemblances, and it is impossible to be too much
on one's guard in this matter. Of this I have given some
examples, but I have refrained from giving as many as I might
have done, as it is not pleasant to show up the mistakes of
pioneers, even if it be only for the purpose of warning others.
As Professor Max Miiller has said,^ "Identity of form does
as little prove identity of origin in archaeology as identity of
sound proves identity of origin in etymology. Comparative
studies are very useful, so long as they do not neglect the
old rule. Divide et ivipera — Distinguish, and you will be
master of your subject ! "

* FromNan essay in Schli-^mann's Ilios, p. 348.

332 EVOLUTION IN ART.

There are practically but two methods of work — (i)
Inquiry from the people who employ the designs, or the
testimony of written evidence when the people no longer
know the significance of the designs ; or (2) an investiga- •
tion of induction and interpretation where oral or written
tradition fail.

Beyond all question the most valuable results are ob-
tained from oral information. I need only refer the reader
to the investigations of Professors Ehrenreich and Karl
von den Steinen (p. 174), and of Mr. H. Vaughan Stevens
(p. 236), to demonstrate that by no other method could we
ever gain any idea as to what was the meaning of these
particular patterns and designs. In fact, the observations of
these travellers make one very sceptical of any interpreta-
tions by outsiders.

This is undoubtedly the most important and pressing
work in this subject. Only those who have visited
backward peoples of certain grades of culture who have
come into contact with the white man, can realise how
rapidly the old lore is passing away. This may or may
not be advantageous, but no one will deny that it is a
thousand pities that scarcely any one thinks it his duty to
inquire about and to put on record all that can be gathered
about those peoples which our civilisation is either rriodifying
or destroying. Every one who can will collect " curios,"
especially those which are decorated ; but out of the hun-
dreds of collectors, how many units have ever thought of
asking the natives what was the significance of the orna-
mentation? I have already drawn attention to this
need for Australia, but it is equally pressing in many other
parts of the world. Even museum curators have in the past
regarded ethnographical specimens more as " trophies "
than as materials for the study of a history of mankind.

There are still some " collectors " (that is, purchasers of
" curios ") who think that when they know where an object
comes from, and, may be, what is its native name, they know

EVOLUTION IN ART. 333

pretty well all that is worth knowing about it. Others have
realised that there is a history in every form and pattern.

What is wanted is an interpretation of the form, of the
meaning of odd little details of contour, of indentation,
or of projection. No apparently insignificant superfluity is
meaningless, they are silently eloquent witnesses of a past
signification like the mute letters in so many of our words.
Almost every line or dot of every ornament has a meaning,
but we are without understanding, and have eyes and see. not.
(But again, we must not stop short when we have deter-
mined what a form means, or what is the original of a j
device. We have to discover why it was so. The reasons/
for a motive, the meaning of its present form, have also to be/
sought. N So we come to higher and finer analysis, and at d^'E
last find ourselves studying psychology. ;

With so much to learn, it is evident that we must be sure
of our premises, and hence the necessity for going to the
original sources. But there is always considerable difficulty
in getting at the truth, and a statement made by a
native must never be accepted as evidence until it has
been independently confirmed from other sources.
Nothing is easier than to get unreliable information.
This is not the place to enter into the various possible
sources of error, but I would like to warn those who have
the opportunity of getting information first hand, that it is
impossible to take too much care, and all suggestive .in-
terrogation or leading questions should be totally avoided.

When we are dealing with written evidence the method is
one of historical procedure. The means of information of
the writer, his credibility, and other factors have to be
taken into account; often, too, there is a sparsity, or even
an absence of corroborative evidence, which tends to make
the testimony uncertain.

\ Failing these direct methods of obtaining information, p
there remains the deductive and comparative method.*\ The * '
best example of this mentioned in the preceding pages is

334 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Count Goblet d'Alviella's investigation of the fylfot; indeed
his book is a model for method. In another field Dr. Stolpe's
study of the decorative art of the Hervey Islands is a memor-
able and instructive piece of work.

With the examples of method which are here brought
together the student should be in a position to prosecute
researches in the innumerable fields which lij^open to him.

I would, however, like to take this opportunity to say
a word or two to those who wish to commence a study of
decorative art from the biological standpoint.

No amount of trouble must be grudged in collecting the
data, whether it be in the form of photographs, sketches,
tracings, or rubbings; right conclusions largely depend upon
a wealth of suitable material.

Rubbings of carved ornament can be made with great
facility on tough, thin Japanese paper by means of heel-
ball (Ullathorne's is the best, and it can be obtained from
almost any working shoemaker; the paper is more difficult
to obtain). The paper is firmly held on to the object, and
then rubbed hard with the heel-ball ; it is best to always rub
the latter in one direction. Whenever possible it is desir-
able to make a rubbing of the whole of an object, but if
only a portion is decorated the outline of the remaining
portions need alone be rubbed. Next to photographs,
rubbings are the most satisfactory method of obtaining
copies of carved objects, as every detail and vagary is
accurately reproduced, and they lend themselves very
readily to reproduction in the form of "process-blocks,"
but it will be found that details will often have to be supple-
mented by sketches. There are, of course, many carved
objects of which it is impossible to make rubbings. A very
little experience will soon teach the beginner as to the best
methods of procedure in any special case.

Professor A. Griinwedel ^ calls attention to the necessity
there is for absolute accuracy when copying the ornamenta-
^ Zeilschr. fiir Ethnologie, xxvi., 1894, p. 142.

mta- ]

■

EVOLUTION IN ART. 335

tion of savages. "Still more dangerous [than mistaken
interpretation] is the attempted 'correct' reproduction of
aboriginal ornament according to the European, so-called,
feeling for beauty, whereby somewhat crooked lines are
replaced by straight ones, and unequal halves, which are
deemed corresponding, are made alike. This method
causes fundamental error, since through its corrections,
it renders impossible a critical examination of the visual
ability of wild races. The Orang-hiitan draws a curve and
sees it as a straight line, he makes too many legs, too few
fingers, but has, in spite of these faults, according to our
conceptions, the power of seizing abbreviations of parts of
the body in a picturesque manner, of skilfully interpreting
contours and of preparing intelligent ground-plans. The
diagrammatic copying of primitive ornamental forms can
therefore have no scientific value."

Two most important points to note are the locality
whence an object comes, and the date of its manufacture
and collection.

The former is essential, and it is not sufficient to obtain
a vague locality hke "New Guinea" or the *• Solomon
Islands," but it is necessary to know the district or the
particular island, and, if possible, the exact spot. In-
formation must also be obtained whether the object was
made there or merely procured there. The native name
of every object must be obtained, also the name of the
several parts of it as well as of the details of its orna-
mentation. Of course the meaning should, if possible,
be ascertained, but on no account should only one ex-
planation be accepted as correct; it is necessary to check all
such information by inquiry from independent sources, as
there are numerous ways in which error can creep in, even
when there is no question of intentional deceit.

It is rarely possible to ascertain the date of manufacture
when dealing with ordinary ethnographical specimens in
museums; as most of these are quite recent no sequence

33^^ EVOLUTION IN ART.

in time can be made out. Even when objects are eollected
in the field it is rarely possible to obtain a succession of
; objects from a historical point of view. In all inquiries
^; relating to historical or pre-historical objects, the time-
element is as important as the place-element, and great
/ care must be taken in order to ascertain dates and the
relation of periods.

A great deal of light can often be thrown upon the
meaning of ornament by a study of the manners and
customs of a people; this is especially the case for their
religion, using that term in its widest sense.

As long ago as 1857 Mr. Kemble^ urged that ornamenta-
tion should be taken " seriously into consideration, because
it forms one of the most important and characteristic
eriterions by which to judge of the tendency of a race.
There is some reason in every ornament why it recom-
mended itself to some particular people. We do not know
what the reason was, but the difference itself is of the
deepest moment." He points out that the spirit or feeling
of art may be made the measure of culture when the work-
man is at liberty to impose what form and lines he will upon
his material. Quite recently Professor FHnders Petrie
said,2 "Art is one of the most important records of a
race. Each group of mankind has its own style and
favourite manner, more particularly in the decorative
arts. A stray fragment of carving without date or locality
can be surely fixed in its place if there is any sufficient
knowledge of the art from which it springs. This study
of the art of a people is one of the highest branches
of anthropology, and one of the most important, owing to
its persistent connection with each race. No physical
characteristics have been more persistent than the style of

1 John M. Kemble, Horce Ferales, or Studies in the Archtology of
the Northern Nations y 1863, p. 80.

2 Address to the Anthropological Section, British Association,
Ipswich Meeting, 1895.

EVOLUTION IN ART. 337

decoration. When we see on the Celtic work of the period
of La Tene, or on Irish carvings, the same forms as on
mediaeval ironwork, and on the flamboyant architecture of
France, we realise how innate is the love of style, and
how similar expressions will blossom out again from the
same people. Even later we see the hideous C-curves,
which are neither foliage nor geometry, to be identical on late
Celtic bronze, on Louis XV. carvings, and even descending
by imitation into modern furniture. Such long descent of
one style through great changes of history is not only char-
acteristic of Celtic art, but is seen equally in Italy. Further
east, the long-persistent styles of Egypt, of Babylonia, of
India, of China, which outlived all changes of government
r and history, show the same vitality of art. We must recog-
nise, therefore, a principle of 'racial taste,' which belongs
to each people as much as their language, which may
be borrowed, like language, from one race by another,
but which survives changes and long eclipses even more
than language. Such a means of research deserves more
systematic study than it has yet received."

It may be asked why I have so largely confined my
attention to the decorative art of savage peoples. The
answer to this not unnatural question will be found in my
introductory remarks.

The decorative art of civilised peoples is very complex,
and the motives which prompt it are obscure ; it appeared
to me that our best chance of finding out the underlying
principles was to study less complex conditions. I must
confess that I have been mainly concerned to provide an
efficient tool for the use of other workers, and I have
not been anxious to elucidate the multitudinous designs
and forms which beset us on every hand. This task I leave
to my readers, and they need not confine themselves to
. decorative designs or patterns, for the forms and the adjuncts
of objects are susceptible of the same, treatment, and will
yield analogous results.

338 EVOLUTION IN ART.

Almost any manufactured object that may first meet the
reader's eyes has a history that is bound up with the history
of man. The eyes alike of the head and of the mind
require to be opened. Too often we envy the traveller who
has voyaged afar: If we had had his opportunities, if we
had seen what he has seen — we too might have been able
to make discoveries ! We pine for the unattainable and
neglect our opportunities. The world is before us. and that
too at our very doorg.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

340 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE I. — SKEUOMORPHS OF BINDING.
FIGS.

1. Part of the stone axe of Montezuma IL, Ambras Museum, Vienna^

(J. Evans, The Ancient Bronze Implements of Great Britain and}
Ireland, 1 88 1, Fig. i8o, p. 148).

2. Socket of a bronze spear-head, Co. Galway, Ireland (Evans, loc. |

cit. , Fig. 393, p. 320). I

3. Socket of a bronze spear-head, Ireland (Evans, loc. cit., Fig. 402,- J

P- 326). j

4. Bronze palstave (socketed celt), Co. Meath, Ireland (Evans, loci

cit.. Fig. 172, p. 140). I

5. Bronze vessel. Lake of Bourget (F. Keller, The Lake Dwellings of]

Switzerland, 2nd ed., 1878, Plate CLIX., Fig. i). j

6. Pattern on an ebony comb, Assyria (G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, I

History of Art in Chaldcea and Assyria, ii. , 1884, Fig. 227,1

P- 350)- \

7. Pattern on a sculptured stone cornice (Perrot and. Chipiez, History

of Ancient Egyptian Art, ii., 1883, Fig. 288, p. 361, from j
Prisse d'Avennes). '

8. Pattern on a perforated bone needle, Tumulus, Holyhead (W.

Owen Stanley, Arch. Jotirn., xxxiii., 1876, pp. 94, 133).

9. Back of a bronze knife, Estavayer (Keller, loc. cit., Plate XCVL,

Fig. 12).

10. Bronze palstave, near Kingston-on-Thames (Evans, loc. cit.. Fig.

141, p. 125).

11. Bronze palstave, Fornham, near Bury St. Edimmds (Evans, /^r.

cit.. Fig. 133, p. 122).

a. "Angular Meander," Wolvesey Castle, Winchester, temp. Stephen

[Archreologia, xvi., 1812, p. 361, Plate LXIL, Fig. 3).

b. Norman capital, ' ' sections of branches " or billet ends,

Peterborough Cathedral {Archceologia, xii., 1796, Plate XXXI.,
Fig. 4, p. 168). ';

c. Hut-urn, Etruscan, Monte Albano [Museo Kircheriajio , Rome),
df. Skeuomorphs of the gable {Household Furniture).

342 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE II. — SKEUOMORPHS OF WATTLE-WORK.

FIGS.

1. Impression of wattle- w.ork on clay, Ebersberg (Keller, loc. cit.',

PlateCXLIV., Fig. i6). :

2. Bast twisted among willow rods, Robenhausen (Keller, loc. cit., \

Plate CXXXIV., Fig. 5). ^

3. Mat of bast, Robenhausen (Keller, loc. cit., Plate CXXXIV.,

Fig. 2).

4. Fabric of flax, Robenhausen (Keller, loc. cit., Plate CXXXVL, ,

Fig. 4)- ^

5. Fabric of bast, Robenhausen (Keller, loc. cit., Plate CXXXV.,

Fig. 3).

6. Corbula, Italy (W. Smith, Diet. Roman Antiq., p. 285).

7. Basket on ivory plaque, Boulak (Perrot and Chipiez, Egypt, ii.,

Fig. 321, p. 388).

8. Earthenware food-vessel, Stone Age, Denmark (Worsaae, Danish

Arts, p. 36).

9. Bottom of a basket, Terramara Beds, Northern Italy (Keller,

loc. cit., Plate CXVL, Fig. 11).
10. Firagment of Pottery, Terramara Beds, Northern Italy (Keller,
loc. cit., Plate CXIII., Fig. 13).

344 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE III. — SKEUOMORPHS OF BASKETRY.
FIGS. -

A. Hypothetical origin of a scroll from basket-work.

B. Hypothetical origin of a curvilinear fret from basket-work.

1. Marginal pattern of a bronze buckler from Amathus, Cyprus {i

Perrot and C. Chipiez, History of Art in Phoinicia and its
Dependencies, ii., 1885, Fig. 363, p. 420).

2. Pattern on a bronze buckler from Dali, Cyprus (Perrot and Chipiez,

loc. fit., V'lg. 360, p. 418).

3. Greek guilloche (Wornum, Analysis of Ornament, 7th ed,, p. 58).

4. Assyrian guilloche (Glazier, Notes on Ornament, p. 8).

5. Pattern on an enamelled Roman vase, Bartlow Hills {Arch.Joiirn.,

xii., 1855, p. 418).

6. Bowl of Ancient Pueblos, Tusayan (W. H. Holmes, Fourth Ann.

Rep. Btireau Eth., Fig. 308, p. 331).

7. Handled vase of Ancient Pueblos, Tusayan {loc. cit. , . Fig. 336,

P- 346).

8. Terra-cotta vase, Third Sepulchre of Mycenae (Schliemann, Alycence,

1878, No. 324j p. 209).

1 I

346 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE IV. — SKEUOMORPHS OF THE WITHY-BAND.

I. "The Tarsus Seal" of hcematite, Hittite {Nature, April 26, 1888,
p. 610). The right-hand design strongly resembles a course of
the twisted fibre of basketry when removed from the upright
osier-sticks.

1. Detail on incised stone, Kirk Maughold, Isle of Man {Runic
Remains, Fig. 24).

3. Detail on incised stone, Church of Mont Majour, Nimes, tenth

century (Wright, Hist, of Caricature, p. 48).

4. Detail on incised stone, Malew, Isle of Man. " I>eather or strap-

work" {Runic Retnaijis, Fig. 15).

FILIGREE.

5. Gold ornament. Lake Moringen (Keller, loc. cit., Plate LVII.,

Fig. 9).

6. Gold ornament, Denmark (Worsaae, Z)a;//j^ Arts, p. 62).

7. Bronze pin, Nidau — Steinberg (Keller, loc. cit., Plate XXXIV.,

Fig. 14).

SKEUOMORPHS OF FASCINING.

8. Floor of lake-dwelling, Niederwyl, 1864 (Keller, loc. cit., Plate

XVI., Fig. 8).

9. Bottom of inside of an earthen vessel, Ueberlingen See (Keller, loc.

cit., Plate XXX., Fig. 6).

10. Part of a crescent of red sandstone, Ebersberg (Keller, loc. cit,,

Plate CXLIIL, Fig. 7).

11. Incised stone from Hadrian's Wall.

SKEUOMORPHS OF WEAVING.

12. Greek fret (Birch, Ancient Pottery, Fig. 4, p. 305).

13. Greek fret (Glazier, Notes on Ornament, p. 8).

14. Japanese fret (Glazier, loc. cit., p. 8).

15. Anglo-Saxon fret, Lambeth Aldhelm (J. O. Westwood, "Early

British Anglo-Saxon and Irish Ornamentation," A7xh. /own.,
X. p. 290, 1853).

;48 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE V. — SKEUOMORPHS OF TIMBERING.

FIGS.

1. Rock tomb, Antiphellus, Lycia (C. Fellows, J Journal written

during an Excursion in Asia Minor ^ 1839, p, 220).

2. Rock tomb, Xanthus (P'ellows, loc. cit., p. 226)

3. Rock tomb, Antiphellus (Fellows, loc. cit., p. 219).

4. Painting of a house, Pompeii (Cell, Plate 60).

5. Greek egg-and-dart, or Echinus pattern, from entablature, Erech-

theium.

6. Similar pattern on Samian vase (Wornum, loc. cit., p. 58).

7. Greek anthemion, Apollo Epicurius (Wornum, loc. cit., p. 58).

350 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE VI. — ZOOMORPHS.
FIGS.

1. Detail on a -v-ase from Roman villa, Chesterford, Essex (R. C.

Neville, " Roman Remains at Ickleton and Chesterford,"
Arch. Jotirn., vi., 1849, p. 19).

2. Part of iron sword of Gaulish workmanship, Marin Lake (Keller,
v/^^. «V., Plate CXXVIIL, Fig. 6).

3 Detail of mural decoration, Fompeii {Arf/ouma/, iSyy, p. 233).

4. Decoration of an ancient pot of New Mexico (J. Stevenson, "Illust.

Cat. of Collections obtained from Indians of New Mexico and
Arizons.," Second A7in. Rep. Bureau EthnoL, 1883, P'ig. 363,

P- 344)-

5. Lombardic gold ornament, Chiusi, Tuscany (S. T. Baxter, Arch.

y^OMj'H. y xxxiii. , 1876, Plate I., p. 105).

6. Decoration in Greek terra-cotta (Wornum, loc. ciL, p. 28).

7. Top of bench-end, Ormskirk Church {Manchester Gtiardian, loih

November 1888).

8. Engraved silver plate. Tumulus, Norrie's Law, wScotland (R.

Dundas, " Silver Ornaments in Tumulus at Largo, Fifeshire,"
Arch. Journ,, vi., 1849, P- 253).

9. Incised stone, Dunnichen, Scotland (Boyd Dawkins, Early Man

in Britain, p. 435).
10-12. Carving on New Zealand clubs, in the collection of Mr. Charles

Heape.
13. Part of carved handle of Hervey Islan4 paddle, in the collection of

Mr. Charles Heape.

^^^^^^

^^^^H

^??rT^«Sn^nffl

352 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE VII. — ZOOMORPHS.
FIGS.

1. Detail on incised-stone, Lsle of Man {Runic Remains, Fig. 15).

2. Figure from King Gorm's stone, Jellinge, Jutland (J. Ferguson,

Rnde Stone Monuments, 1872, Fig, 105, p. 296).

3. Detail on carved cross, Gosforth, W. (Aunberland (W. S. Calverley,

Arch.JoJirn., xl. , 1883, p. 146).

4. Panel in illumination, Gospels of Mac Regol, at Oxford {Arch.

Journal, x., 1853, p. 291, Fig. 6).

5. Detail on incised stone. Kirk Michael, Isle of Man {Runic Reviains,

Fig. 17).

6. 7. Figures on rock sculpture, Crichie, Scotland {Arch. Journ. xiv. ,

1857. P- 193. Figs. 13, 14).

8. Saxon silver ear-ring, Thetford {Arch. Joum. ii., 1846, p.

402).

9. Saxon gold ring, Bormer, Sussex {Arch. Joum. xi. , 1854,

p. 28).

10. Detail on Saxon tomb, Bedale, Yorks {Arch. Journ. iii., 1846, p.

258).

WITHY BAND.

11. Detail on lid of a stone coffin, Cambridge Castle (T; Kerrich,

Arch, xvii , 1814, Plate XVI., p. 228).,

12. Scandinavian triskele.

13. Reefing knot on Britanno-Roman altar, Cohors quarta Gallorum

equitata, Risingham, Northumberland {Arch. Journ. xii. , 1855,
p. 219).

354 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE VIII.— PHYiLOMQRPHS.

FIGS. - ,. ■■ :' ''--■.'

A, B. Diagrams of Mats.

1. Fringe on King Sargon's tunic, in alabaster, Khorsabad (Perrot

and Chipiez, Chaldcea and Assyria, i., Fig. 22, p. 97).

2. Tabernacle, 'bronze Gates of Balawat^( Perrot and Chipiez, Chaldcva,

etc., i., Fig. 68, p. 194). • « , ' V . ' V • '

3. Painting of a tree in a garden froriii a Theban tonlb (Perrot and

Chipiez, Egypt, ii., Fig. i, p.' 3, afterChampollion, Plate 174).

4. Ornament painted.on plaster, Assyria (Perrot and Chipiez, Chaldtva,

etc., i., Fig. 118, p. 276, after Layard).

5. Tassel on a king's tunic, on enamelled brick from Nimroud (Perrot

and Q\\v^\Qz, Chaldcea, etc., ii. , - Plate ' XIV. j " p. 294, after
Layard).

6. Tasselled canopy over- the king, on enaxnelied brick from Nimroud

{loc. cit. ii., Plate XIV., after Layard)':

7. Pavilion carved in stone, Nimroud {loc. cit. i., Fig. 67, p. 193).

8. Border pattern of incised stone door sill, Khorsabad {loc. cit. i.,

Fig. 96, p. 240).

9. Enamelled brick, Nimroud {loc. cit. ii,, Plate XIII., p. 294, after

Layard).

10. Pattern on ivory panel, Assyrian anthemion {loc. cit. ii., Fig. 201,

p. 321).

11. Anthemion on Sindh pottery (G. Bird wood, Indnst. Arts of India,

ii. 424).

12. Egyptian anthemion. Necropolis, Thebes (xviii-.xx Dyn.) (Perrot

and Chipiez, Chaldtca, etc., i., Fig. 134, p. 306, after Prisse
d'Avennes).

INDEX,

AcCADiAN Magic, 249

Adze-god Tane, 82, 274

Adzes of Hervey Islands, 80

^gean spirals, 142

ALgina., tortoise-money, 230, 232,

233

Esthetics, definition of, 200

African, axes as money, 226;
baskets, 91 ; fylfot, 287

Alaskan carving, 210, 211 ; picto-
graph, 207, 208

Algerian designs, 156

Alligator, 167; drawings of, in
America, 168- 1 73 (see Croco-
dile)

Alphabet, evolution of, 216

Ament, W. S., 227

American cross, 174, 279; fylfot,
287 ; pictographs, 204-213

Ancestor worship, 264-267 ; Poly-
nesia, 81, 265, 270 274

Animal forms in art, 164-183 ;
Samian, Gaul, Pompeii, Tuscany,
New Mexico, 179; Torres Straiis,
15; Eskimo, 181 ; in Melanesia,
Polynesia, Africa, Eskimo, French
caves, 166

Animals, human souls in, 129, 130;
as sun symbols, 136

Annam, barter, 226

Ansault, Abbe, 281

Anthemion, 143 .

Anthropomorphs, 183-187, 109; in
Greece, 183; New Guinea, 16-19,
29-41, 184; New Zealand, 185;
Melanesia, 185; Hawaii, 186;
Mangaia (Hervey Islands), 185,
270-274 ; Polynesia, 185

Antiphellus, rock tombs, 114, 115

Arabesque patterns, 193

Arabian art, 152

Ardmore Round Tower, 90
Argus pheasant in magic, 241, 243
Arizona, basketry, 104 ; rain sym-
bol, 119
Arrow, crocodile, 23
Arrows, Torres Straits, 19-25
I Art, definition of, 200 ; ethnological
value of, 9, 323-325. 336, 337
Asia Minor, rock tombs of, 114- 116;

triskele in, 289
Assyrian Anthemion, 144 ; magic,
249; patterns, 143; writing, 218-
221
Atkinson, J. J. , on pottery, 99
Australian art, 324 ; baskets, 91 ;
designs, 258 263 ; totemism, 255-
263 ; weapons, 258
Axe, double-headed, as money, 232;
New Guinea, 222 ; as money,
226 ; stone as money, 225

Balfour, H., 311; on frigate-bird,
266; on maces, 222; on man-
drake, 5
Barter, evolution of, 223-225
Basketry, 90-93; of Arizona, 104
Baskets, making of, 91
Bat patterns, Brazil, 175, 178
Beading, origin of, 86
Beal, 280

Bechuana, sympathetic magic, 236
Belts, wooden, Papuan Gulf, 31-41
Biological method of studying art,

308
Biomorphs, life-history of, 1 26-191
Biomorphic pottery, 188- 191
Bird and crocodile design, 56
Bird's-head designs. New Guinea,

49-58
Bird design, Pompeian, 194 ; pat-
terns, Brazil, 178

358

INDEX.

Birdwood, Sir G., 214, 292; on

Indian art, 151, 153
Blanket-money, 228, 230
Blind, Karl, 279, 285
Blowpipe, magic patterns on, 237,

239
Boar, Sun-, 195

Boeotian shield money, 230, 233
Bonavia, Dr. E. , Assyrian art, 156-

157
Boulak ivory plaque, 91
Bowl, prayer-meal, 121
Brazil, art of, 259 ; Central, art of

tribes, 174-179; patterns, 97;

phyllomorphs of Central, 130,

131
Brinton, Dr., on colour symbols,

124
British Columbia, totem-posts, 257,

265
British magic, 249
British New Guinea (see New

Guinea)
Bronze celt, 85, 86
Bruce, R., 29

Brugsch, Dr., on lotus, 135
Buddhist sculptures, 151 ; symbols,

281
Bull-roarer, Brazil, 176, 178; New

(kiinea, 62
Buhner, Mr., 260, 261

Canoe carving, New Guinea, 29,

48, 54, 57
Canoe charm, Solomons, 266, 267
Canoes, trade in, 48
Cash, 227

Cassowary clan, 251, 257
Cattle-money, 228, 229
Celtic art, 337 ; fylfot, 283 ; spirals,

142 ; wicker house, 90
Centipede in magic, 242, 243
Chaldean art, 329 ; commerce, 151
Chalmers, Rev. J., 31, 184
Chantre, E., 297
Chauncy, P., 259
Chinese art, 337 ; knife-money, 226,

227; lotus, 153; money, 226;

svastika, 287, 294; writing, 217-

221
Christian art, pagan survivals in,

195-197 ; fylfot, 283

Circles, concentric, 93

Clarke, Dr. J. T,, 158

Cloudy Bay, 42

Clubs, wooden, in New Guinea.

48-56, 62
Codrington, Dr. R. H., 97, 265-26;
Coffey, G., on Irish art, 142, 328
Coins, degeneration in, 313
Collier, J., I, 2

Collins, Mr., Australian art, 260
Colours, symbolic, 123, 124
Combs, magic, 237-241; Torre

Straits, 14
Comrie, Dr., 63, 64
Concentric circles, 93 ; ovals, 55
Consciousness in designing patterm

315, 316
Cook, A. B., 265
Cook, Captain, 83
Copying of patterns, 31 1
Corbula, the Roman, 91
Crete spirals, 142
Crocodile in art. New Guiner,

Torres Straits, 16-25; Massin.

56, 181 ; Papuan Gulf, 30; cui

of, in New Guinea, 167; Mala

Archipelago, 167 ; Madagascai

168 (see Alligator)
Cross, from alligator, 172 ; gibbe

277, 279; in America, 174, 279

St. Anthony, 277
Crux ansata, 278, 298
Gushing. F. H., 107, 248; 0

pottery, 98, 99, 102-104; on lif(

exit trail, 128; on symbolisn

II9-123
Cyprus bronze shield, 92 ; potter

137, 158; lotus designs, 158
Gyrene plant money, 230, 233
Cyzicus, fish money, 230-232

Dakota Winter Counts, 206
D'Albertis, 27, 63
D'Alviella, Goblet, 275-300
Danish food- vessel, 91
Darfour, hoes as money, 226
Daudai and Torres Straits, art c

13-25
Daula (frigate-bird), 265-267
Daumori, wooden slabs, 26
Designs, geographical distributic

of, 319

INDEX.

559

D'Entrecasteaux, 47, 50, 52, 54, 56,

Distribution, geographical, of de-
signs, 319
Divine pedigree in art, 274
Dragon, Scandinavian, 195
Drum decoration, in New Guinea,

17, 18, 131
Dumoutier, G., 287
Dutch New Guinea (see Nether-
lands)

Earth symbol, 280
East Indian Archipelago, 28
Ebersberg, clay walls, 89, 95
Egg-and-dart moulding, origin of,

160-163
Egyptian art, 133-164, 187, 325,

329. 337 ; totemism, 265 ; writing,

217-221
Ehrenreich, Dr. P., 173, 259, 262,

332
Elema (see Toaripi)
Elephant symbol, 195
Ellis, Rev. W., 274
Emblems, 212
Engineer Group, 48, 57
English, A. C., 45
Environment, effect of, 9
Eskimo, animal drawings, 181
Ethnological aspect of art, 9; value

of art, 323-325» 336, 337
Ethnology of British New Guinea,

59-66, 328; of Polynesia, 69
Evans, Sir John, 313
Evans, Arthur J., on spirals, 142,

328
Expectancy, definition of, 6
Eye-amulets of Egypt, 187

Fascining, 94

Fellows, Sir C., on rock-tombs, 114

Fergusson, on Indian architecture,

i5i» 153
Ferrero, G., 278, 300, 301
Fewkes, Dr. J. W., rain symbols,

120 ; on colour symbols, 123
Fiji club, 88; pottery, 108, 191;

scroll designs, 71 ; tapa, 96
Finn magic, 249
Finsch, Dr. O., 47, 63, 98
Fishing formula, 247

Fish, as money, 230-232 ; patterns

in Brazil, 174, 176-179; totem,

212 ; Christian, 213
Fish-hook money, 227; ornaments

derived from, 76
P'ison and Howitt, 256
Fleur-de-lys, 156
Flower, Sir W., 64
Flowers, in art, 131, 132 (see Lotus);

in magic, 237-241
Fly River, 26-28 ; a culture-route,

70 ; mouth of, 26, 19 ; phyllo-

morphs, 131
Forbes, Dr. H. O., 98; on pottery

making, 48
Frazer, J. G., 235, 236, 250-252
French, G. J., on pottery, 109
Freshwater Bay, 29
^Fret, 326; from alligator, ill, 112,

123, 141, 172
Friend, H., on colour symbols,

124
Frigate-bird, in Melanesia, 265-267 ;

New Guinea, 49, 66, 325, 326 ;

Solomon Islands, 66, 325 ;
Fringe patterns, 144-148
Frogs' legs as zigzags, 244, 248
Frogs, magic patterns of, 244, 248
Fylfot, meaning and distribution of,

282-301

Gable, 116

Gammadion (see Fylfot)
Gardner, Prof. P., 290
Gauls, erections of, 90
Gaulish imitation coin, 198
Geelvink Bay, 131, 325
Geographical distribution of design,

319

Geometrical designs, 258, 259

Gill, Dr. W. W., 255, 270, 274;
on New Guinea axes, 79; on
Hervey Island adze, 80

Globe, winged, 298

Goodyear, Professor W. H., 134,
162, 163, 248, 290, 292-294;
on Malay art, 67 ; on New Zea-
land art, 68 ; on rosettes, 149,

151. 152
Gourd pottery, 188, 189
I Greece, evolution of anthropomorphs
I in, 183

3^0

INDEX.

Greece, fylfot in, 282, 283 ; totem-
ism in ancient, 265
Greek alphabet, 220 ; art, origin of,

155
Greg, R. P., 288, 292
Grosse, Dr. E., 258-263
Grotesque patterns, 193
Grlinwedel, Professor, 114, 237,

252, 334
'Guilloche, 49-51^ 92, 93, 162, 163
GuttK, 115

Haida totemism, 257

Hall Sound, 42, 46

Hammer of Thor, 278

Hamy, Professor E. T. , 47, 325

Harvest formula, 247

Hawaii, gods of, 186

Heraldic designs, 262, 263

Hervey Islands, symbolic adzes, 80-
84 ; decoration on symbolic adzes
and paddles, 270-274; totemism,
255 ; anthropomorphic patterns,
185, 186, 265, 270-274

Heteromorphs, 192

Hickson, Prof. S. J., 69

Hieratic writing, 220

Hill tribes, New Guinea, 46

Hissarlik, 282, 284 (see Troy)

Hjaltalin, A., 285

Hoes as money, 226

Hoffman, Dr. W. J., pictographs,
206, 207

Holmes, W. H., 107, no, 114,
168-173; on pottery, 98, loi,
102 ; on symbolism, 122 ; shell
pottery, 91, 190

Homomorph, 215

Honeysuckle pattern, 162

Hornbill design, 58

Horses, drawings of, 166, 167 ;
zoomorph from, 180

House-building formula, 246, 247

Hiigel, Baron A. von, 71

Hulme, F. E., egg-and-dart mould-
ing, 163, 164

Human, face on wooden belts, 32 ;
figures in plait- work, 198, 199
(see Anthropomorphs)

Hunter, J. D., on pottery, 100

Hunting pictograph, 206-208

Hut urn, 115, 283

Iceland, fylfot in, 285

Ideograms, 216-218

Ilios, 284

Indian art, 151-153, 337; sun sym

bols, 290 ; svastika, 2S6, 294
Information, definition of, 4, 203
Initiation into manhood, 30, 31, 61
Invention of patterns, 309
Ionic capital, evolution of, 157-160
Irish carvings, 337 ; round lowers,

90 ; fylfot in, 283 ; spirals in art,

142
Iroquois bark vessel, 102, 103
Italy, North, fylfot in, 283

Japanese writing, 218, 219; sva-
stika, 287, 294
Java drum, 83

Kay, C. de, 90

Keane, A. H. , 68

Keller, Dr., 89, 91

Kemble, J. M. , 336

Kerepunu tapa, 96

Kern, M., 286

Kerrama belt, 35

Kiwai, drums of, 26

Klemm, Dr. G., on Tonga [Fiji]

pottery, 108
Knife-money, 226
Knots, 94 ; magic, 248-250
Kobong, Australian totem, 262
Koiari, 44, 61
Koitapu tattooing, 61
Kupele pipe, 44, 45

Landscapes, native, 124-126; re

versed, 126
Lang, Andrew, on savage art, 263
Lasso pictograph, 206
Layard, A. H., on lotus, 143, 144
Leaf designs, 28; totems, 250, 253,

254 (see Phyllomorphs and Plant)
Lean- Wolfs map, 208 210
Leather money, 228
Leitner, Dr., on Buddhist art, 151
Letronne, 278
Letters, origin of, 217
Lianas, magic patterns of, 244
Life-exit trail in a vessel, 128
Life-history in designs, table of,

6,8

INDEX.

361

Lightning symbol, 1 18-120, 276
Lime spatula, 48, 49, 52-54, 57
Lindt, 42
Lizard, on arrow, 25 ; on belt, 37 ;

designs, Australia, 260; patterns,

Brazil, 175
Locust pattern, Brazil, 179
Lotus, 133-164, 325
Louisiade Group, 47, 52 ; stone

axes, 71, 79
Lycia, triskele, 214 ; rock tombs,

I14-I16

Maces, evolution of, 222
Macfarlane, Rev. S., 63
Macgillivray, 224
Macgregor, Sir W., 28, 58, 225
Magic knots, 248-250 ; patterns,

237-248 ; sympathetic, 5, 6, 235-

250
Maiva belt, 39
Malacca, magic patterns, 237-248 ;

phyllomorphs of, 132 ; totemism

and tattooing in, 252-254
Malay Archipelago, decorative art,

67-70, 326; plant designs, 131,

132
Malay culture derived from India,

67, 69
Malay Peninsula, magic patterns,

236-248
Malaysia, scroll designs, 67
Mallery, Col. Garrick, 275 ; colour

symbolism, 124; pictographs,

204-213, 215 ; sign language, 212
Man, E. H., on pottery, 100
Mandrake, 6
Mangaia adzes, 80-84 ; decoration

on adzes and paddles of, 270-274;

anthropomorphs, 185, 186, 265,

270-274; totemism, 255
Manhood, initiation into, 30, 31, 61
Manx, three-legged, 214
Maori scroll designs, 72
Map, Lean-Wolfs, 208-210
March, Dr. H. CoUey, 6, 44, 65,

66, 75, 82, 84, 91, 93, 115, 130,

147, 163, 179, 194, 197, 198,

248, 250, 271-274, 276, 285, 288
Marks, trade and owner's, 203
Masks, New Guinea, 62 ; Papuan

Gulf, 30; Torres Straits, 18, 30

Maspero, Prof., 296; on Ra, 137;

on Egyptian art, 148, 248
'Massim, district groups of, 47-58
Mathews on symbolic colours, 124
Mats, making of, 90 '^'

Meander (see Fret)
Melanesian, use of term, 60 ; eth-
nology and handicraft, 60-66 ;
frigate-bird, 265-267 ; pottery,

158. 159
Melos lotus designs, 158; spirals,

142 ; vase decoration, 139
Men, drawings of, 16-19 /

Mereschu fish pattern, 176-179
Mesembria, 290
Mesopotamian art, 143
Method of studying art, 306-336
Mexico, New, bird patterns, 179
Miava, 44

Millies, H. C, Oriental money, 227
Milloue, M. de, 287
Milne Gulf, 47
Mohammedan art, 151, 152
Money, evolution of, 223-234
Montelius, Dr., on spirals, 93
Montezuma's stone axe, 85
Moon symbol, 292
Moresby Group, 47
Moseley, Professor, Hawaian gods,

186
Motu Motu, 29
Motu tribes, 46, 61 ; ethnography,

64-66 ; girl tattooed, 43 ; trading

voyages, 330
Miiller, Max, 280, 292, 331; on

colour symbols, 124
Murray Island (Mer), 18 ; native

drawing of, 125 ; ornaments de-
rived from fish-hook, 76
Murray, Prof. A. S., 292
Mycenae art, 142 ; totemism, 265 ;

vessel, 92

Naukratis lotus, 161
Neandria capital, 158
Net, fishing, designs, 176, 177
Netherlands New Guinea, 28, 325
New Caledonia pottery, 97, 98
New Guinea, ii; animal representa-
tions, 164, 165 ; anthropomorphs,
184 ; art, 324-328 ; barter in, 46-
48, 223-225 ; bird's-head designs,

362

INDEX.

49-58 ; bird and crocodile design,
56 ; bull-roarer, 62 ; Central dis-
trict of, 42-46 ; ethnology of
British, 59-66 ; ethnology of,
328 ; hill tribes, 46 ; metamor-
phosis of stone axe, 78 ; phyllo-
morphs, 131; " Polynesians" in,
63 ; pottery, 46-48, 62, 98 ; scroll
patterns, 67-73, 314 5 tapa belts,
96; tattooing, 43-45

New Hebrides, 66

New Ireland carvings, 265

Newton, J., 214

New Zealand anthropomorphs, 185;
ethnology of, 71; scroll designs,
67, 68, 71, 72; tongue thrusting,
186, 187

North American totems, 257

Oceania pottery, 97

Olbia, fish money, 230, 231, 233

Orang-hutan, 242, 334

Ornaments as money, 224, 228, 229

Osiris, lotus offering to, 136

Paddle with fish designs, 176, 177
Pagan and Christian overlap in art,

195-197
Painting on body, 253, 254
Palstave, 85
Pannaet axe-money, 225 ; canoes,

48
Papuan, ^se of term, 60; ethnology

and handicraft, 60-66
Papuan Gulf, 29-41 ; classification

of wooden belts, 32
Patterns, copying of, 311 ; invention

of, 309; in New Guinea, 314;

magic, 237-248
Perrot and Chipiez, 75 ; on lotus,

143; Phoenician art, 153, 154
Persian fylfot, 286, 298
Petrie, Flinders, Prof., 89, 221; on

spiral symbols, 141 ; on rosettes,

148, 149 ; on the study of art, 336
Petroglyphs, 215
Phoenician art, 153, 154; commerce,

154; writing, 220
Phonograms, 216-218
Phyllomorphs, 130-164 (see Plant)
Physicomorphs, 1 1 8- 1 26
Pictographs, 204-218

Pictorial signs, 212

Picture-writing, 178

Pipe, Torres Straits, 13; Fly River,
19; Papuan Gulf, 40; burning
of, in Central District, 42

Pitt-Rivers, General, 311

Plant Designs, Fly River, 28; Cen-
tral District New Guinea, 45 ;
totems, 253, 254 ; magic climb-
ing, 244; money, 233, 234 (see
Phyllomorphs)

Polynesia, ethnology of, 69

" Polynesians" in New Guinea, 63

Pompeian designs, 193

Port Moresby pottery, 46

Posts, totem, 257, 265

Pottery, 97; biomorphic, 188-19T;
Cyprus, 137 ; New Guinea, 46-
48, 62, 98 ; Nicobar, 100 ;
Oceania, 97 ; Port Moresby, 46 ;
Pueblo, 93, 100-102; Terramara,
91; Teste Island, 47, 48; West
Pacific, 97-99 ; Zuni, 103, 104,
105-107; trade, 47, 48

Powell, Major, his totem badge, 119

Prince of Wales' feather, 156, 157

Prisse d'Avennes, 136, 138- 141, 159

Psychology, 300-305, 333

Pueblo Pottery, 93, 100, 102-111

Pyung fruit pattern, 246

Quatrefages and Hamy, 63, 64

Rain-charm, Malacca, 246

Rain symbols, II 9- 122, 279

Rattan pattern, 248

Rau, C, on pottery, 109

Ray, S. H., 60, 71 ; on New Guinea
languages, 64

Read, C. H., 271 ; on Polynesian
art, 185

Rebus, 217, 218

Religion, definition of, 5, 267 ; evo-
lution of, 268

Religion in art, 81-84, 1 18-123,
^33^ 235, 270-305

Reville, Albert, 279

Rhodes, lotus designs, 158, 161

Ridgeway, Prof W., origin of
money, 226-234

Rigo, district tattooing, 45

Robenhausen, baskets, 91

INDEX.

363

Rock tombs in Asia Minor, 114- 116

Roman vase, 92

Rome, fylfot in, 283

Romilly, H. H., 79

Rosettes, 140, 148-150, 162, 163

Round Towers, Ireland, 90

Saragorar, 76

Samian pottery, 1 60, 1 79

Sauvastika, 292

Scandinavian fylfot, 285 ; inroads,
90; magic, 249; mythology, 196;
sun-snake, 194; worm-knot, 94

Scarification, 61 ; of totems, 252,
256

Schliemann, 142, 278, 280, 282,
287, 292

Scorpion in magic, 242, 243

Scroll designs, 49-56, 93, 163;
guilloches, 49-51, 163 ; Cornwall,
179; from lotus, 1 39- 1 42; New
Guinea, 67-73, 3^6; New Zea-
land, 67, 68, 71, 72, 326; Fiji,
71 ; Malaysia, 67 ; from alligator,
171, 172; symbolism of, 122, 123
(see Spiral)

Semang magic patterns, 237-248

Semitic writing, 220

Semper, Prof. G., 75, 158

Sergi, Prof., 60, 64

Shell-money, 224, 228

Shell pottery, 189, 191

Shield-money, 233

Shields, Papuan Gulf, 30

Sicily, Triskele of, 214

Sickness, magic patterns against,

237-245
Signature-lore, 235
Silphium plant money, 233, 234
Silvestre, J., 227
Sinaugolo tattooing, 45
Sinnet in Oceania, 85
Sinnet, skeuomorphs of, 87, 88
Skeuomorphs, forms of, 75-117,

194-199
Skin disease, magic against, 244,

24s
Smyth, Brough, 259, 261
Snake arrow, 25 ; designs, Australia,

260; patterns in Brazil, 174-178;

Scandinavian Sun-, 194 ; totems,

251-253

Solomon Islands, 66 ; frigate bird,

66, 265, 267, 325 ; canoe charm,

266, 267
Soul, emblems of, 129, 141
South Cape axes, 79 ; ethnography

of, 65, 66
Southesk, Earl of, 180, 195, 278
Spatula, lime, 48, 49, 52-54, 57
Spirals, 28, 49, 93, 94, 141, 163;

early European art, 73 ; bird,

49-57 ; lotus, 139-142 ; on

pottery, ill (see Scroll)
Squier and Davis on pottery, lOO;

gourd pottery, 188
Stag, Sun-, 194

Star-symbols, 288, 289, 291, 292
Stater, 198
Steinen, Prof. K. von den, 97, 130,

I3i» 173-179, 332
Stevens, Prof. G., 196
Stevens, H. V., 332; on magic

patterns, 236 ; on totemism, 252,

254

Stokes, Dr. W., on colour symbols,
123

Stolpe, Dr. H., 9, 81, 185, 186,
270, 271, 334

Stone-axe, fastenings of, 85 ; meta-
morphosis of, 78

Suggestion, definition of, 5

Sun, animal symbols of, 136 ; boar,
195; stag, 194; snake, 194;
symbols, 289-291 ; Triskele, 213

Svoronas, M. J., 291

Swiss lake dwelling bronze vessel,

Swiss lake-dwelling huts, 89

Symbolism, 264; of colour, 123,
124; religious, 275-305; psych-
ology of, 300-305 ; definition of,
212 ; Buddhist, 281 ; of earth,
280; of lightning, 276 ; of moon,
292 ; of rain, 279 ; of sun, 289-
291 ; of water, 122 ; of wind, 122,
123, 279

Symmorph, 215

Sympathetic magic, 5, 6, 235-250

Tane, the adze-god, 82, 274
Tapa, 95, 96 ; printing on, 95, 96
Tau, 277-279
Tassel patterns, 144- 14S

3^4

INDEX.

Tattooing in Malacca, 253, 254 ;
Maori, 72 ; Melanesian, 61 ; in
New Guinea, 43-45 ; in Rigo, 45 ;
and totemism, 252-256

Taylor, Dr. Isaac, 166, 167, 283 ;
alphabet, 216, 218, 219

Taylor, 286

Tenedos axe money, 230, 232

Terramara pottery, 91

Teste Island canoe carving, 57 ;
pottery of, 47, 48

Tetraskele (see Fylfot)

Textiles, 89

Thebes Necropolis, tomb decora-
tions, 136-141

Thibet svastika, 287, 294

Thomas, E. B., 280

Thompson, W. D'Arcy, 291 ; on
animal symbols on Greek coins,

234

Thongs, absence of, in Oceania, 85

Thor's hammer, 278 ; in modern
Germany, 279

Tiki-tiki pattern, 271, 274

Toaripi, 29 ; belt, 38

Tonga clubs, 86-88, 192 ; drum,
83 ; frigate-bird on club, 88 ;
pottery, 108

Tongue-thrusting in New Zealand,
186, 187

Torres Straits and Daudai, art of,
13-15; barter, 224, 225; totem-
ism, 251, 252

Tortoise eggs, magic pattern, 246

Tortoise money, 232, 233

Totem animals, 17, 30, 212

Totemism, 41, 250 ; in ancient
Greece, 265 ; in Malacca, 252-
254; and tattooing, 252 256

Totem-posts, 257, 265 ; British
Columbia, 265

Trade marks on pottery, 48

Triskele or Triquetra, 213, 214

Trobiand Group, art of, 58 ; houses,
61 ; trade of, 47 ; crocodile pat-
tern, 181 ; spatulas of, 54

Troy (see Hissarlik), 289

Tsuboi, S., on tongue-thrusting,
187 ; on eye-amulets, 187

Tunny-fish as money, 230-232

Tvusayan pottery, 111-114

Tylor, Prof. E. B., 109, 129, 223

Ueberlingen See, 95

Uhle, Dr. M., 28, 167; on plant

motives, 131
Uluris dress pattern, 174

Vaux, Baron de, 99
Veth, R. J., on mandrake, 6
Volute, 157, 158, 160
Votive offerings, degeneration of,
222, 223

Wallace, A. R., 319
Walrus symbol, 194
Water symbol, 122
Wattle-work, 92 ; huts, 89
Wealth, definition of, 4 ; in art,

222
Whirlwind symbolism, 122, 123
Wife, value of a, 224, 225, 229
Wilkinson, Sir J. G., lotus, 134
Williams, Monier, 282
Wilson, Dr. D., on British urns, lo£
Wind symbol, 123, 279
Winged globe, 298
Wire spirals, 94
Withy patterns, 94, 194-199
Wolf in art, 195

Women's dress pattern, 97, 174, 178
Wood, J. G., on tongue-thrusting,

187
Wooden slabs, carved, Daumori

26; Papuan Gulf, 31
Woodlark, Group, art of, 58 ; tradt

of, 47 ; spatulas of, 54
Worm-knot, Scandinavian, 94
Writing, evolution of, 216-221 ; re

versed, 125

Yule Island, 42

Zigzag, 14, 54, 276, 309; fron
alligator, 171 ; Australian, 258,
259 ; origin of, 88, 89; in Ancier:
Egypt, 89; Brazil, 174-178; frog^
legs as, 244, 248

Zooinorphs, 164-183; in mythologj
182; horse, 180; wolf, 195

Zufii medicine bowl, 121 ; potter}
103. 104, 128

O/^'s

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