Turning to other branches of art, what traces do we find of the transfer to them of textile features? Take, for example, sculpture. In the wood carving of the Polynesians we observe a most elaborate system of decoration, more or less geometric in character. We do not need to look a second time to discover a striking likeness to the textile system, and we ask, Is it also derived from a textile source? In the first place let us seek within the art a reason for the peculiar forms. In carving wood and in tracing figures upon it with pointed tools the tendency would certainly be towards straight lines and formal combinations; but in this work there would be a lack of uniformity in execution and of persistency in narrow lines of combination, such as result from the constant necessity of counting and spacing in the textile art. In the presentation of natural forms curved lines are called for, and there is nothing inherent in the carver's art to forbid the turning of such lines with the graver or knife. Graphic art would be realistic to an extent regulated by the skill and habits of the artist. But, in reality, the geometric character of this work is very pronounced, and we turn naturally toward the textile art to ask whether in some way that art has not exercised an influence. The textile arts of these peoples are highly developed and were doubtless so in a degree from very early times, and must have had a close relation with the various arts, and especially so in the matter of ornament. Specific examples may be cited showing the intimacy of wood carving to textilia. Bows, spears, arrows, &c. are bound with textile materials to increase their strength. Knives and other weapons are covered with textile sheaths and handles of certain utensils are lashed on with twisted cords. In ceremonial objects these textile features are elaborated for ornament and the characteristic features of this ornament are transferred to associated surfaces of wood and stone by the graver. A most instructive illustration is seen in the ceremonial adzes so numerous in museums (Fig. 356). The cords used primarily in attaching the haft are, after loss of function, elaborately plaited and interwoven until they become an important feature and assume the character of decoration. The heavy wooden handles are elaborately carved, and the suggestions of figures given by the interlaced cords are carried out in such detail that at a little distance it is impossible to say where the real textile surface ceases and the sculptured portion begins.

All things considered, I regard it as highly probable that much of the geometric character exhibited in Polynesian decoration is due to textile dominance. That these peoples are in the habit of employing textile designs in non-textile arts is shown in articles of costume, such as the tapa cloths, made from the bark of the mulberry tree, which are painted or stamped in elaborate geometric patterns. This transfer is also a perfectly natural one, as the ornament is applied to articles having functions identical with the woven stuffs in which the patterns originate, and, besides, the transfer is accomplished by means of stamps themselves textile. Fig. 357 illustrates the construction of these stamps and indicates just how the textile character is acquired.



Textile materials are very generally associated with the human figure in art, and thus sculpture, which deals chiefly with the human form, becomes familiar with geometric motives and acquires them. Through sculpture these motives enter architecture. But textile decoration pervades architecture before the sculptor's chisel begins to carve ornament in stone and before architecture has developed of itself the rudiments of a system of surface embellishment. Textile art in mats, covers, shelters, and draperies is intimately associated with floors and walls of houses, and the textile devices are in time transferred to the stone and plaster. The wall of an ancient Pueblo estufa, or ceremonial chamber, built in the pre-esthetic period of architecture, antedating, in stage of culture, the first known step in Egyptian art, is encircled by a band of painted figures, borrowed, like those of the pottery, from a textile source. The doorway or rather entrance to the rude hovel of a Navajo Indian is closed by a blanket of native make, unsurpassed in execution and exhibiting conventional designs of a high order.



The ancient "hall of the arabesques" at Chimu, Peru, is decorated in elaborate designs that could only have arisen in the textile art (Fig. 358), and other equally striking examples are to be found in other American countries. The classic surface decorations known and used in Oriental countries from time immemorial prevailed in indigenous American architecture at a stage of culture lower than any known stage of classic art.

It may appear that I have advocated too strongly the claims of the textile art to the parentage of geometric ornament and that the conclusions reached are not entirely satisfactory, but I have endeavored so to present the varied phenomena of the art that the student may readily reach deductions of his own. A correspondingly careful study of other branches of art will probably enable us finally to form a just estimate of the relative importance of the forces and tendencies concerned in the evolution of decoration.

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INDEX

Alaskan Indians, illustration of ornamentation by 199 Ancon, Peru, examples of ornamentation from graves at 212, 230, 231, 236, 243, 248 Apache, illustrations of ornamentation by 198, 213, 223 British Guiana Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 217 Chimu, Peru, ornamentation of "hall of arabesques" at 251, 252 Clallam Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 207 Color in textile art 201, 202 Color phenomena in textile ornament 215-232 Form in textile art and its relation to ornament, with illustrations from Indian work 196-201 Geometric design, relations of, to textile ornament 202-244 Holmes, W. H. paper by, on textile art in its relation to the development of form and ornament 189-252 Klamath Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 208, 209, 227 McCloud River Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 221 Moki, illustrations of ornamentation by 197, 205, 224, 225, 226, 238, 240 Northwest Coast Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 213, 218, 227, 230 Penn wampum belt 233 Peruvians, ancient, illustrations of ornamentation by 211, 212, 214, 228, 230, 231, 235, 236, 237, 242, 243, 248 Pima Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 220 Piute Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 198, 205 Polynesian ornamentation, illustrations of 249, 250 Seminole Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 207 Textile art in its relation to the development of form and ornament, paper by W. H. Holmes on 189-252 Tule River Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 219 Tusayan ornament, illustrations of 247, 248 Wiener, cited 242 Yokut Indians, illustrations of ornamentation by 233, 234 Zuni, illustrations of ornamentation by 239

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THE END