The Auetö pattern drawn in Fig. [103], F, is intended for a mailed- or armadillo-fish.
On a Bakaïri paddle (Fig. [103], A) are incised four circles, which are the ring-markings of a ray, pinukái, on the other side of a transverse line follow two mereschu in the meshes of a net, then a pakú, and finally several kuómi 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,[101] “that concerning these scribblings, though they certainly do not denote anything in their order of arrangement, consequently 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 picture-writing.”
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 sukuri water-snake or anaconda (Boa scytale), drawn to the left of Fig. [103], H. A boa-constrictor 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 Nahuquá bull-roarer (Fig. [103], G).
Fig. 104.—Patterns derived from bats; after Von den Steinen. A. Bakaïri; B, C. Auetö.
We have seen that rows of horizontal triangles are uluris, women’s triangles, but when they are margined above by a line, as in Fig. [104], B, they are bats; but rows 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 Bakaïri natives yaritamáze, that is, they are a particular kind of bird, not birds in general.
Finally, one would naturally consider that the ornament engraved on the post, Fig. [103], D, is simply the favourite mereschu pattern; but Von den Steinen assures us that the central design is not composed of mereschu, 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, associated with true mereschus, which may be seen between the legs of the locust.