question very naturally arises as to whether these little figures had any meaning or performed any function aside from that of simple decoration. I feel inclined to take the view that in their present condition they are survivals of ideographic originals; that if their past could be unveiled we would find that in the primitive ages they were not exclusively employed for ornament. The animals made use of originally were the embodiment of mythologic conceptions, and their images were revered or served as fetiches or charms, and because of this they came to have a permanent place in art. They were applied to the vessel because its office had reference to them or because they were thought to have a beneficial effect upon its functions. It is evident that their employment was governed by well established rules and that they occupied places and occurred in numbers and relations not wholly dependent upon the judgment of the individual potter. We may suppose that they occur in twos because the handles with which they were associated occurred in twos; or, if they serve to take the place of the extremities of the animal forms in the semblance of which the vases were originally modeled, their positions may be related to the original positions of the heads and tails of those forms. It is not improbable that the conventional incised and relieved ornaments, the meanders, nodes, and varied marks refer also to the creatures or the markings of the creatures with which the vessel was associated.
It will be seen, from the above remarks, that we cannot fully determine to what extent these ancient decorators followed the traditional pathways of early ideographic usage or how much they were governed by those powers of esthetic discrimination known to us as taste.
[ UNPAINTED WARE.]
For convenience of description I separate the pottery of Chiriqui
into two grand divisions: the unpainted ware and the painted ware. Two important groups come under the first head. The first of these, the terra cotta or biscuit ware, comprises a larger number of pieces than any other group and is readily distinguished by its colors, which include only the pale grayish yellow and reddish tints of the burned clay. The second is limited to a small number of pieces and is black or very dark upon the surface and dark within the mass.
[ The terra cotta group.—]
This biscuit-like pottery is not in any way inferior to the painted varieties. It bears evidence of great freedom in handling, and serves, perhaps better than any other class of products, to illustrate the masterly skill and the refined taste of the ancient potter. It is said to occur in the same cemeteries and in the same graves with the more important varieties of painted ware. The function of these handsome vessels cannot be determined. It can hardly have been of a domestic nature, as they show no evidences of discoloration or wear, and we are left to speculate upon the possibility of a purely ceremonial use. The paste is moderately fine, but contains an extremely large share of gritty sand; the slip is thin and has received but a slight degree of polish, so that the surface has a dead, somewhat granular effect. As a rule the vases are of small size and are very thin walled. The forms are symmetrical and exceptionally graceful. The ornamentation includes incised figures (mostly geometric), raised decoration (of similar character), and animal forms in the round. The following illustrations are intended to epitomize the multitude of forms, as anything like a complete representation is out of the question.