The maroon group;
The red line group;
The white line group;
The lost color group;
The alligator group; and
The polychrome group, no two of which are sufficiently alike to make it certain, without extraneous evidence, that they were manufactured by the same community, yet all clearly belonging to one great family.
These groups are presented in the order given.
Before proceeding with the descriptions, however, there are some matters of a general nature that should be referred to. Technical questions have already received considerable attention, and I shall need only to refer here to the painted ornamentation, and at sufficient length to insure a clear understanding of its treatment and the scope of its subject matter.
Painted vessels are embellished to some extent also by incising and modeling, and these methods are employed very much as in the unpainted pottery already described.
Painted decoration is executed with much freedom and in many cases with considerable skill. It is greatly varied in method of treatment and embraces a wide range of motives. Geometric patterns occur in great variety, but are found to be of types peculiar to Isthmian America. The conventional meanders, frets, and scrolls so extensively employed in other regions are here almost unknown. Decorative motives derived from natural forms are abundant and afford an excellent opportunity to study the processes of conventional modification. These designs are often applied in a way to indicate that the decorator possessed a keen sense of the requirements of the vessel, although the treatment perhaps is not as universally satisfactory as is the treatment of plastic embellishment.