Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/366

 346 types in metal to imitate gold, one of which has a sham diamond let into the Star and Crescent device. Now in all these remarkable ramifications in which the arrowhead has run riot, one thing remains persistent throughout, and that is the three lines symbolical of the lashing to which I have referred. This persistent retention of an obsolete part of an object undergoing a process of evolution is very interesting and has been observed in many other forms, and indeed may be seen in designs of decorative art common around us. Again, we have here also the introduction of the celluloid article, and undoubtedly in a very degraded form. The shape is becoming confused, the colours are unnatural for the most part; they bear no decorative ornament, and even the three "fibre" lines are absent (fig. 13). I should have mentioned that most of the glass forms bear notches on their cutting edge; this I consider to be a survival from the serrated chipping of the original arrowhead of flint.

There are one or two points for consideration suggested by this curious collection. We have seen, even in this small series, how a type differentiates, and how such changes and innovations meet with the approval and even the encouragement of the natives. When and where will it stop? Will it be possible, in a few years, to say what a certain charm originally was? Will the native, if he remains as he is long enough, be able to recognise the rubbish made for him in the European markets, or will these charms, as is usually the case, become degraded into mere ornaments to be worn by the natives upon the inartistic European clothing which seems to be the inevitable costume of the future? Another regrettable feature is the lamentable destruction of aboriginal design by these