s attending construction.
Natural objects abound in features highly suggestive of embellishment
and these are constantly employed in art. Artificial objects have two
classes of features capable of giving rise to ornament: these are
_constructional_ and _functional_. In a late stage of development all
things in nature and in art, however complex or foreign to the art in
its practice, are subject to decorative treatment. This latter is the
realistic pictorial stage, one of which the student of native American
culture needs to take little cognizance.

Elements of design are not invented outright: man modifies, combines,
and recombines elements or ideas already in existence, but does not
create.

A classification of the sources of decorative motives employed in the
ceramic art is given in the following diagram:

/Suggestions of features of natural utensils or objects.
| /
| | /Handles.
| | |Legs
| | Functional|Bands
| | \Perforations, etc.
| |
|Suggestions of features of |
|artificial utensils or objects.| /The coil.
| | |The seam.
Origin of ornament| |Constructional|The stitch.
| | |The plait.
| \ \The twist, etc.
|Suggestions from accidents /Marks of fingers.
| attending construction. |Marks of implements.
| \Marks of molds, etc.
|
|
\Suggestions of ideographic features or pictorial delineations.

+SUGGESTIONS OF NATURAL FEATURES OF OBJECTS.+

The first articles used by men in their simple arts have in many cases
possessed features suggestive of decoration. Shells of mollusks are
exquisitely embellished with ribs, spines, nodes, and colors. The same
is true to a somewhat limited extent of the shells of the turtle and the
armadillo and of the hard cases of fruits.

These decorati