Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

4o8 DECORATIVE ART
copied from patterns on certain bamboo tubes, which
were merely used as charms (and not as quivers and
blowpipe-tubes). Vaughan-Stevens asserts that the
former, when first used as quivers, remained of the
same size as the tubes from which their patterns were
copied, but that in the latter case the patterns on
being transferred to the blowpipe-tubes were reduced
in size. What the truth may be is hard to say. No
foundation for this statement of Vaughan - Stevens
appears, and the writer does not himself regard it
as credible.
There are said to be in all seventy-three specimens
of these patterns (for quivers and charm-tubes) col-
lected by Vaughan - Stevens, who has attempted
to explain them by means of the " flower-theory " he
had employed in explaining the combs, but this
extension, as has already been pointed out, is quite
untenable (even supposing his " flower-theory " were
admitted for the combs).
The main objections alleged are as follows :
1. There are some quivers which have no patterns
at all but only a few ring-lines (ex. Fig. 8).
2. Some quivers have the same pattern in all
their panels (ex. Fig. 9).
3. In many quivers the central panel is left vacant,
and hence the " Disease-pattern " must necessarily be
looked for in some one of the other panels (ex. Fig. 10).
4. Again, in some cases, in which all the panels
are occupied, the central panel is in no way more pro-
minent than the rest, so that its special importance,
and in fact its very place in the scheme, still remains
to be proved.
5. The patterns of the two upper panels (which
according to the theory should correspond to the
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