In primitive life concepts of color and form were long symbolic. Among the Pueblo tribes, as shown by Cushing. colors were eo;irdinated with the points of the compass in a Cult of the Quar ters, were adored or worshiped in the divinatory ceremonies, and were thereby not merely mem orized, but woven into the very fibre of habitual thought: so that when used in painting and in the of sacred seeds they were used as invocations to powers believed to control the destinies of men. Initially the assignment of colors was mimetic, as when dawn-color was as signed to tin Ea-t. sunset-eolor to the West, sun color to the 'smith, and cold-color to the North; yet tie titm soon passed into arbitrary symbolism, as Whet] a mixed or all-color was re quired tor the Middle of primitive thought, and especially when sky-color for the Zenith and earth-color for the Nadir were added with the in creasing grasp of directional relations. The strength of the Cult of the Quarters and the de votion of its adherents are strikingly shown by the infinite pains taken in the production of the e(dors: as when eorn was cultivated by Amerind tribes through many generations to produce white, yellow, red, blue, and mixed grains (some times in patterns on the ear) for ceremonial use. In higher culture the color symbolism disappears, yet the convention, persist in class costumes, uniforms. etc., especially among Oriental peoples; among the Aryans the conventionalism N•:1A early dissolved in that artistie progress culminating in Italian art. The primal concepts of form were also interwoven with the Cult of the Quarters; for the placement of arrows or other objects in adoration of the directions produced quadrupli cate figures to which a mystical potency or sacred meaning was attached, i.e. they become (like the animal designs) permanent invocations to the powers. Such figures are. or have been, nearly universal: in the form of the simple cross and the swastika they abound among the pre historic relies of most of the world, and are found among primitive peoples still surviving on every continent save Australia (where the number concept remained binary) ; standing at first for directional invocations, the qua tern figure gradu ally became a general world emblem. a token of completeness or perfection, a symbol of the Four Winds, and, as refined beliefs arose, a sign of the spiritual world.
A survey of primitive games and music renders it clear that most of the movements and utter anees of the performers mimic those of animals, or those imputed to the Great Ancients regarded as the ancestors of beasts and men; for the folk held themselves akin to animals, and inhabitants of a realm of beastly powers which demanded pla cation as the price of human life. Most of the placatory observances are designed to affect the group as well as the individual, so that they are essentially public and collective: and as they grow into regulated ceremonies the germ of the drama arises: symbolic costumes are adopted, emblems of function or power are introduced.
the voices of the actors are changed and musical instruments are employed as adjuncts. while idealized scenes are (qieted with a scrupulous regard for the reeognized proprieties, and event ually a strong dramatic sense is engendered. At first mere vicars of their tutelaries. the leaders in the ceremonies gradually introduee illusive features relleeting their own skill or originality, as in a earn ceremony of the 'Hopi tribe in which the mythical Great Serpent—areh-emany of corn and men—is represented by a structure manipu lated by a shaman behind the altar while his feet remain in sight of the spectators. Althmwh the steps are too many for recounting, such primitive ceremonies grade into the drama proper: on one line they pass into etfigy-plays, such as the sacred puppet ceremonies of the Javanese and the modern European marionettes: along the main line they merge into histrionic perform ances which are long held sacred, but gradnally become secular; while other lines are interwoven with those of both music and graphic arts, amid also with the lore which matures in poetry and romance. The latter lines are long; it may be noted merely that the songs and stories and symbols of the primitive ceremonies are the most imaginative productions of the participants; that in consonance with the measure of drum and rattle the renditions are gradually reduced to rhythm; that with recognition of harmony prosodic meas ure arises; and that with each advance growing poetic spirit finds alternative expression in freer dramatic action and in richer word-painting of story-tellers and scribes. balladists and authors.
In general, the development of the arts (includ ing play and games as well as music, graphics, painting and sculpture, and the drama ) indicates a progressive advance from lower savagery up ward at a geometrieally increasing rate. The growth (or ontogeny) of individual arts measur ably epitomizes the development (or phylogeny) of kinds or species, while the occasional recur rence of primitive characters establishes the gen eral sequence and aids in tracing minor lines; at the same time the phylogeny of the aesthetic differs from that of the merely vital in that it looks forward into the future rather than back into the past—it is, as Groos would have it for the simplest expressions, prophetic rather than vestigial. And every step from the bald mimicry of the prime through the crude symbol ism and conventionalism of the middle course and thence to the free idealization of the present day. the lighter and more spontaneous activities have fertilized and inspired the more substantial activities—they have served as the mainspring of human life.