RELIEF PHENOMENA.

_Ordinary features._--The relieved surface characters of fabrics
resulting from construction and available for decoration are more or
less distinctly perceptible to the eye and to the touch and are
susceptible of unlimited variation in detail and arrangement. Such
features are familiar to all in the strongly marked ridges of
basketry, and much more pleasingly so in the delicate figures of
damasks, embroideries, and laces. So long as the figures produced are
confined exclusively to the necessary features of unembellished
construction, as is the case in very primitive work and in all plain
work, the resultant patterns are wholly geometric and by endless
repetition of like parts extremely monotonous.

In right angled weaving the figures combine in straight lines, which
run parallel or cross at uniform distances and angles. In radiate
weaving, as in basketry, the radial lines are crossed in an equally
formal manner by concentric lines. In other classes of combination
there is an almost equal degree of geometricity.

When, however, with the growth of intelligence and skill it is found
that greater variety of effect can be secured by modifying the
essential combinations of parts, and that, too, without interfering
with constructive perfection or with use, a new and wide field is
opened for the developmental tendencies of textile decoration.

Moreover, in addition to the facilities afforded by the necessary
elements of construction, there are many extraneous resources of which
the textile decorator may freely avail himself. The character of these