If any of the interlocking spirals on bowls or vases are traced, it is
found that they do not join at the center of the figure. The same is
true when these spirals become frets. There is always a break in the
network which they form. This break is comparable with the hiatus on
encircling bands and probably admits of the same interpretation. In a
simple form this motive appears as two crescents or two key patterns
with the ends overlapping. This simple ornament, called the friendship
sign, is commonly used in the decoration of the bodies of _katcinas_,
and has been likened to the interlocking of fingers or hands of the
participants in certain dances, the fingers half retracted with inner
surfaces approximated, the palms of the hands facing in opposite
directions and the wrists at opposite points. If the points be
extended into an elaborate key pattern or curved into extended
spirals, a complicated figure is produced in which the separation is
less conspicuous although always present.
The same points may be modified into terraced figures, the separation
then appearing as a zigzag line drawn across the figure, or they may
have interlocking dentate or serrate prolongations imparting a variety
of forms to the interval between them.[153] In order to trace out
these modifications it would be necessary to specify each individual
case, but I think that is unnecessary. In other words, the broken line
appears to be a characteristic not only of simple encircling bands,
but also of all geometric figures in which highly complicated designs
extend about the periphery of a utensil.