The _guilloche_ or plait-band (Fig. 151) is characteristic of early fabrics, such as those of Naukratis and Samos, the Clazomenae sarcophagi (Plate XXVII.), and the small Proto-Corinthian lekythi, but is not often found in later times.[2029] It is typically Ionic, and seems to be derived from Mycenae (cf. A 209 in B.M.). Lastly, there is the so-called _tongue-pattern_, which is exclusively used as an upper border to designs. On its first appearance in the Geometrical vases it is rectilinear in form, 15[63]tongue-pattern and formed of alternating bars; but from the beginning of the sixth century onwards it assumes a curvilinear form, all the tongues pointing downwards, broader, and close together, as in Fig. 152. In the Daphnae vases and the later Corinthian wares it is treated in polychrome fashion, black, purple, and white alternately. On the lip and shoulders of Caeretan hydriae it appears in an exaggerated form, painted red, with black edges, as on Plate XXVI. In the Attic B.F. vases it forms the invariable upper border of the designs, below the necks of the amphorae and hydriae, and is also used as a border to the interior designs of the kylikes; here, too, purple is often applied to the alternate tongues. Occasionally the rectilinear form reappears. In the R.F. period it changes its character again, and the tongues become short and semi-oval in form, with black centre and narrow outlined edge; in this form it is usually described as an _egg-pattern_ (Fig. 153). It is found in the smaller hydriae, and in many other shapes above or below the designs; also round the lip of the vase. The same form and arrangement obtain in the South Italian vases, especially in Apulia and Lucania, except that a dot is often placed between each pair of tongues. In some cases it approximates closely to the egg-and-dart, as on F 179 in the British Museum. Both tongue and egg-patterns are often ranged round the base of the handles. The egg-and-tongue, with its variants, is a typically Ionic architectural pattern; hence its non-appearance in Attic vases before the fifth century. In later Roman pottery (Chap. XXIII.) it becomes very common. The variety known as the Lesbian kymation is found in a few late instances.[2030] * * * * *