There is a general similarity running through the carved design of most races of primitive culture, the chip form of ornament being almost universally employed. Decorated surfaces depending almost entirely upon the incised line also obtain all over the world, and may no doubt be accounted for by the extensive use of stone cutting tools. The carver shows the same tendency to over-exalt his art by crowding on too much design as the more civilized craftsman of other lands, while he also on occasion exercises a good deal of restraint by a harmonious balance of decoration and plain space. So far as his chip designs and those patterns more or less depending on the line are concerned, his work as a rule is good and suitable, but when he takes to figure work his attempts do not usually meet with success. Primitive carving, generally, shows that very similar stages of artistic development are passed through by men of every age and race.