This hand engraved and hand painted leather cosmetic bag features hand stitching along the sides also in leather. On one side is depicted a group of ceramic vessels, one of the treasures of the Paiwan tribe. According to legend, the ancestors of this tribe were born from a large ceramic vessel and ornate vessels such as the ones depicted here were so prized that they could only be kept in the home of the chieftain. On one of the ceramic vessels are two hundred-pace pit vipers (scientific name: Deinagkistrodon acutus), considered the most toxic of the Asian pit vipers. This snake got its name from the claim that once bitten a victim will die before being able to walk 100 paces. To the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, the hundred-pace pit viper is highly revered, especially among the Paiwan, Rukai and Bunun tribes. On another side is a group of leaves from a plant that grows in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung County, where the Paiwan tribe is concentrated.