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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and yet in turning it over not a drop would spill, but the liquid 

 would readily flow out when the jar was simply inclined. The 

 Peruvians were good portraitists, and many of the faces repre- 

 sented might pass for likenesses of people now living on the 

 coast. The potter of the present day uses a primitive contri- 



FiG. 2. 



vance, something like two tables fastened together and revolving 

 on an axis firmly fixed in the ground. The lower table serves as 

 a treadle by which the workman imparts a rotary motion with 

 his naked feet to the whole contrivance. On the upper table, 

 the smaller of the two, is placed the moist clay which the potter 

 shapes to his fancy. 



The pots found in tombs are made of various kinds of clay — 

 red, yellow, brown, bluish, and black. The latter is generally 

 only modeled, the red being modeled and painted. None are 

 glazed. Many of the Peruvian jars are double, quadruple, 

 sextuple, even octuple. The pottery of the Antis is believed to 

 be of Quichua (Peruvian) origin. It is coarsely made, painted 

 and varnished. From the cannibal Conibos they obtain, through 

 the Chontaquiros, more elegant ware. 



The illustrations (Figs. 1, 2, and 3) represent pieces found by 

 Dr. Le Plongeon on the coast of Peru, all belonging to a period 



