TRINIDAD AND SOUTH AMERICAN EARTHENWARE 135 



other purely aesthetic forms, the absence of all attempt at represen- 

 tations of plant forms being remarkable. The black color is made 

 of the juice of mandioca. 



The ancient pottery of Pacoval is often adorned with frets and 

 scroll borders and other ornaments, drawn on a white ground with 

 marvelous accuracy. 



Ornaments are sometimes scratched with a sharp point on the 

 surface of modern Amazonian pottery, and, occasionally, orna- 

 ments are made consisting of a series of holes. The etching on 

 the prehistoric Pacoval pottery is exceedingly delicate. Sometimes 

 the same pottery is decorated by first washing the surface with white 

 cla}' and then engraving so as to leave an ornament in relief. The 

 instrument used seems to have been a tooth of a paca or some other 

 rodent. Some of the large burial vases are covered with ornaments 

 of this kind, which must have required long and patient labor. 



A pottery stamp now in the Georgetown Museum from the Grena- 

 dines resembles one illustrated by Fewkes from Trinidad. In gen- 

 eral, the effigy vessels of the Georgetown Museum collection, called 

 old-time objects by Roth, are departures from Antillean forms as 

 represented in Santo Domingan collections, in that they stand on 

 4-legged bases, or resemble somewhat the cylindrical effigy vessels 

 from the Brazilian-Guiana coast belonging to the painted forms of 

 the transitional period (see pi. 28, transitional, and pi. 31, old-time 

 unpainted effigy vessel). The figurine heads, handles for the most 

 part, but also images and rattles are identical with Santo Domingan 

 forms. 



There are traces of pottery similar to that of Pacoval Island in 

 Lake Arary on the island of Marajo in the delta of the Amazon, 

 according to Lange, on the Amazon River near Manaos, 850 miles 

 upstream.^2 There are also said to be deposits on the Tapajos and 

 Xingu Rivers. Caves are said to yield pottery in the forest region 

 of upland Brazilian Guyana, but 100 miles from the Arary River, 

 also on the upper Moju River 300 miles from Pacoval. There are 

 apparently two types of pottery illustrated by Lange, one an older 

 incised ware, the other a painted ware showing the same designs in. 

 part but taking on more of the character of a transitional type with 

 the modern forms common to South American lowland tribes of 

 to-day, such as are figured by Roth from British Guiana. The 

 older incised forms show a pleasing use of knobs or rounded wens 

 surrounded with incised circles in pairs; of frets and other rectan- 

 gular geometric designs alternating with nucleated circles. Rela- 

 tionship with Antillean forms and designs is distinct, and the 

 Marajo earthenware can not be shown as ancestral to Antillean 

 types or wares except as it undoubtedly forms a part of one large 



B2 Lange, Algot, The Lower Amazon, p. 339, New York, 1914. 



