INDIAN MOUNDS NEAR FORT WADS WORTH, D. T. 401 



coutaiuing ears or bandies, tboiigli an Indian informant tells me that 

 small vessels were supplied witli ears. 



That the aboriginal potters of the lacustrine village of Cega lyeyapi 

 were fond of decoration, and practiced it in the ceramic art, is shown 

 by the tracings confined to the rims, which, consist of very smooth 

 lines about one-twentieth of an inch in width, and as deep, drawn quite 

 around the vessels, parallel to the margin. These are sometimes crossed 

 by zigzag lines, terminating at the neck of the vessel and the margin 

 of the rim. Lines drawn obliquely across the rim of the vessel, and 

 returning so as to form the letter " V," with others parallel to the mar- 

 gin of the rim, joining its sides, the same repeated as often as space 

 admits, constitute the only tracings on some vessels. The inside of the 

 vessels is invariably plain. 



That the ancient potters failed in the delineatory art, as modern In- 

 dians do, may readily be inferred, since no object of nature, such as a 

 tree, a i^lant, a flower, or bird, has been attempted in their tracings. 



To the art of glazing the aborigines seem to have been entire stran- 

 gers, but they have rendered their ware durable and impervious to 

 moisture, by thoroughly incorporating throughout its substance a black 

 pigment, which may be driven off by heating the sherds to redness in 

 the bright coals of a common wood-fire. Fragments thus treated assume 

 a yellowish color, and become very porous and brittle. 



The neck of the vessels, as well as the rim, shows one uniform curv- 

 ature, that of a circle, as if molded within a hoop, and is free from 

 those twists and wari)s sometimes seen in biscuit and common clay 

 ware manufactured by the whites. The outside of the vessels proper, 

 exclusive of the rim — which is traced — bears the impression of very 

 evenly-twisted cords running in a parallel direction and closely crowded 

 together, the alternate swelling and dei)ression of whose strands have 

 left equidistant indentations in every line thus impressed. These lines 

 run, on the sides of the vessels, in a direction i)erpeudicular to the rim, 

 and disappear within a half of an inch or an inch of it, each indenta- 

 tion becoming indistinct near the end. I have counted from ten to fif- 

 teen of these casts in the space of a linear inch, and yet some of the 

 sherds represent much finer cords. I find no casts of woven fabric, as 

 of cloth or basket-work, and yet I have seen diamond ( <^) figures formed 

 near the bottom of the vessel, by the crossing of different layers ot 

 cords. A willow or rush fabric could not form such casts ; the inside 

 bark of a tree i)ossibly might, but the sinews of the buffalo, such as 

 bow-strings are made of, were most probably used. It would seem, 

 then, tliat a sack or basket, formed by securing twisted cords, properlj^ 

 adjusted to a hoop, furnished the molds in which the aboriginal potters 

 shaped and dried their vessels, the external surface of which is a cast 

 of the cords composing the sack. 



Earthen vessels were in use by the Dakotas during the childhood of 

 men still living. I have interrogated separately, and on different occa- 

 26 s 71 



