SMITIISONIAX ARCH^OLOGICAL COLLECTION. 75 



from the moulds, j^jlaced in proper situations, and burned to a hardness suitable 

 to their intended uses. Another method practised by them is, to coat the 

 inner surface of baskets, made of rushes or ■willows, with clay, to any required 

 thickness, and when dr}^ to burn them as above described. In this way they 

 construct large, handsome, and tolerably durable wai-e; though latterly, with 

 such tribes as have much intercourse with the whites, it is not much used, 

 because of the substitution of cast-iron ware in its stead. AVhen these vessels 

 are large, as is the case for the manufacture of sugar, they are suspended by 

 grape-vines, which, wherever exposed to the fire, arc constantly kept covered 

 Avith moist clay. Sometimes, however, the rims are made strong, and project 

 a little inwardly quite round the vessel so as to admit of their being sustained 

 by flattened pieces of wood slid underneath these projections and extending 

 across their centres." * 



It would be erroneous to suppose the art of manufacturing clay vessels had 

 been in use among all the tribes spread over this widely extended country; 

 for, though exhibiting much general similarity in character and habits, they 

 differed considerably in their attainments in the mechanical arts. Some of the 

 l^orth American tribes, who did not understand the fabrication of earthen 

 vessels, were in the habit of cooking their meat in water set to boiling by 

 means of heated stones which they put into it, the receptacles used in this 

 operation being large wooden bowls or troughs, water-tight baskets, or even 

 the hides of animals they had killed. The Assineboins, for example, cooked 

 in skins, as described by Catlin. 



Generally speaking, the aboi-igines of North America acquainted with the 

 art of pottery formed their vessels by hand, modeling them sometimes in 

 woven baskets of rushes or willows, and were, as far as we know, imac- 

 quainted with the art of glazing. They mixed the clay used in their pottery 

 either Avith pounded shells or sand, or Avith pulverized silicious i-ocks; mica 

 also formed sometimes a part of the composition. In many cases, however, 

 the clay was employed in an unmixed state. Their vessels were often painted 

 Avith ochre, producing A'arious shades, from a light yclloAv to a dark brown, or 

 Avith a black color. They decorated their pottery Avith incised straight or 

 curved lines or combinations of lines and dots, and embellished it also by notch- 

 ing the rims, or surrounding them on the outside with studs or in various 

 other Avays. The vessels exhibited a great variety of forms and sizes, and 

 many of them had rounded or convex bottoms. The al)origines hardened 

 their earthenware in open fires or in kilns, and, uotAvithstanding the favorable 

 statements of some authors, it was much inferior in compactness to the com- 

 mon ware manufactured in Europe or America. 



These remai-ks, it should be understood, apply to the pottery made by the 

 Indians Avho inhabited the eastern half of the United States. A superior kind 



* nunter: Manners and Customs of several Indian Tribes located west of the Mississippi, Philadelphia, 

 1823, p. 296. 



