Manchester McDioiis, Vol. Ivii. (1913), No (J. 3 



grass, a number of pieces beiiiL^ fired together. They are 

 fired for forty minutes, and after being removed from the 

 fire in this condition and allowed to cool they are, of 

 course, found to be burnt red. The pots that are to 

 remain red are taken from this fire, cooled, and then 

 coated with a thin coating of red-raddle and again 

 polished with the stone polishers. I have here two frag- 

 ments of the mineral that is used for this purpose, which 

 is stated to be very difficult to get as it comes from the 

 interior of Ashanti. 



To make the black pottery the following ingenious 

 metliod is adopted : — • 



The pots are taken from the fire after forty minutes' 

 burning, while they are red hot, and are plunged into a 

 bed of leaves, where they are constantly mo\ed about for 

 twenty minutes. The leaves, of course, become carbonised, 

 and a dense smoke is given '.^{{ in the [n'ocess. Care is 

 taken to keep the leaves from firing by clamping them if 

 they are too dry. The finely divided carbon or tarry 

 matters produced in this wa\' penetrates into the heated 

 cla\-ware and leaves a dcfjosit of carbon throughout it. 



When the vessels are finall}- taken from the bed of 

 leaves they can be again polished, if necessary, b}- the use 

 of the stones, and the pottery is complete. 



All the operaticMis appear to be conducted under a 

 kind of thatched shed, or are protected from the wind by 

 the use of matting. 



The authorities of the Liverpool Museum were kind 

 enough to send not only specimens of the clay and of the 

 materials used but also a sack of the leaves. They 

 requested that 1 would rej^eat the process as described 

 both witli some of the red claj' from Africa and with our 

 own local red clay. I was also asked if there was any 

 special merit either in the clay or in the leaves themselves. 



