ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



135 



When vessels come within the realm of superstitious usages the 

 forms are subject to new and perplexing influences. Through their 

 dictates certain consecrated forms may be kept for ages at a stand- 

 still, while others not so hampered undergo constant mutations. 



Later also, when the inventive spirit begins to assert itself more 

 fully, the desire to increase usefulness and to gratify fancy wield a 

 powerful influence toward the modification of outline. 



BOWLS. 



Basin or bowl-shaped vessels exhibit numberless varieties in shape 

 and style. In size they range from less than one inch in diameter and 

 depth to more than twenty inches in diameter and a foot in depth. 

 In color and finish they are uniform with vessels of the otlier classes. 

 Their uses were doubtless chiefly domestic. 



Form. — The forms are greatly varied, as will be seen in Figs. 3 

 and 4. Many are simply segments of spheres and vary from a 

 shallow saucer to a hollow perforated globe. Others have elongated, 

 compressed, or conical bodies, with round or flattened liases. Rect- 



O 



Fig. 3. — Forms of Bowls. 



Fig. 4. — Forms of Bowls. 



angular and irregular forms are sometimes found. Stands and legs 

 are but rarely attached, and handles except of a grotesque character 

 are seldom seen. 



Origin of Form. — It will probably be safe to assume that some 

 form of shallow vessel — a dish, cup, or bowl, was the first artificial 

 form produced. Such a vessel would be most easily fashioned in 

 clay and may have been suggested by accident, or by natural or 

 artificial vessels as already indicated. 



Whatever the origin or whichever the method of construction, 

 the difficulties encountered would at first preclude the manufacture 

 of other than the simplest forms. 



Ornament. — The ornamentation of bowls has been accomplished 

 in a variety of ways. These have been already described in a gen- 



