COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 343 



The Indians of Tonalon are celebrated for the manufacture of the 

 finer water bottles, drinking cups, animal and fruit forms. 



The clay is of two varieties: one black and tenacious, from the 

 marshy places ; the other, a gray, friable, kaolinic clay, from the high 

 river banks. The clay is dug out and carried to the pottery, dried, 

 and the two kinds mixed in equal proportions, as the white clay is too 

 loose by itself and the black clay too sticky. 



After the clay is ground very fine on a metate and sifted, water is 

 added and the mass worked with the hands on a slab of mesquite 

 wood, a stone implement being also used to aid the hands. Practice 

 enables the potter to tell when the clay is ready for use. 



The ware is built up of sections shaped over a form, showing that 

 the Mexican pottery is in a transition between coiling and modeling. 



In the operation the potter takes a piece of clay large enough to 

 form the body of a simple cup (fig. 1, PI. I), lays it on a slab of stone, 

 and flattens it out with the flatteuer (fig. 2, PI. I). The form is then 

 encircled with the sheet of clay and the surplus at the joint cut away 

 with an old knife blade (fig. 3, PI. 1). The seam is obliterated by dipping 

 the fingers in water and rubbing the surface. Another flat piece of 

 clay forms the bottom, and is joined in the same way. Then the sur 

 face is paddled with a wooden paddle (fig. 4, PL I) to make the clay firm. 



The piece is then gone over with the fingers, taken off the mold, 

 allowed to dry, and slipped with white clay, called &quot; sweet earth,&quot; mixed 

 with water, because it imparts a sweet taste to water, for which the 

 Guadalajara pottery is famous. 



When dry enough the ware is rubbed inside with smooth stones 

 and burnished on the outside with a piece of iron set in a clay handle 

 (fig. 5, PL I). 



If a pitcher (fig. 6, PL I) is to be made, the body is formed as above, 

 the form taken out, the hand is inserted and a roll of clay for the rim. 

 attached. The pot is then twirled on the hand and the clay worked 

 with moist fingers to the required shape and thickness. The surface is 

 beaten with the paddle and smoothed with a piece of leather or sheet 

 iron (fig. 7, PL I), polished, dried, and painted with brushes of dog hair 

 (fig. 8, PI. I). 



The red and black paint are native colors, and the white is clay. To 

 make the pottery dry evenly it is put into a pit, covered with a mat. 

 This casts light on the ancient procedure. After the ware has dried it 

 is burned in kilns like that described as used by Pantaleon Panduro. 



Pantaleon Panduro, an Indian, is the most skillful of the Guadalajara 

 figurine makers. He is an adept at modeling from life, and his figures 

 and groups are much sought after. 



The clay used by the figurine makers is the same as that described. 

 The heads or bodies are made either solid or hollow, and the faces 

 squeezed in a mold (fig. 9, PL II). The finished heads are shown in figs. 

 10 and 11, PL II. 



