THE FIKST POTTEK 327 



uses, and will survive for ages yet, as long as there 

 remain any out-of-the-way places, remote from the main 

 streams of civilised commerce. Thus, while hundreds of 

 thousands of years, in all probability, separate us now 

 from the ancient days of the first potter, it is yet possible 

 for us to see the first potter's own methods and principles 

 exemplified under our very eyes by people who derive 

 them in unbroken succession from the direct teaching of 

 that long-forgotten prehistoric savage. 



