VALPARAISO. 142 



of the inferior workmen. However on advancing a little farther I 

 found that I must look for no regular manufactory, no division of la- 

 bour, no machinery, not even the potter's wheel, none of the aids to 

 industry which I had conceived almost indispensable to a trade so 

 artificial as that of making earthenware. At the door of one of the 

 poorest huts, formed merely of branches and covered with long grass, 

 having a hide for a door, sat a family of manufacturers. They were 

 seated on sheep-skins spread under the shade of a little penthouse 

 formed of green boughs, at their work. A mass' of clay ready tem- 

 pered * lay before them, and each person according to age and abi- 

 lity was forming jars, plates, or dishes. The work-people were all 

 women, and I believe that no man condescends to employ himself in 

 this way, that is, in making the small ware : the large wine jars, &c. 

 of Melipilla are made by men. As the shortest way of learning is to 

 mix at once with those we wish to learn from, I seated myself on the 

 sheep-skin and began to work too, imitating as I could a little girl who 

 was making a simple saucer. The old woman who seemed the chief 

 directress, looked at me very gravely, and then took my work and 

 showed me how to begin it anew, and work its shape aright. All this, 

 to be sure, I might have guessed at ; but the secret I wanted to learn, 

 was the art of polishing the clay, for it is not rendered shining by any 

 of the glazing processes I have seen ; therefore I waited patiently and 

 worked at my dish till it was ready. Then the old woman put her hand 

 into a leathern pocket which she wore in front, and drew out a smooth 

 shell, with which she first formed the edges and borders anew ; and 

 then rubbed it, first gently, and, as the clay hardened, with greater 

 force, dipping the shell occasionally in water, all over the surface, 

 until a perfect polish was produced, and the vessel was set to dry in 

 the shade. 



Sometimes the earthenware so prepared is baked in large ovens 

 constructed on purpose ; but as often, the holes in the side of the hill, 



* The clay is very fine and smooth, and found about nine inches or a foot from the sur- 

 face ; it requires little tempering, and is free from extraneous matter ; the women knead 

 it with their hands. 



