THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 



ditions. In a land that is buried under snow most 

 of the year and where the only fuel obtainable is the 

 fat of animals, there is no chance for the discovery of 

 an art requiring an abundance of earth and fuel. But 

 similar races living further south had learned the art, 

 and were very skillful potters, centuries before the 

 dawn of civilization. The remains of pottery left 

 by the prehistoric mound- builders and cliff-dwellers 

 in America, for example, show that they had ac- 

 quired quite a high degree of skill and knowledge 

 of the art. 



All Western races were centuries behind the Eastern 

 Asiatics in learning the art of making high-grade 

 pottery. The Chinese and Japanese were making 

 glazed pottery at least two thousand years before the 

 secret of its manufacture was learned by Europeans, 

 who had to content themselves with unglazed ware 

 until the eleventh century. Then the Western pot- 

 ters learned to coat their rough vessels with a silicious 

 substance, which, when heated to the melting point, 

 formed a glassy coating over the surfaces of the ware, 

 not only enhancing its beauty, but rendering it non- 

 porous. For it should be remembered that unglazed 

 pottery is very porous and absorbent. It cannot be 

 used for cooking and will not retain liquids for any very 

 great length of time unless coated with some waxy sub- 

 stance. It played no such important part in civilization, 

 therefore, as the metals, after methods of working 

 these substances were discovered, until the art of glazing 

 became known. Then earthenware took its place be- 

 side iron itself in usefulness. Iron, brass, and pew- 



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