POTTERY MANUFACTURE. G3 



held in the right hand. (One of these wooden trowels is figured in 

 the plate.) Whilst one woman is thus engaged, a couple of her com- 

 panions are occupied in flattening out, by means of a flat-sided stick, 

 strips of the clay six to twelve inches in length and an inch in 

 breadth, their length increasing as the making of the vessel pro- 

 gre.sses. One of these strips is then placed around the upper edge 

 of the saucer ; and the potter welds or batters it into position, em- 

 ploying the same tools in a similar manner, the pebble being held 

 inside. The cooking vessel is thus built up strip by strip ; and to 

 enable the worker to give symmetry to the upper part of the pot, a 

 fillet of broad grass is tied around as a o-uide. An even edge is siven 

 to the lip by drawing along the rim a fibre from the cocoa-nut husk , 

 and the interior and neck are finished oflT by the fingers well mois- 

 tened. Whilst being made, the cooking-pot is rested on a ring- 

 cushion of palm leaves, as shown in the same engraving. The time 

 occupied in making one of the ordinary sized pots is about three- 

 quarters of an hour. Thus made, they are kept in the shade for 

 three or four days to become firm ; and they are finally hardened by 

 being placed in a wood-fire. No glaze appears to be used, and the 

 vessels themselves show no signs of its employment. Their outer 

 surfaces ai'e indistinctly marked by odd-looking patterns in relief, 

 reminding one somewhat of hieroglyphics, which are produced by the 

 same patterns cut into one of the surfaces of the wooden beater (as 

 shown in the engraving), for the purpose of giving the tool a 

 better hold on the clay. Some cooking-pots, as in the case of the one 

 illustrated, are ornamented with a chevron-line in relief below the 

 neck and partly surrounding the vessel.^ This ware compares but 

 poorly with the finish and variety of design displayed by the glazed 

 pottery of Fiji. The Fijian women, however, employ similar tools 

 and accessories, namely, a flat mallet, a small round flat stone, and a 

 ring-like cushion of palm leaves ; but they do not appear from the 

 accounts given of the process by Commodore Wilkes,^ Messrs. 

 Williams and Calvert,^ and Miss Gordon Gumming,'^ to fashion the 

 clay in the first place into strips. I may here refer the reader to the 

 illustration, given by Commodore Wilkes in his narrative (vol. iii. p. 



1 Specimens of the pots, the implements, the clay, and the other accessories, have been 

 placed in the Ethnographical Collection of the British Mnseum. 



2 "Narrative of the U.S. Explor. Exped. : " vol. iii., p. 348. 



3 " Fiji and the Fijiaus : " 3rd edit., 1870, p. 60. 



•» " A Lady's Cruise in a French Man-of-War : " London, 1882, p. 247. 



