holmks.I IMITATION COIL-WAKE AND PLAIN WARE. 299 



DISTRICT OF THE RIO GILA. 



The broad area drained by the Gila River and its tributaries abounds 

 in ruins and relics, but its exploration is .vet very incomplete. Coiled 

 pottery identical, in nearly every respect, with that of the more northern 

 valleys is abundant, but it is sometimes associated with painted wares 

 very different in style from those of the cliff-house districts. It will 

 probably be found that the ceramic products of the Eio Gila and the 

 Eio Grande are much less homogeneous than those of the Colorado Chi- 

 quito, the San Juan, and the Eio Virgen. 



IMITATION COIL-WARE. 



I have already mentioned the occurrence in the Pueblo towns of mod- 

 ern coiled pottery, and also that there are seen, occasionally, vessels in 

 which the coiled effect is rudely imitated by means of scarifying and 

 indenting the plastic surface. Specimens of the latter class are gener- 

 ally small rude bottles with wide recurved lips and slightly conical 

 bases. They are very rudely made and clumsy and are but slightly 

 baked, and on account of the omission of proper tempering material are 

 extremely brittle. They are new looking, and in no case show- indica- 

 tions of use, and I have seen no example worthy of a place upon our 

 museum shelves save as illustrating the trickery of the makers. It is 

 possible that they are made by the Mokis, but if so by very unskilled 

 persons who have neither understood the methods nor employed the 

 same materials as the professional potters. I consider it highly proba- 

 ble that some clever Navajo has thought, by imitating archaic types of 

 ware, to outwit collectors and turn an honest penny. 



PLAIN WARE. 



All the groups of pottery furnish examples of plain vessels. These 

 are generally rudely finished and heavy, as if intended for the more or- 

 dinary domestic uses, such as the cooking of food and the storing of 

 provisions and water. The material is coarser than in the nicely finished 

 pieces and the surface is without the usual slip and without polish or 

 applied color. 



The characters of these utensils are quite uniform throughout very 

 widely separated districts, so that it is more difficult to assign a single 

 vessel to its proper family than in the case of decorated wares. 



We have from Saint George and other localities examples of plain 

 vessels that belong, without a doubt, to the coiled variety, the resem- 

 blance in material, color, shape, and finish being quite marked. 



