372 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



that with most peoples particular forms were devoted to especial cere- 

 monial uses. The construction of vases exclusively for mortuary pur- 

 poses was probably not generally practiced, although a few examples, 

 notably those illustrated in Figs. 372 and 420, point decidedly in this 

 direction. 



The simple conditions of life with these people are indicated by the 

 absence of certain forms. Lamps, whistles, toys, bricks, tiles, and other 

 articles in common use with many barbaric nations, are not found in this 

 province. Pipes, so neatly shaped by other mound-building peoples, are 

 here of a very rude character, a point indicating decided distinctions be- 

 tween the tribes of this province and those of neighboring sections. 



Construction. — The methods of manufacture have evidently been 

 of a primitive character. The wheel or lathe has not been used. At 

 the advent of the whites, the natives were observed to build their ves- 

 sels by a process known as " coiling," and by modeling over gourds, 

 and over blocks of wood and masses of indurated clay shaped for the 

 purpose. 



It is probable that in many cases the support was not a mold in 

 the ordinary sense, but was simply a rounded object of small size held 

 in one hand while the base of the vessel was formed over it by the 

 other. Rounded pebbles, or the mushroom-shaped objects of clay some- 

 times found in the mounds, would have served the purpose perfectly. 

 Trowels, paddles, stamps, polishing-stones, and other implements were 

 used in finishing. 



Baskets were also used as molds, and pliable fabrics, such as nets 

 and coarse cloths, were employed in some sections. The methods of 

 baking have apparently not been described in much detail by early 

 writers, but the ware itself bears the marks of those simple processes 

 known to our modern tribes. It is highly probable that the work was 

 done by the women, and that each community had its skilled potters, 

 who built and baked the ware in the open air, going through those 

 simple mummeries that accompany the work among most primitive 

 peoples. 



Material. — The material employed was usually a moderately fine- 

 graiued clay, tempered, in a great majority of cases, with pulverized 

 shells. The shells used were doubtless obtained from the neighboring 

 rivers. In many of the vessels the particles are large, measuring as 

 much as one-fourth or even one-half of an inch in width, but in the 

 more, elegant vases the shell has been reduced to a fine powder. Pow- 

 dered potsherds were also used. The clay was, apparently, often 

 impure or loamy. It was, probably, at times, obtained from recent 

 alluvial deposits of the bayous— the sediment of overflows — as was the 

 potter's clay of the Nile. There is no reason for believing that the 

 liner processes of powdering and levigatiou were known. A slip or 

 wash of very finely comminuted clay was sometimes applied to the 

 surface of the vessel. The walls of the vessels are often thick and un- 



