62 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 43 



AYitli the skin wbk-h they take from the upper part of the canes they make 

 very fine sifters {tami.s). They also make some with larger openings which 

 serve as sieves (ctiNcft), and they work others without openings which take the 

 place of winnowing baskets (van). They sell these little pieces of work to the 

 French, who obtain them for trifles. They also make hampers {paniers) worked 

 very neatly, and baskets for corn." 



To tinish off the grain after it has been crushed, there is need of sifters, 

 sieves, and winnowing baskets. These are made of cane splints. The sifters 

 are finer or coarser, according to the use to which they are destined.* 



The women also make varieties of burden baskets for carrying grains, meat, 

 tish, or other provisions which they have to transport from one place to another. 

 The French have named them mannes, although they rather resemble manne- 

 quins. They are round, with a depth greater than the diameter, and as large 

 below as above. They make them of all sizes. The medium sized are for the 

 young girls. Thex'e are very little ones for gathering strawberries. 



The women of these countries, as of other regions, need to protect their jewels 

 and all that contributes to ornament their persons. For this purpose they 

 make double baskets, or those which have no reverse (one basket fitting into 

 another). The cover is large enough to inclose all the lower part, and it is 

 into these that they put their earrings, bracelets, garters, beads, hair ribbons, 

 and vermilion (or ocher) to paint themselves.^ 



Du Pratz describes the process of manufacturing pottery as talking 

 place at an imaginary previous period, when the people first came 

 from Asia, but it is perhaps what he had seen going on before him, 

 and with the tense altered runs as follows : 



They go in search of heavy earth, examine it in the form of dust [i. e., before 

 it had been wet], throwing out whatever grit they find, make a sufliciently firm 

 mortar, and then establish their workshop on a flat board, on which they shape 

 the pottery with their fingers, smoothing it by means of a stone which is pre- 

 served with great care for this work. As fast as the earth dries they put on 

 more,, assisting with the hand on the other side. After all these operations, it is 

 cooked by means of a great fire. 



These women also make pots of an extraordinary size, jugs with a medium- 

 sized opening, bowls, two-pint bottles with long necks, pots or jugs for bear's 

 oil, which hold as many as 40 pints, also dishes and plates like the French. I 

 have had some made out of curiosity on the model of my earthenware. They 

 were of a quite beautiful red.'' 



Tn another place he says that the red color was due to ocher ob- 

 tained from veins in a blutf called the White Bluff [VEcore Blanc). 

 This was smeared on the pots before they were hardened, and dried 

 over the fire. 



Says Dmnont : 



What is more remarkable is that without a potter's wheel, with their fingers 

 alone and patience, they [the women! make all kinds of earthen vessels, dishes, 

 plates, pots to put on the fire, with others large enough to contain 25 to 30 pots 

 of oil.« 



"» Dumont, M(5m. Hist, sur I,a Louisiano, i, 154. 



^ Dvi Pratz, Hist, do La l.oiiisiano, ii, 179. \f 



<■ n)ic1.. lS.3-184. 



" Ibid., 178-179. 



