Cuarter VIII 
POTTERY 
Choice of clay (89); mixed with certain ingredients (90). 
Manufacture of the vessel (91); firing (92); luster and glaze (93); painting and 
patterns (94). 
Protection against damage, etc. (95). 
Modern figured pottery (96). 
Old-time pottery: Figured (97, 98); other objects (99). 
89. The whole subject of pottery in its different stages and relations 
requires a great deal further investigation, and, indeed, the sooner 
the better, for with the introduction of cheap tinware the art is 
becoming rapidly degenerate and lost. 
There would seem to be variations in the quality of the clay for 
which the potter has a predilection, but nothing is definitely known 
of their exact nature. Although suitable clay is to be found in almost 
all the small streams of the coastal region, there are some particular 
localities where it is considered to be especially good. To such 
belongs a small hill on the left bank of the mouth of the Cuyuni, 
whence Indians come from long distances to obtain their require- 
ments (SR, 1, 261). Hilhouse also speaks of the Cuyuni being crossed 
by large veins of clay, which the Indians travel great distances to 
secure for the manufacture of their cooking utensils, on account of 
its superior fireproof quality and its milky tinge (HiB, 321). 
Although the clay from the Pomeroon River may be of poor quality 
(IT, 275) it is nevertheless good enough for the present-day Carib 
from the upper reaches of the Moruca, who paddles across the 
intervening stretch of sea to secure it. 
90. According to various authors, clay was mixed with certain 
other ingredients before it was manufactured, but the reasons for 
the mixing, even when furnished, would seem to be neither uniform 
nor satisfactory. If the bark of a certain tree, called by the Arawak 
kawta (Artocarpus?), burned and ground to powder is mixed with 
the clay it makes the vessels quite black (IT, 277). On the upper 
Rio Negro, Wallace (ARW, 342) and Koch-Griinberg note the mix- 
ture of the clay with ashes of caripe or caraipe bark, the latter 
stating that it renders the clay more adhesive (KG, m, 24). In 
Surinam it is mixed with ashes of the kweepi [caripe] bark (FE, 61) 
to give it a yellowish red color when baked (WJ, 88). Elsewhere, 
in making their goblets for keeping water, the women take care to 
add the ashes of a bark called couépi [caripe], which renders the clay 
more porous, so favoring coolness by evaporation (Cr, 193). On the 
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