rorH] POTTERY 33 
fired within from three to six days from completion. The goblets, 
dishes, saucers, and other nonfigured modern pottery are manu- 
factured on practically identical lines and are discussed under 
Domestic Requisites (secs. 389-391). 
92. For firing, an excavation is made in the ground, the vessel 
inserted, a pyramid of dry wood placed on top and then set fire to, 
keeping this up until the article is burned. The necessary amount 
of burning is determined by the sound emitted upon tapping the 
pot with a little stick (SR, 1, 262). 
93. With regard to glazing, etc., Schomburgk is responsible for 
the statement that the Indians employ oxide of manganese to give 
luster to their native pottery (ScD, 93), but unfortunately omits 
to mention the method of use. The same authority speaks of the 
Warrau drying their pottery in the sun and smearing it with a 
varnish prepared from the soot of old pots mixed with the sticky 
sap of a mimosa (SR, 1, 169). Koch-Griinberg speaks of the polish- 
ing of the pots with the resin or milk of the cuma tree (KG, n, 228), 
and some of the Carib are said to have the knack of producing a fine 
glaze on the vessel by the application of certain juices (PEN, 128), 
while Kappler, in Surinam, speaks of smearing with a sort of copal 
varnish (AK, 175-176). This last statement is somewhat inter- 
esting, in that Humboldt mentions the same material (Hymenwa 
courbaril) as used among the Maypure of the Orinoco for covering 
over the paint work on their pottery (AVH, u, 309). 
94. Pottery may be stained black with the juice of some particular 
herbs (BA, 278) or with the soot from used pots mixed with the 
slimy gumlike sap of the Inga (SR, 1, 262), as I have observed for 
myself on the Pomeroon. In other cases a pattern may be painted 
on the article with the same material or with genipa, as in Surinam 
(WJ, 88). I have seen it fixed with a second firing. When a red 
pigment is employed it is obtained from the Biza orellana or the 
Bignonea chica (SR, 1, 262) or from the Bellucia aubletii. A white 
paint may also be used (WJ, 88), while Kappler speaks of painting 
with the juice of a beetle which gives a brown color (AK, 175-176). 
So far as the Pomeroon Carib patterns are concerned—absent only, 
as is the case generally elsewhere, on the very large water and 
paiwarri jars and the ‘“‘buck”’ pots—they would seem to be, with 
one exception, more or less conventional and arbitrary, it being 
very rare to find any two alike. Thus on a goblet I have seen such 
varying patterns as a hog-tooth necklace, a snake, a turtle shell 
and eggs, an earthworm, and many other figures which even by the 
potter herself were not intended to represent anything. The one 
exception is the scorpion tail, which seems to be typical of Carib 
manufacture (WER, v1, sec. 240). Among composite forms is the 
mythical snake and tree of the same tribe (WER, v1, sec. 235). 
[For more advanced designs, coloration, ete., see section 391.] 
