FEWKES] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 281 



of the river bank have been washed out bj^ freshets. Although not 

 common, whole pieces of pottery are found in several collections. 

 These have a distinct character which is readily recognized. As a 

 rule, etiigy and relief designs are the most constant forms of orna- 

 mentation, although painted specimens are also common. The pottery 

 has a light or reddish-lirown or cream color. Modern Panuco ceramic 

 ware closely resembles the ancient in both character and the designs 

 painted or cut upon it. One of the most constant forms of vases is 

 melon-shaped, with a hollow handle considerably separated from the 

 body of the pitcher, which has a wide flaring neck. As objects of this 

 kind sometimes have a handle above the orifice, it is conjectured that 

 the hollow tube on the side, always open at the end, maj" serve to 

 assist in drinking. As some of these objects recall modern teapots, 

 the so-called handle may have served the same purpose as a spout. 

 Many of these pitchei' or teapot vases have their necks or other parts 

 decorated with heads in relief. In certain forms, as that here figured, 

 the meridional elevations are continued into projections about the 

 margin of the base, which is flattened. The meridional lobes so con- 

 stantly found in Huaxtec pottery occur on the "white mai'ble vase" 

 of classic form found on the ''Isla de Sacrificios"" near the city of 

 Vera Cruz. 



In all localities near the Panuco ruins are found burnt clay images 

 which exist in a variety of forms in several local collections. Most of 

 these are simple heads, possibly broken from the rims of jars or the 

 surfaces of ceramic objects, but others are parts of figurines often 

 found entire. Senor Antonio Parras, owner of the ranch San Fran- 

 cisco, who lives in Altamira, has several specimens of pottery which 

 give a good idea of the ceramic productions of the aborigines of the 

 Champayan Lagoon settlements. These vases (plate cxxix)have lobed 

 sides without relief decorations, but painted with brown figures much 

 the same in color as some of the ware from pueblo ruins on the Little 

 Colorado river in Arizona. The ornamental patterns on some of these 

 vases are particularly good. Among them is a vase with the surface 

 decorated with spiral ornaments that appear to be representations of 

 human faces. On another figure are painted somewhat similar designs 

 consisting of spirals, and on a third an ornamentation very much sim- 

 plified, smaller in size, yellow and not brown in color, but with black 

 line decoration. The other two figures represent vases with lobed 

 surfaces which in one are shallow and in the other prominent. Mr 

 G. A. Reichert, superintendent of the Tehuantepec Mutual Planters' 

 Company at Tamos, has a few specimens of pottery found on the 

 Chanca plantation that illustrate the character of clay effigies from 

 that region. Tamos, on the left bank of the Panuco river, about 10 



aSee Branz Mayer, Mexico as It Was, and as It Is, p. 96, Philadelphia, 1847. 



