BTEVExsoM.J MANUFACTURE OP POTTERY. 329 



grassy oases. ITone of these are actually drawn from nature, but from 

 imagination and memory, as they never hare an object before them in 

 molding or painting. 



In none of the cases referred to do we observe any attempts to imi- 

 tate the exact forms or ceramic designs of the so-called ancient pottery, 

 fragments and sometimes entire vessels of which are found throughout 

 this southwestern region. This seems strange from the fact that in the 

 use of stone implements we find bui few which are the result of their 

 own handiwork. The old ruins are searched, and from them, and the 

 debris about them, stone pestles, mortars, hammers, hatchets, rubbing 

 stones, scrapers, picks, spear and arrow heads, and polishing stones are 

 collected by the inhabitants of nearly all the pueblos, and are kept and 

 used by them. 



The clay mostly used by the ZuQians iu the manufacture of pottery is a 

 dark, bluish, carbonaceous, clayey shale found iu layers usually near the 

 tops of the mesas. Several of these elevated mesas are situated near 

 Zui3i, from which the natives obtain this material. This carbonaceous 

 clay is first mixed with water aud then kneaded as a baker kneads dough 

 until it reaches the proper consistency; with this, crushed volcanic lava is 

 sometimes mixed ; but the Zufiians more frequently pulverize fragments 

 of broken pottery, which have been preserved for this purpose. This 

 seems to prevent explosion, cracking, or fracture by rendering the paste 

 sufficiently porous to allow the heat to pass through without injurious 

 effect. When the clayey dough is ready to be used a sufficient quan- 

 tity is rolled into a ball. The dough, if worked by a careful artist, is 

 first tested as to its fitness for molding by putting a piece of the paste 

 to the tongue, the sensitiveness of which is such as to detect any 

 gritty substance or particles, when the fingers fail to do so. The 

 ball is hollowed out with the fingers into the shape of a bowl (this 

 form constituting the foundation for all varieties of earthenware) and 

 assumes the desired form by the addition of strips of the clay; all 

 traces of the addition of each strip are removed before another is added, 

 by the use of a small trowel fashioned from a piece of gourd or frag- 

 ment of pottery, the only tool employed in the manufiicture of pottery. 



The bottoms of old water jars and bowls form stands for the articles 

 while being worked by the potter. The bowls are filled with sand when 

 objects of a globular form are to be made. Although I have often 

 watched the process, yet iu no instance have I ever observed the use of a 

 potter's wheel, measuring instrument, or model of any kind. The makers, 

 who are always females, depend entirely on memory and skill derived 

 from practice to accomplish their work. The vessels when completely 

 formed are laid in some convenient place to sun-dry. A paint or solu- 

 tion is then made, either of a fine white calcareous earth, consisting 

 mainly of carbonate of lime, or of a milk-white indurated clay, almost 

 wholly insoluble in acids, and apparently derived from decomposed 

 feldspar with a small proportion of mica. This solution is applied to 



