HOLMES] MANUFACTUKE OF POTTERY 59 



A man about fifty j'ears of age stated to me that he hail never .seen these pots in use, 

 but tliat his grandmother had told him that in her days they made and used them. 

 He said that they were accustomed to smooth off the end of a tree for a mold. A 

 hot fire was then built, in which stones were roasted, which were afterward pounded 

 into fine pow'der or sand. Tliis pounded stone they mixed wdtli fine clay, and when 

 the material was of the proper consistency they smeared it over the rounded mold, 

 which was perhaps first well greased with buffalo tallow. After the clay had been 

 made of even thickness throughout, and smooth on the outside, they took a small, 

 sharp stone, and made marks on the outside to ornament it. AVhen the material 

 was sufRciently dry, they lifted it from the mold and burned it in the fire, and 

 while it was Ijaking, "put corn in the pot and stiri-ed it about, and this ma<le it hard 

 as iron." This may mean tliat it gave the jiot a glaze on the inside. In these pots 

 they boiled food of all kinds, ilr Dunbar informs me that these pots were al.so 

 made in later times within a frame-work of willow twigs. Tlie clay, made very stiff, 

 was smeared on this frame, the inside being repeatedly smoothed with the moist- 

 ened liand, and but little attention being given to the appearance of the outside. 

 After they had been sun-dried, such pots were Ijaked without removing the frame, 

 which burned away in the fire, leaving the marks of the twigs visible on the outsirle 

 of the pot." 



The following extracts from the writing.s of Peter Kalni refer to 

 the practice of this art in the eastern portions of the country, and 

 indicate that the art of clay vessel making was entirely abandoned in 

 those sections familiar to that author more than a century ago. The 

 specimens exhibited by Mr Bartram probal)ly came from the South. 

 Mr Kalm wrote: 



Mr Bartram shewed me an earthen pot, which had Ijeen found in a i:)lace where 

 the Indians formerly lived. He who first dug it out kept grease and fat in it to 

 smear his shoes, boots, and all sorts of leather with. Mr Bartram bought the pot of 

 that man; it was yet entire and not damaged. I could perceive no glaze or color 

 upon it, but on the outside it was very much ornamented and upon the whole well 

 made. Air Bartram shewed me several pieces of broken earthen vessels which the 

 Indians formerly made use of. It plainly appeared in all these that they were not 

 made of mere clay, but that different materials had ijeen mixed with it, according to 

 the nature of the places wliere they were made. Those Indians, for example, who 

 lived near the seashore pounded the shells of snails and mussels and mixed them with 

 the clay. Others, who lived farther up in the country where moimtain crystals could 

 be found, poimded them and mixed them with their clay; but how the}' proceeded 

 in making the vessels is entirely unknown. It was plain that they did not burn 

 them much, for they are so soft they miglit be cut in pieces witli a knife; the woi'k- 

 manship, however, seems to have been very good, for at i:)resent they find wliole 

 vessels or pieces in the ground whicli are not damaged at all, though they have lain 

 in the ground above a century. Before the Europeans settled in North America 

 the Indians had no other vessels to lioil their meat in than these earthen pots of 

 their own making, but since their arrival they have always bought pots, kettles, and 

 other necessary vessels of the Europeans, and take no longer the pains of making 

 some, by which means this art is entirely lost among them. Such vessels of their 

 own construction are therefore a great rarity even among the Indians. I have seen 

 such old pots and pieces of them, consisting of a kind of Serijentine stone, or Lin- 

 nseus's Talcum, Syst. Nat. 3, p. 52.'' 



" Grinnell. George Bird, Pawnee hero stories and follf-tales, New York, 1893, pp. 255-56. 

 ^Kalm, Peter, Travels into North America, vol. i. Warrington, 1770, pp 227-29. 



