64 ABORIGINAL POTTER V OF EASTERN UNITED STATES [etu.ann.20 



causes, two of which arc of especial iimiortance: tirst, with some peo- 

 ples colors had peculiar mytholooic sionificance, and on this account 

 were appropriate to vessels employed for certain cereuionial uses; 

 second, most savage and barbarian peoples have a decided fondness for 

 colors, and appreciate their esthetic values, taste being- exercised in 

 their selection. There is good evidence that both superstitious and 

 esthetic motives influenced the potters of the mound region; but it is 

 impossible to nay irom a study of the vases exactlj^ what part each of 

 these luotives took in producing the results observed in the wai-es 

 studied. Ordinarily domestic pottery did not receive surface coloring, 

 as subsequent use over fire would entirely ol)literate it. Coloring for 

 ornament is more fulh' discussed in a subse(|uent section (page 66). 



DECORATION 

 Evolution- of Decoration- 



A volume could l>e written on this most atti'active subject, but a 

 brief outline is all that can be given in this place. The origin and 

 early development of tlie idea of embellishment and the manner in 

 which decorative features came to l>e introduced into the ceramic art 

 can not he examined in detail. I have dwelt on these topics to some 

 extent in two payjers already published. Form and Ornament in the 

 Ceramic Art, Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, and 

 the Evolution of Ornament, an American Lesson, in the American 

 Anthropologist. April 1890. It is not es.sential to the purpose of this 

 paper that I should here do more than characterize and classify the 

 nati\-e decorative work of the eastern United States in a somewhat 

 generalway, detailed studies l)eing presented in connection with the 

 separate presentation of ceramic groups. 



Decoration may be studied, first, witii reference to the subject- 

 matter of the ornamentation — its form, origin, and significance — and. 

 second, with reference to the methods of execution and the devices 

 and implements employed. It may also t)e examined with refer- 

 ence to such evidence as it affords i-egarding racial and tribal history. 



The subject-matter of primitive ceramic ornament, the elements or 

 motives employed, may be assigned to two great classes based on the 

 character of the conceptions associated witli them. These are non- 

 ideographic, that is to say, those having a purely esthetic office, and 

 those having in addition to this function associated ideas of a super- 

 stitious, nuiemonic. or other significant nature. Nonideographic ele- 

 ments are mainly derived from two .sources: first, by copying from 

 objects having decorative features, natural or artificial, and second, 

 from suggestions of a decorative nature arising within the art from 

 constructive and manipulative features. Natural objects, such as sea- 

 shells and fruit shells, abound in features highly suggestive of embel- 

 lishment, and these ohje^'ts are constantly and intimately associated 

 with tiic j)lastic art and are co[)ie(l by the potter. Artificial ol)jects 



