HOLMES] MANUFACTURE OF IROQUOIAN POTTERY 161 



points at the corners and sagging margins between, is also a marked 

 feature, and the sharp constriction about the neck and the gracefully 

 swelling body, conic below, are hardly less pronounced and valuable 

 group characters. It is possible that some of these features owe their 

 origin to the bark vessels of the same region. This idea is presented 

 by Gushing in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology," 

 from which figure 62 is reproduced. In the application of the human 

 face or form in relief, we have another group index of the highest 

 value. The angles of the frieze are ver}^ often emphasized by enlarg- 

 ments, projecting ridges, and raised points, and to these the plastic 

 life features, mostlj' human, are added. 



Besides the large percentage of vases presenting these character- 

 istics, there are many of rather plain appearance that might not, if 

 placed with vessels of Algonquian type, be easily distinguished save 

 by the expert. Many are round-bodied and wide-mouthed, with 

 inconsjjicuous lips. Some are bowls and others mei'e cups, the latter 

 often quite minute. Leading features of form are brought out to good 

 advantage in the numerous illustrations accompanying this section. 



Materials and Manufacturk 



The materials used were usually mixtures of clay and rather coarse 

 tempering ingredients, in typical localities mostly silicious. The Iro- 

 quois occasionally used pulverized shell, as did their neighbors, the 

 Algonquians, but they seem to have preferred pulverized rock of 

 crystalline \arieties. Respecting the securing and selecting of the 

 ingredients, and the levigating, mixing, and manipulation of the paste, 

 but little can be said. Evidences of the nature of the building proc- 

 esses are obscure, but there is no reason to suppose that other than 

 the usual methods were employed.* The walls were probably built 

 up of bits and strips of clay welded together with the fingers and 

 worked down and polished with scrapers, paddles, and rubbing stones. 

 The surface of the convex bod}' of the vessel was sometimes finished 

 by malleating with a textile-covered paddle or by rouletting with a 

 cord-wrapped tool. The rim was added, and was then squared or 

 rounded on the margin and polished down in preparation for the use 

 of the graver and the tubular or pointed punch. The paste for large 

 vessels was often quite coarse, but for the smaller pieces and for most 

 pipes pure clay of the finest quality was employed. 



The baking was conducted in shallow pits or on the surface of the 

 earth, and in usual ways, no doubt, for the ordinary fire mottling is 

 observed. No great degree of heat was applied. 



n P. 520. 



6Kor a very carefully made experimental studyof this subject, see F. H. Cushing's article. The 

 germ of shoreland potterj', in the Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology, Chicago 

 1884. 



aO ETH— 03 11 



