NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBERG 



13 



The banks of rivers serve as the principal source 

 of clay. It is dug out by the women with the 

 digging stick and carried home in baskets. In 

 making a pot, the lumps of clay are first mixed 

 with water and with carbonized seeds of the 

 motacu palm which constitute the temper. The 

 resulting mixture is made into balls, from which 

 coils for the sides of the pot are rolled out, and 

 into disks, from which the base of the pot may 

 be formed. 



The base is molded, either out of a disk of clay 

 (in case the bottom of the pot is to be rounded) 

 or out of a small coil (in case it is to be more 

 pointed). It is molded entirely with the fingers, 

 and when finished is placed in a slight depression 

 in the ground into which ashes have been put to 

 serve as a cushion. 



The rest of the pot is constructed by the coiling 

 technique. After the base has been molded, the 

 coils are rolled out one by one on a mat of motacu 

 palm and applied in turn. In making a pot a 

 woman works the coils of clay together with her 

 fingers, on which she frequently spits. In addi- 

 tion, she employs the convex surface of a mussel 

 shell called hitai to smooth out the clay. After 

 one or two coils have been added to the base of 

 the pot, it is generally left standing to dry for a 

 day before others are added. In this way the pot 

 does not lose shape by having too much weight 

 at the top when the clay is wet. Thus several 

 days commonly elapse before a pot is complete. 

 Once finished, it is left to dry in the shade for 

 about 2 days before it is baked. 



Pots are baked in the hot ashes of an open fire. 

 As each section of a pot hardens, it is turned 

 slightly so as to bake another. To main tarn an 

 even heat, sometimes a pot is covered with green 

 boughs and chips while it is baking. Since the 

 method of baking is very crude, pots are very 

 fragile and must be handled with great care. 

 They vary in size from about 5 to 10 inches in 

 diameter at the top and from about 8 to 14 inches 

 in height. 



Pipes (kedkwa), like pots, are made from a mix- 

 ture of clay and carbonized seeds of the motacu 

 palm. The entire pipe, including the stem, is 

 molded from a single disk of clay, the fingers alone 

 being used. As a woman molds the bowl she 

 leaves at the bottom a small lump of clay from 

 which the stem is later fashioned. After finishing 



the bowl, she fashions this lump into a conelike 

 shape and then inserts a palm straw into the bowl 

 to make the hole for the stem. She then molds 

 the lump of clay bit by bit around the straw until 

 the stem of the pipe is of the desired length, leaving 

 a little decorative projection at the bottom of the 

 bowl which is called eka or teat. 



After a pipe has been molded it is dried in the 

 open air for a couple of days and then baked in 

 the coals of a fire as is a pot. In baking, the straw 

 in the stem is burned out, leaving a hole through 

 which to suck the pipe. 



Circular spindle whorls are sometimes made by 

 women from small disks of clay hardened in the 

 open fire as a pipe or a pot is. Before they are 

 baked they are fitted on to the spindle so that the 

 hole in the whorl will be of proper size. 



UTENSILS 



Calabashes (yaboki) are prepared as drinking 

 vessels in the following manner. A round hole 

 about an inch in diameter is cut in the top of a 

 gourd with the gouging tool. A small stick is then 

 inserted, and the seeds are loosened and shaken 

 out. The calabash is then washed on the inside 

 and dried slowly hi the fire, water being squirted 

 on the outside from time to time to keep it from 

 burning. Calabashes, though used primarily as 

 drinking vessels, are also employed for making 

 mead and for storing tobacco, feather ornaments, 

 and animal teeth. 



When calabashes are scarce, hollow sections of 

 bamboo are sometimes used as drinking vessels, to 

 store wild honey, and to make mead. They are 

 simply cut to the length desired. 



Mortars (mbua) are sometimes hollowed out of 

 fallen logs that lie near camp, but sections of a 

 log are never cut especially for this purpose; that 

 is, a section of a log is not cut, set up, and hol- 

 lowed out on the end for use as a mortar. To 

 make a mortar, a hole is made in the side of a 

 fallen trunk with fire, the charcoal being chipped 

 out with a digging stick, which also serves as the 

 pestle. Mortars are used principally for grinding 

 corn for food and mead, and for grinding burned 

 motacu seeds for temper for pots. They are never 

 carried from camp to camp. 



No spoons, plates, bowls, or bags are manufac- 

 tured by the Siriono. Pots and baskets have 

 already been described. 



