SwANOJON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 551 



hominy cooked enough for two or three families," the cooks taking 

 turns providing it. He adds that "these pots are of clay and of a 

 round shape almost like windmills" (Penicaut in Margry, 1875-86, 

 vol. 5, pp. 388-389; Swanton, 1911, p. 303). 



In Florida Laudonniere saw, in the house of a native chief, "a 

 great vessel of earth made after a strange fashion" (Laudonniere, 

 1586, p. 74; Swanton, 1922, p. 354), and in Le Moyne's drawings we 

 find two or three types of pots represented, including a large cylin- 

 drical affair somewhat like the sofki pots of the Creeks, and a small 

 round pot with a narrow mouth, to which there should perhaps be 

 added a kind of spoon or ladle with a short handle, though this last 

 may have been of wood or horn. 



Bartram (1792, p. 325) states that the clay out of which the Creeks 

 made pottery, as well as that which they used as plaster for their 

 buildings, was generally obtained in a large artificial pond "just 

 without the town," where they also cultivated, or rather kept, angel- 

 ico. In 1739 Governor Oglethorpe observed the Indians of Coweta 

 town "dress their Meat in Large pans made of Earth and not much 

 unlike our Beehives in England" (Bushnell, 1908, p. 573), and toward 

 the end of the same century Caleb Swan noted among the Upper 

 Creeks 



earthen pots and pans of various sizes, from one pint up to six gallons. But 

 in these, they betray a great want of taste and invention, they have no variety 

 of fashion; these vessels are all without handles, and are drawn so nearly 

 to a point at the bottom, that they will not stand alone. Therefore, whenever 

 they are set for use, they have to be propped upon three sides with sticks or 

 stones. (Swan, 1855, p. 692.) 



By this time, however, it is probable that traders' goods had caused 

 considerable deterioration in the native arts. 



Clay suitable for the manufacture of pots was obtained at some 

 points on Oconee Creek, the modern Hatchechubbee. 



Although this industry no longer exists among the Creeks, I ob- 

 tained two descriptions given by old people from memory, and a third 

 from a member of the incorporated Alabama tribe. Jackson Lewis, 

 the Hitchiti informant, said that when a woman wanted to make a pot 

 she hunted about until she found a clay that would not crack, and, if 

 she could not discover such a clay, she mixed the clay she could get 

 with the finest sand, thereby accomplishing the same result. In shap- 

 ing the pot she first laid down a flat piece to form the base, and then 

 made a ribbon of the remaining clay which she led round and round 

 spirally, adding to her ribbon as required, until the pot was com- 

 pleted. Then she would take a mussel shell and smooth the pot 

 with it both outside and inside. The inside surface, however, she 

 made appear almost as if glazed by rubbing it with a small stone of 



