552 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



a kind said to be found in nodules of granite. Perhaps Lewis meant 

 limestone instead of granite, the stone being flint. She sometimes 

 ornamented the edges of the pot by pinching it betAveen two fingers. 

 The pot was fired by turning it upside down upon the ground, lean- 

 ing various combustibles against it all about, and setting these on 

 fire. As fast as the fagots gave way, she replaced them until the 

 pot became red hot, when she allowed the fire to burn out and the 

 pot to cool. During the baking, and while the pot was still very hot, 

 she might take the feather of a turkey and trace designs on the out- 

 side with the quill end. As she did this, the quill would burn and 

 color the parts of the pot over which it was passing. Sometimes they 

 got some very red stones found here and there in the hills, and per- 

 haps the same as those out of which they made their red paint, 

 pounded them into powder, and put some on the end of a stick 

 with which they then made designs in the same manner as with the 

 quill. Designs might also be made by making incisions with a pointed 

 stick before the pot had hardened. So far as Lewis knew, they never 

 put netting over their pots during the process of manufacture, but 

 they took a corncob and stroked the sides of very large pots to 

 roughen their surfaces if they were to be used in cooking. 



My Upper Creek interpreter, Zach Cook, said that the potters of 

 his acquaintance first laid down a flat piece of clay for a foundation 

 and then coiled a thin strip round and round for the superstructure. 

 They either used the clay, described as a blue pipe clay, plain, or else 

 pounded up pieces of old pottery and mixed them with it. They 

 claimed that this latter kind was the stronger. They rubbed a corn- 

 cob over the outside, and then glazed it by means of a mussel shell. 

 It was shaped up and smoothed on the inside by means of a smooth 

 stone or a shell. Then it was placed near the fire and rotated, or 

 moved nearer to and farther from the blaze successively, in order to 

 make it bake properly and evenly. 



According to my Alabama informant, Charlie Thompson, later 

 chief of the Texas band, pots were made of fine white or dark blue 

 clay mixed with a smaller quantity of burned bones and white sand 

 to prevent them from cracking. After this had been kneaded to- 

 gether thoroughly, it was laid aside for a while and then kneaded 

 again. This was repeated two or three times. Afterward a portion 

 of the clay was worked into a ribbon and this was coiled round and 

 round to make the pot. Then a fire was made out of small pieces 

 of bark, the pot was turned upside down upon this, and more barks 

 were heaped on top. Before it was cold, they rubbed it all over with 

 a corncob to make it "smooth." Sometimes they ornamented these 

 pots on the outside by means of lines. The greater number were 

 made for sofki and they used to be sold for a dollar. The principal 



