SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 553 



vessels used were a flat earthen skillet (i'yis patha'), an earthen pot 

 (a'katce), an earthen dish (oklayampo), and, in more modern times, 

 a frying pan (istapwatle'). 



A few notes may be added from a Koasati informant, Jackson 

 Langley. To make their pots they employed red clay found in certain 

 special places. The pots were greased well before being placed over 

 the fire, so that after they had been placed in use the spoons would 

 not scratch through the surface and loosen the clay underneath. 

 Old dry pieces of hickory bark were used for the fire, pine bark 

 never, and they burned them down until there was a hot bed of 

 coals over which the pots were placed, upside down. In that way 

 the clay would dry slowly so as not to crack. Two or three different 

 kinds of pots were made in this manner. 



Speck says that the pots of Taskigi Creeks were made 



of clean red clay coiled upon a disk-like base. To fire these they were covered 

 with dried grass and the mass was ignited. When the combustible covering 

 had burned off the pot was black, and so hard that it could withstand the 

 effects of daily contact with fire. Pipes of unbaked clay are still made in 

 some of the remote parts of the Taskigi district. (Speck, 1907, p. 109.) 



The same writer's account of Yuchi pottery-making is one of the 

 best we have (Speck, 1909, pp. 25-28). 



Adair's description is presumably particularly applicable to the 

 Chickasaw, but might also have covered the Creeks and the Cherokee : 



They make earthen pots of very different sizes, so as to contain from two 

 to ten gallons ; large pitchers to carry water ; bowls, dishes, platters, basons, and 

 a prodigious number of other vessels of such antiquated forms, as would be 

 tedious to describe, and impossible to name. Their method of glazing them, is, 

 they place them over a large fire of smoky pitch pine, which makes them smooth, 

 black, and firm. Their lands abound with proper clay, for that use; and even 

 with porcelain, as has been proved by experiment. (Adair, 1775, p. 456.) 



Clay suitable for pots was obtained at the Chickasaw bluffs, and a 

 small industry was carried on there. 



Timberlake (Williams ed., 1927, p. 86) noted that the Cherokee "have 

 two sorts of clay, red and white, with both of which they make excellent 

 vessels, some of which will stand the greatest heat." 



As the Indian from whom I got the following account belonged 

 to the Cherokee band of Natchez, it is probable that the method 

 followed resembled that in use among the old Cherokee as much as, 

 and perhaps more than, that of the old Natchez. He remembered 

 having seen both pans and jars of native manufacture. He related 

 to me the following method used by an old Natchez woman, as wit- 

 nessed by himself : 



The old woman first pounded up some slate which she mixed with 

 the clay, and the material resulting was rolled into long cylindrical 

 strips, which were coiled round and round until the pot was com- 



