EARTHENWARE OF THE NEW YORK ABORIGINES /Q 



1 6th. It was in vogue for nearly 50 years, and might have led to 

 something higher had it not been displaced by the white man's 

 wares. 



Early writers are not agreed on some points. Roger Williams, 

 one of our earliest and best authorities on New England aboriginal 

 life, said that ' the women made all the earthen vessels.' Daniel 

 Gookin wrote, in 1674, of the fragile clay vessels there^ saying that 

 ' the clay and the earth they were made of were very scarce and 

 dear. The dishes, pots and spoons are the manufacture of the 

 men.' This showed careful selection of material^ whether the men 

 were really the artisans or not. Hutchinson said that the Narra- 

 gansetts. ' furnished the earthen vessels and pots for cookery and 

 other domestic uses.' Such wares were often articles of commerce, 

 when they gained a reputation. 



The Iroquois did not make stone pipes when first known^ unless 

 rarely, the clay pipe being then in use throughout the various 

 nations of that large family, but for official purposes stone calumets 

 appear quite early. Megapolensis said, about 1650, that each of 

 the Mohawks had ' a long tobacco pipe, made by himself, in his 

 mouth.' Capt. George Weymouth, who visited Long Island in 

 1605^ said ' The heads of their tobacco pipes were sometimes made 

 of clay, and sometimes were only the claw of a lobster; but they 

 were all sufficient to hold as much as 10 or 12 of ours.' Henry 

 Hudson observed among the River Indians^ however,, ' copper 

 tobacco pipes and pots of earth to cook their meat in.' He men- 

 tioned also copper ornaments and pipes in New Jersey, perhaps 

 mistaking the bronze red hue of the clay for the metal. 



There are occasional ornaments and other articles of burned clay, 

 but these are rare. Quite rarely, too, inclosures of clay appear in 

 sepulture. An example of this was found on the east side of Can- 

 andaigua lake in July 1893, and in a sandy soil. Three skeletons 

 were found near together, one of which was large and had the 

 limbs drawn up in the usual way. Excepting the ribs the bones 

 were sound. Mr E. J. Durant writes, ' They were lying in a stratum 

 of hard burned clay; so hard that it came up in chunks when 

 broken. Plenty of charcoal was in this stratum. Near the skele- 



