EARTHENWARE OF THE NEW YORK ABORIGINES 8l 



The inside is commonly black, and the outside of the proper hue 

 of baked clay, varying much according to the material. Means of 

 suspension rarely appear, but a cross piece of wood within, attached 

 to a cord, may have afforded these. Except in cooking an outside 

 cord would have sufficed, but there are no signs of wear from this. 

 How much and how they were used in cooking may be a question. 

 They could have been placed on a fire of coals rather than over it, 

 but show few external signs of such use, the outer surface being 

 usually clean and bright. The blackened interior suggests the 

 placing of hot stones in the water, so common a device among our 

 northern aborigines. Many, were probably used merely for hold- 

 ing water, or sometimes grain. Some large vessels were quite thin, 

 and few were adapted for hard usage. There are some which are 

 very small, apparently made on the thumb, and there are occasional 

 examples of toy vessels, about an inch in diameter and neatly 

 finished. These are the shallowest forms of all, and having at 

 times a raised and perforated ear may have been an imitation of the 

 brass kettle. Some of these, however, are from a Mohawk site 

 which seems to have been occupied as early as the end of the i6th 

 century. Very small vessels occur on another site of the same 

 period. In the Toronto collection is a small vessel made on the 

 thumb, and retaining an impression of the thumb nail. This is 

 rude, and the best examples of these small forms are those of the 

 Mohawks. 



True Iroquois vessels, with the usual constriction below the 

 deep expanded and ornamented rim, appear in some Canadian earth- 

 works a few miles northwest of Prescott. Figures of these were 

 given in the Smithsonian report for 1856, and they are from 4 to 8f 

 inches in inside diameter. Clay disks also occur there, about the 

 size of a quarter of a dollar. These are also found on Iroquois 

 sites in New York, but of a larger size. Perforated specimens come 

 from Pluron sites in Canada, and similar disks have often' been 

 found at Hochelaga or Montreal. They are usually of secondary 

 use, chipped out of earthenware fragments. 



The earthen vessels found on the site of Hochelaga at Montreal, 

 in 1 861, held from i quart to 4 gallons. Sir J. W. Dawson 



