1879. | Pottery Among Savage Races. 81 
added in the manufacture of certain kinds, both among civilized 
and savage nations. In making, for metallurgical purposes, cru- 
cibles that are required to stand great heat and sudden changes 
of temperature, burnt clay, obtained by powdering old crucibles, 
is sometimes added to the raw clay to prevent cracking (Fonck. 
Zeitschr. f. Eth. ii. 1870, iv, 290, Ure’s Dict. sub Pottery; Brog- 
niart i, 72). 
The ancient Indians of Pacoval, on the island of Marajo, used 
to mingle powdered pottery with the clay for their ware, and in. 
the mass composing the walls of fractured specimens from Sr. 
Ferreira Penna, I have found quite large fragments still showing 
their painted surfaces. 
In both North and South America, where the Indian pottery 
is rarely ever thoroughly burned, the clay is often mixed with 
broken shells. Mica enters frequently into the composition of 
pottery, and Dr. Berendt has informed me that in Yucatan, even 
wash gold was occasionally used. Gold is also found in the 
material composing the pottery of. Palembang, in the East Indies 
(Jour. E. Ind. Archipelago, 1850, iv, 273). 
Powdered coke or furnace cinders, graphite, nonai (Brog- 
niart, l. c. i, 74), and even sawdust are employed in some kinds of 
modern European pottery, and where a low heat is used in 
baking, the clay is sometimes mixed with powdered limestone. 
At a higher heat this latter would serve as a flux. 
I am not aware that the Indians of North America ever mixed 
ashes with the clay, but the custom is very general in South 
America, where the ashes of the bark of several trees are 
employed. In Guiana the bark used is that of the Couepi tree, 
(Couepia guianensis) (F erdinand Fermin, Description Bele, 
c., de Surinam, i, 61). 
On the Amazons the clay intended for the manufacture of pot- 
tery is mixed with the ash of the Caraipé tree, (Moguilea utilis 
Hooker) (Benth. Martius, Flora Braziliensis, Fasc. xli, Pl. 8, f. 11; 
Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, &c., 484; Marryatt, “ Pottery 
and Porcelain,” 509; Bates, “ Naturalist, &c.” 225). The Carajás, 
-Caraja-is, Chambiéas, Chavatites, Chereiites, and Guajajaras of the 
Araguaya, mix with the clay the ashes of certain sjós. I have 
seen the Caraipé bark prepared by stacking the fragments on end 
in a conical heap, and then burning them in the open air. The 
ash is very abundant and preseron, the original § form of the frage . 
VOL, XIII, —nNo. il, 
