1879. } Pottery Among Savage Races. 85 
Before burning, the vessels are allowed to dry slowly in the 
shade, and afterwards in the sun. The burning requires much 
care, and is performed in different ways. Usually, they are set at 
a distance from the fire, and allowed to become heated gradually, 
without actual contact with the flame, after which they are sur- 
rounded by fire and thoroughly burned. Very often they are 
covered with a heap of Carazpé bark, which is set on fire. Some- 
times, on the Amazonas, pottery is burned in an oven or ina 
hole in the ground. The Carajas and other tribes of the Ara- 
guaya burn their pottery in ovens made by hollowing out the 
nests of the white ant. The ware is introduced, another excava- 
tion is made below the fire, and still another in the top of the 
nest to serve as a chimney. The enormous earthern pans 
(yapona) on which farina is cooked, and which are sometimes 
four or five feet across, require to be burned with great care, and 
their manufacture is usually entrusted only to women of much 
experience. Ordinarily the pottery of the Amazonas is not 
thoroughly cooked. That of the Bluff-Dwellers is particularly 
poor in this respect. While the vessel is still hot after burning, 
it often receives inside a coating of melted jutahy-sica resin, 
applied with a-swab, but I am informed that before the vessel is 
used on the fire, this is first burned out. This resin is said to be 
obtained from the Futahy tree of the Amazonas (Hymenea cour- 
baril); but it does not appear to be the product of the Futahy 
alone. 
At Bréves, on the Island of Mårajó, there is made a kind of 
pottery which is first washed with white clay, and after burning, | 
painted in water color in the most gaudy-and outrageous fashion. 
Over this color a varnish of jutahy-sica, dissolved in alcohol, is 
laid. A similar resin, said to be the product of the same species 
of Hymenea, is used to varnish painted ware among the May- 
pures on the Orinoco (Humboldt, Pers. Nar. ii, 309). The Abi- 
ponian women rubbed their pottery with a kind of glue to make 
it shine (Dobritzhoffer, Hist. of Abipones, ii, 131). The Indians 
of Guiana paint their pottery with water color, and varnish it 
with the gum simiri ( Simiri tinctoria) or bourgoni( Robinia bourgont). 
In Yucatan, Behrendt reports the use of a varnish made from the 
Niin (Coccus axin Lallave) The Fijians glaze their ware with a 
resin, and the ancient Egyptians sometimes painted pottery in 
distemper and covered it with a resinous varnish: (“ Pottery, in- 
