go Pottery Among Savage Races. [ February, 
but they often mix different kinds of clay together. The class 
of. pottery used by the poorer classes comprises the comal, (flat 
plates to bake tortillas on), cayetes, or small plates (saucers) for 
certain dishes, etc. No kind of glazing is used for this kind of. 
pottery, but in its place a varnish is sometimes used, made from 
Nun (Coccus Axin Lallave), and this is occasionally painted. It 
is an ancient proceeding. I possess a vase, dug out at Jaina on 
the Gulf Coast north of Campeche, whose varnished and painted 
outer surface imitates admirably the design of ash wood. The 
pottery of the ancient Mayas shows great variety in form and in 
structure. Clay of different colors (dark red, light slate color, 
light and dark red, and brown) is sometimes mixed with mica or 
shell-gravel, and other substances, such as, in other parts, even 
wash gold. The ornamentation consists of figures and arabesques 
sunk or scratched into the surfaces, or elevated into reliefs and 
often painted. The modern pottery of the Indians is generally 
plain. The ancient pottery found in the interior, and particularly 
near the gulf-coast of Yucatan, shows a much higher art than 
that from the east coast, Cozumel island, etc.” 
Pottery making fell to the lot of the Carib women, and accord- 
ing to Ligon they manufactured a very handsome light ware (De 
la Borde, “ Relations de l'origine, &c., des Caraibes, &c., Receuil 
de divers Voyages, p. 23; McCulloh, Researches concerning the 
Aboriginal History of America, p. 84). 
Mr. Squier describes the pottery of Nicaragua as painted and 
glazed (Nicaragua, i, 287). The ceramic artists among the 
„Indians of Fort Yuma, California, are women, and the same is the 
case with the Zuñis, whose beautifully painted pottery closely 
resembles that of the ancient Indians of Pacoval (Michler, Rep. 
U.S. & Mex. Boundary Survey, i, 101; Pac. R. R. Rep., iii, 50). 
DuPratz says that the Indian women Hok only “make the pot- 
tery but they dig up and mix the clay ” (Hist. of Louisiana, 
Lond., 1774, 360). 
Adair informs us that the Cherokees glaze their ware, and 
make it very black and firm by placing it in the smoke of a pitch 
pine fire (Hist. of Am. Indians, Lond. 1775, 4). 
Hariot says of the natives of Virginia: “ Their women know 
how to make earthen vessels with special cunninge, and that so 
large and fine that our potters with thoye wheels can make noe — 
= better” (DeBry, A brief Report, &c., 1590; Campbell, Hist. of 
