FIFTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I908 



223 



jars, is often used as a generic term for any sort of pottery. Soup, 

 cooked hominy and other foods are kept in such vessels. With 

 the exception of the flat bottom which may be a comparatively 

 recent adaptation to facilitate standing on shelves and tables, this 

 form may well be of aboriginal origin, but bears a greater resem- 

 blance to what the New York archeologist would call the Algon- 

 quin rather than the Iroquoian type. 



A distinct resemblance to Iroquois pottery may be observed in 

 the pots, which often show, to a greater or less extent, a rounded 

 bottom, spheroidal body and constricted neck .sometimes sur- 

 mounted by a projecting rim or collar, all of which features are 

 characteristic of Iroquois ware. The rim is sometimes even deco- 

 rated with notches, dots and simple incised lines, which add to the 

 Iroquois effect as in the jars the body is frequently covered with 

 stamped paddle patterns. Such pots were formerly employed for 

 general cooking purposes but have been recently used more for 

 stewing fruit than anything else. The bight of the modern speci- 

 mens is generally under 8 inches, but in former times larger ones 

 were made. One small vessel of this type was provided with 

 handles of modern design. 



Bowls are variable as to size and various as to use ; some are 

 round bottomed, some flat, some stamped, some plain ; but the rims 

 of all the bowls collected were invariably more or less flaring, 

 not bent sharply inward as in many Muskhogean and some modern 

 Catawba specimens. Similar flaring bowls are occasionally found 

 on northern Iroquois sites. The only sancerlike form seen was 

 made, the Indians told me, in imitation of white man's ware. 

 When baking a batch of pottery the old Cherokees were accustomed 

 to put in a lot of little toy vessels, dolls and animals modeled in 

 clay, which were greatly appreciated by the children. Crude clay 

 pipes were also made, and these too were reproduced in miniature 

 as toys. Such toy vessels, figurines and pipes are not infrequently 

 unearthed from ancient Iroquois sites in New York. 



Mr Mooney had given me the name of one potter, Iwi Katalsta, 

 and I lost no time in making her acquaintance. Inquiry resulted 

 in the discovery of but one more, an aged woman known as 

 Jennie Arch, whose feeble hands had all but lost their skill. For 

 this reason I confined myself almost entirely to Iwi's methods of 

 pottery making. Fully half the pottery I secured from the Eastern 

 Cherokees is said to be the work of her hand. 



Iier tools were few, and with one exception simple, consisting 

 of a hammerstone for pounding the clay, a sharpened bit of stick 



