157 



clay by repeated washings, form it into cylinders, 

 and mould the largest vases with their hands. 

 The American Indian is unacquainted with the 

 potter's wheel, which was familiar to the na- 

 tions of the east in the remotest antiquity. We 

 cannot be surprised, that the missionaries have 

 not introduced this simple and useful machine 

 among the natives of the Oroonoko, when we 

 recollect, that three centuries have not sufficed to 

 make it known among the Indians of the Penin- 

 sula of Araya opposite the port of Cumana*. 

 The colours used by the Maypures are the oxyds 

 of iron and manganese, and particularly the 

 yellow and red ochres, that are found in the 

 hollows of sandstone. Sometimes the feculae 

 of the bignonia chica-}- are employed, after the 

 pottery has been exposed to a feeble fire. This 

 painting is covered with a varnish of algarobo, 

 which is the transparent resin of the hymenaea 

 courbaril. The large vessels in which the chiza 

 is preserved are called ciamacu ; the smallest 

 bear the name of mucra, from which word the 

 Spaniards of the coast have framed murcura. 

 Not only the Maypures, but also the Guaypuna- 

 bis, the Caribbees, the Otomacks, and even the 

 Guamoes, are known at the Oroonoko for the 

 fabrication of painted pottery, which extended 



* See vol. ii, p. 286. 

 t See vol iv, p. 613. 



