METHOD OF MANUFACTURING POTTERY AND BASKETS. 33 
The vessel is then put away to dry in the shade before it is ex¬ 
posed to the process of burning. 
The kiln consists of a hole dug in the ground, about five feet 
in diameter and less in depth, the bottom of which is covered 
with fragments of pottery. When well heated by an abundance 
of brush fire, the earthen ware is arranged on the potsherds, and 
is covered with hot ashes. The pit is then closed with bark or 
grass, supported by green sticks strong enough to bear a subsequent 
covering of earth without endangering the underlying pottery, and 
is thus left for several days, until the pit has cooled off, when the 
burned vessels are taken out. The defects of this kiln sometimes 
necessitate a second burning, but in old pits, in which the wall is 
well baked and the heat is better retained than in new ones, good 
results are obtained with surety. 
Among the Sonoras a kiln is used similar to the Mexican 
© 
bake-oven. This is a structure of adobe in the form of a bee-hive, 
with an opening on top in addition to the firehole below. When 
well heated, the vessels are properly arranged within and the 
oven closed at both openings w.ith covers made of earth. The 
Sonoras also frequently dye their pottery with a red mineral paint 
before it is exposed to the heat, which produces an even red color, 
as the process of burning, being sometimes defective, would not 
alone accomplish this. 
Baskets. 
The manufacture of baskets I also observed among the Techdhet 
a tribe of the Cahuillos, at Agua Caliente, Los Angelos Co., Cal., 
while making researches for the Peabody Museum during the last 
year, and also on a previous occasion in Northern California and 
Southern Oregon, while in the employ of the U. S. Coast Survey. 
Substantially the same method is employed in these several regions, 
though the material slightly differs, and likewise existed in former 
times among the Coast Indians of California, as is demonstrated 
by fragments found in their graves. 
The Techahet use the reed-grass (Juncus robustus ), which I 
found growing in the small fresh-water marshes and creek-eddies 
at the beginning of the desert, and the tall thin grass ( Vilfa rigens) 
found thriving with the Yucca which flourishes in such great varie¬ 
ties in that neighborhood ; both are used in the dried state. The 
former species is used for binding the body of the basket, which 
NAT. QUAT. 
5 
