KXRAMIC STUDIO 
8< 
which have come to us from the various localities, tested in 
the light of possible use. The shallow, saucer-shaped recep- 
tacle, used probably to contain liquid or semi-liquid food, is 
almost universally distributed. So also are vessels of some 
depth such as deep bowls and pots. Most of the pots which 
have been recovered from the ancient tumuli of the Missis- 
sippi Valley are more or less blackened by fire and give evi- 
dence that they were used for culinary purposes. When we 
pass into the South and thence into South America we find 
that these vessels are frequently provided with handles on 
either. side which permitted their being suspended over the 
fire after the manner of the camp kettles of to-day. A not 
unusual form of earthenware receptacle which is found in the 
southwestern part of the country is shaped like a moccasin or 
cornucopia. It was elongated, having a comparatively small 
opening at one extremity, and was no doubt thrust into the 
fire, or glowing coals were gathered about it while its contents 
were being cooked, the principle of the common Dutch oven 
being applied. This form of earthenware cooking utensil is 
not uncommon among the ruins and graves of the Indians of 
the Pueblos. Drinking vessels, such as mugs and cups with 
handles, were comparatively rare, except among the Tusayan 
people, whose descendents inhabit Arizona and New Mexico. 
Here they appear to have been common. Pitchers provided 
with lips and handles also appear among these people, but are 
rarely elsewhere in evidence as products of the potter's art. 
Vases, deep or shallow, with wide mouths or with tall necks 
are not unfrequently found in Central American countries and 
in the country of the Zunis. Of the great burial urns I have 
already spoken. The use of these urns appears to have been 
extended from the northern coasts of South America east- 
wardly as far as points near the mouth of the Amazons, a 
fact which indicates to my mind a common racial descent 
from the tribes which inhabited Columbia and Venezuela and 
those which inhabited prior to the coming of Columbus the 
country of the Orinoco and the vicinity of Para. A great 
deal of the pottery that has been exhumed from graves was 
no doubt domestic. It was customary to bury with the de- 
parted a supply of food, that the spirit might have sustenance 
upon the long journey to the happy hunting grounds, and for 
this purpose the common utensils which had been used by the 
deceased during lifetime were placed with offerings of food in 
proximity to the remains of the dead. Much that has been 
thus recovered by the opening of tombs serves to cast light 
upon household economies. A certain portion of the pottery 
that has been recovered from graves is unmistakably of a votive 
character, and had a ceremonial rather than a domestic sig- 
nificance. In some places there have been taken from the 
burial places of the ancient tribes articles fashioned of clay 
which were undoubtedly toys deposited by the hand of child- 
hood, or mere roughly formed symbols outlining in miniature 
the la'rger and more useful articles, which were not interred, 
either because of the poverty of those concerned in burying 
the dead, or because the substitution of the symbol for the 
reality was regarded as admissible. Pots, drinking cups, 
vessels of various kinds, not larger than a walnut, but delineat- 
ing in miniature similar utensils in common use among the 
tribes, are sometimes recovered from the graves of the peoples 
of whom I have been speaking. These are generally rudely 
and hastily made. 
There are frequently found graves, it may be said in 
passing, in which no earthenware is found at all. On the 
other hand, there are graves in which great numbers of ves- 
sels and ornaments have been recovered, these having been 
undoubtedly the graves of the wealthy and influential. 
If we adopt the second principle of classification, which 
is based upon the methods of manufacture, we may divide the 
work of the primitive potter, as it is known to us, into wares 
which have been shaped by the hand without the method of 
employing coils, which I have already explained, and which 
may be subdivided into vessels which have been sun-dried or 
which have been baked. We may classify by itself the 
coiled ware, known plainly to be such because of its external 
markings. We may classify also as unglazed or as semi- 
glazed ware. None of these subdivisions, however, furnish 
satisfactory results in classification, and a classification based 
upon mere use is likewise unsatisfactory. 
The preferable method of classification is the one which 
is of almost universal adoption and which assigns the 
products of the potter's art as far as possible to the peoples 
who made them and to the age and time in which they 
were produced. 
The great collections of primitive American pottery which 
contain most for the instruction and guidance of the student 
are those which exist in the National Museum at Washington, 
the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass., the Field Colum- 
bian Museum at Chicago, and the Mexican National Museum 
in the City of Mexico. In the British Museum in London 
there is also a very large accumulation of material of this 
sort. In the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh a creditable 
beginning, laying the foundations for a large colletion, has 
already been made. But this institution, although established 
upon broad foundations, has not yet been able to do more 
than make a beginning. 
Who was and who is the primitive potter? The primitive 
potter in America at least was and is to-day a woman. As 
nearly as we can ascertain, the art of the potter was almost 
exclusively practised among the primitive races by women. 
All of the Zuni pottery, examples of which are familiar to 
you, has been made by the hands of women. And the most 
skillful and famous of the living Indian potters today are the 
squaws, whose nimble fingers also work the looms and weave 
the baskets of the tribes. It is an interesting fact that the 
industrial arts owe their origin very largely to the influence 
of women. It has been the mother among the aboriginal 
races who has laid the foundation for the fictile and the textile 
arts, and to a very large degree also for the arts of agriculture. 
Intent upon feeding and clothing those who were dependent 
upon her, she has elaborated the method of making utensils, 
of weaving cloth, and making garments, and she, while her 
husband was intent upon the chase, bent upon securing 
animal food, has compelled the soil to yield up to her of 
its fruits. She tilled the garden with its herbs and grain 
while her lord was absent, engaged in war or in the chase. 
The roar of the spindles in Manchester and Birmingham, 
at Lowell and Fall River, reflects in these modern times the 
thought of a woman, who, far back in some lonely cave or 
under some rude shelter of boughs, first heckled the flax, 
spun the thread, and wove the cloth with which to shelter 
herself and her offspring against the cold in time of need 
when the hunter's skill should fail to bring in the wonted 
store of peltry. And the great potteries of Staffordshire, of 
Trenton, and East Liverpool are a reflex in modern times of 
an art which women acquired and which they taught to men. 
It is an interesting thing to trace in these arts the influence 
of social conditions long since outlived among civilized men, 
and possibly interesting also to see how even at this day there 
is a tendency to a reversion to primitive types, and to know 
