Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/282

272 and sides of another material, at the two opposite sides of America, gives ground for supposing it to have been in common use in high latitudes.

From the examination of an earthen vessel from the Fiji Islands, Dr. D. S. Price considers that it was very likely made by moulding clay on the outside of the shell or rind of some fruit. The vessel in question is made watertight after the South American manner by a varnish of resin. The evident and frequent adoption of gourd-shapes in the earthenware of distant parts of the world does not prove much, but as far as it goes it tells in favour of the opinion that such gourd-like vessels may be the successors of real gourds, made into pottery by a plastering of clay. Some details given in 1841 by Squier and Davis, in their account of the monuments in the Mississippi Valley, are much more to the purpose. "In some of the Southern States, it is said, the kilns, in which the ancient pottery was baked, are now occasionally to be met with. Some are represented still to contain the ware, partially burned, and retaining the rinds of the gourds, etc., over which they were modelled, and which had not been entirely removed by the fire." "Among the Indians along the Gulf, a greater degree of skill was displayed than with those on the upper waters of the Mississippi and on the lakes. Their vessels were generally larger and more symmetrical, and of a superior finish. They moulded them over gourds and other models and baked them in ovens. In the construction of those of large size, it was customary to model them in baskets of willow or splints, which, at the proper period, were burned off, leaving the vessel perfect in form, and retaining the somewhat ornamental markings of their moulds. Some of those found on the Ohio seem to have been modelled in bags or nettings of coarse thread or twisted bark. These practices are still retained by some of the remote western tribes. Of this description of pottery many specimens are found with the recent deposits in the mounds." Prince Maximilian of Wied makes the following remark on some earthen vessels found in Indian