edium-sized opening, bowls, two-pint
bottles with long necks, pots or jugs for containing bear's oil, which
hold as much as forty pints, and finally plates and dishes in the
French fashion."[1]

Vessels were certainly made in great numbers by the Natchez and other
tribes within our period, and it is reasonable to suppose that they
belonged to the great group under discussion. If not, it will be
necessary to seek the cause of their total disappearance, since, as
I have already said, the pottery of this district, as shown by the
relics, is practically a unit.

The introduction of metal utensils was a death-blow to the native
industry, although some of the southern tribes, the Cherokees, for
example, seem to have practiced the art continuously, in a very
limited way, down to the present time. There is but little evidence
of the influence of the art of the whites upon the ceramic products
of this province, although the forms are sometimes thought to be
suggestive of European models. It is certain, however, that the art
had reached its highest stage without the aid of civilized hands, and
in the study of its many interesting features we can feel assured that
we are dealing with purely aboriginal ideas.

The pottery of this province is remarkably homogeneous in character,
and we are warranted in assigning it to a single period of culture,
and, in concluding, that the peoples who developed and practiced the
art belonged to a group of closely-allied tribes. We can also state
without fear of precipitating a controversy that the people who made
this pottery were "mound-builders." At the same time, they were
not necessarily of the same people as the builders of the mounds of
Wisconsin, Ohio, or Georgia or contemporaneous with them.

[Footnote 1: Du Pratz: Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II, p.
179.]

USE.--It is difficult to determine the functions of the various forms
of vessels. We are safe in stating that in very primitive times nearly
all were intended for use in the domestic arts, and that as time went
on uses were differentiated--form, as a consequence, undergoing many
changes. Early writers on the Southern States mention a number of
ordinary uses, such as cooking, the carrying and boiling of water, the
manufacture of sugar and salt, and the preservation of honey, oil, and
paint.

Only a small percentage of the vessels, and these generally of the
pot-shaped variety, show indications of use over fire. It is wel