er-work.

[Illustration: FIG. 363.--Modification of rims.]

Not satisfied with these simple ideas of decoration, the fancy of
the potter led him to add embellishments of most varied and often of
extraordinary character. The nodes and ridges have been enlarged and
prolonged, and fashioned into a thousand natural and fanciful forms.
Shells, fish, birds, beasts, human and impossible creatures have been
utilized in a multitude of ways. Many illustrations of these are given
on subsequent pages.

The body of the bowl is somewhat less profusely ornamented than the
rim. The interior, as well as the exterior, has received painted,
relieved, and intaglio designs. In the painted ones the favorite idea
for the interior is a series of volutes, in broad lines, radiating
from the center of the basin. Groups of festooned lines, either
painted or engraved, and arranged to give the effect of imbricate
scales, form also a favorite motive. The exterior surface of the
incurved rims of globular vessels offers a tempting surface to the
artist and is often tastefully decorated in all the styles.

ILLUSTRATIONS.--_Ordinary forms._--I have not thought it necessary to
present many cuts of simple undecorated vessels, as their shapes are
repeated numberless times in elaborated forms. The crude examples
teach nothing as to stage of culture. They are of the same time and
people as the finer specimens.

[Illustration: FIG. 364.--Bowl: Arkansas.--1/3.]

The small bowl given in Fig. 364 is unusually well made, and is
peculiar in having its interior surface decorated with a rather chaste
incised design consisting of festooned lines. This was a favorite idea
with the ancient potters and may be seen on both exterior and interior
surfaces of a variety of vessels. The rim is beveled on the inner edge
and has a beaded or indented fillet encircling the outer margin. The
bottom is somewhat flattened. This specimen is from Arkansas.

[Illustration: FIG. 365.--Bowl: Arkansas.--1/3.]

In Fig. 365 we have a good example of the dark, nicely-finished ware
of Arkansas. The widely expanding rim is neatly scalloped on the
margin and is finished on the inside with a pattern of incised lines.
These lines appear to have been engraved in the hardened clay. The
form is rendered graceful by a shallow encircling depression or groove
at the base of the rim. The bottom is somewhat flattened.

Occasionally we find very deep bowls with sloping sides and flat
bottoms res