Other influences, to a less extent local, had no inconsiderable effect
on primitive Pueblo pottery: materials employed and methods resorted
to in burning.
Only one kind of fuel, except for a single class of vessels, is now
used in pottery-firing; namely, dried cakes or slabs of sheep-dung.
Anciently, several varieties, such as extremely dry sage-brush or
grease-wood, piñon and other resinous woods, dung of herbivora when
obtainable, charcoal, and also bituminous or cannel-coal were
employed. The principal agent seems, however, to have been dead-wood
or spunk, pulverized and moistened with some adhesive mixture so that
flat cakes could be formed of it. I infer this not alone from Zuñi
tradition, which is not ample, but from the fact that the sheep-dung
now used is called, in the condition of fuel, _kú ne a_, while its
name in the abstract or as sheep-dung simply is _má he_. Dry-rot wood
or spunk is known as _kú me_. In the shape of flat cakes it would be
termed _kú mo we_ or _kú me a_, whence I doubt not the modern word _kú
ne a_ is derived.
Of methods, four were in vogue. The simplest and worst consisted in
burying the vessel to be burned under hot ashes and building a fire
around it, or inverting it over a bed of embers and encircling it with
a blazing fire of brush-wood, as is still the practice of the
Maricopas and other sedentary tribes of the Gila. The most common was
building a little cone or dome of fuel over the articles to be baked
and firing; the most perfect was to dig or construct under ground a
little cist or kiln, line it evenly with fuel, leaving a central space
for the green ware, and slowly fire the whole mass.
Irrespective of the kind of fuel used, the baking by ash-burial made
the ware gray, cloudy, or dingy, and not very durable. Pottery burned
with sage or grease-wood was firm, light gray unless of ocherous clay,
less cloudy than if ash-baked, yet mottled. Turf and dung, although
easily managed, did not thoroughly harden the pottery, but burned it
very evenly; dead wood or spunk-cakes baked as evenly as any of the
materials thus far mentioned, and more thoroughly than the others.
Resinous or pitchy woods, while they produced a much higher degree of
heat, could be used only when color was unimportant, as they still are
used to some extent in the firing of black-ware or cooking pots. The
latter, while still hot from a preliminary burning, if coated
externally with the mucilaginous juice of green cactus, internally
with piñon gum or pitch, and fired a second or even a third time with
resinous wood-fuel, are rendered absolutely fire-proof, semi-glazed
with a black gloss inside, and wonderfully durable. Tradition
represents that by far the most perfect fuel was found to be cannel
coal, and that, where abundant, accessible, and of an extremely
bituminous quality, it was much used. The traces of little pit-kilns
filled with, cinders of mineral coal about many of the ruins in the
northwestern portion of the Pueblo region, coupled with the
semi-fusion and well-preserved condition of most of the ancient jars
found associated with them, certainly give support to this tradition.
Happily I have additional confirmation. When, two years ago, I was
engaged in making ethnologic collections at Moki for the United States
National Museum, some Indians of the _Te wa_ pueblo brought me a
quantity of pottery. It had been made with the purpose of deceiving
me, in careful imitation of ancient types, and was certainly equal to
the latter in lightness and the condition of the burning. I paid these
enterprising Indians as good a price as they had been accustomed to
getting for genuine ancient specimens, but told them that, being a
Zuñi, I was almost one of themselves, hence they could not deceive me,
and asked them how they had so cleverly succeeded in burning the ware.
They laughingly replied that they had simply dug some bituminous coal
(_u á ko_) and used it in little pits. When I further asked them why
they did not burn their household utensils thus, they said it was too
uncertain; representing that the pots did not like to be burned in the
_u á ko_, probably because it was so hot, hence they broke more
frequently than if fired in the common way with dried sheep-dung;
furthermore the latter was less troublesome, requiring only to be dug
from the corrals near at hand and dried to make it ready for use.
This partially explains why the art of water-tight basket-making has
here gradually declined since the Spanish conquest, as the ceramic
industry has increased with the introduction of the sheep, which
furnishes fuel for the burning, and the horse, before unknown, has
facilitated transportation, whereby trade for this class of basketry
with the distant nomadic tribes who still make it is rendered easy.
Withal, however, the quality of pottery has not improved, but has
deteriorated; as sheep-dung is but an inferior fuel for firing.