dge of the ancient races has
come down to us through their clay work?" he reflected. "What should
we have known of these western civilizations save through their
handiwork? And when we travel across seas it is the same. Much of our
acquaintance with Egyptian, Greek, and Roman life has been handed down
to posterity through tiles and pottery which have served to record
nations' customs and advancement. The march of the invading Roman
armies, for example, can be traced by the fragments of pottery left
behind them. These relics have been found in England, France,
Germany, Italy, and Spain, and prove that very early the Romans made
use of clay utensils for cooking their food. Even beneath the city of
London old Roman furnaces for firing dishes have been discovered; and
moreover, some of the very dishes themselves."

Theo seemed astonished.

"Later the Romans made much beautiful pottery; but it was never as
beautiful as that of the Greeks. Sometime, however, Theo, you should
go to one of our museums and see some Samian ware, the finest of Roman
clay work. The red in it is almost as vivid as sealing-wax, and it has
a wonderful polish not unlike that on modern Egyptian ware. No one has
ever been able to discover from what clay this marvelous pottery was
made. Some historians think the ware was first made by wandering
Greek artisans. The Romans also made a very beautiful black ware now
known as Upchurch pottery because of the location in England in which
it was found. This black color, scientists have decided, was not
produced by mixing a pigment with the clay as did the Greeks, but
resulted from an ingenious use of oxide of iron which, when burned by
a reducing fire, turned black; the Romans also gave us Castor ware, a
pottery moulded from a dark clay and having on it figures traced in a
lighter color."

"Did anybody else in Europe make as beautiful pottery as the Greeks
and Romans?" inquired Theo.

"Perhaps not so beautiful," answered Mr. Croyden. "Yet before we hear
either of Greek or Roman we find the Egyptians and Assyrians, nations
famous for their skill in the arts as well as their prowess in war,
making pottery and tiles. These have been preserved to us in tombs
and pyramids, for these races, you know, were accustomed to pay great
honor to their dead. It was a fortunate custom, too, since by means of
it much history has come down to us which would otherwise have been
destroyed. Unquestionably the Saxons, Scandinavia