of their painted patterns the fictiles of Ojo Caliente are
so inferior and diverse from the other Zuni work that the future
archaeologist will have need to beware, or (judging alone from the
ceramic remains which he finds at the two pueblos) he will attribute
them at least to distinct periods, perhaps to diverse peoples.

POTTERY INFLUENCED BY MATERIALS AND METHODS USED IN BURNING.

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, pinon 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 Zuni
tradition, which is not ample, but from the fact that the sheep-dung
now used is called, in the condition of fuel, _ku ne a_, while its
name in the abstract or as sheep-dung simply is _ma he_. Dry-rot wood
or spunk is known as _ku me_. In the shape of flat cakes it would be
termed _ku mo we_ or _ku me a_, whence I doubt not the modern word _ku
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