Page 86 - TheHopiIndians

78 MESA FOLK OP HOPILAND

back by the hooked fingers, the stones, sticks, and hairs
being carefully removed. After sufficient working,
the clay was daubed on a board, which was carried out,
slanted against the house, and submitted to the all-
drying Tusayan sun and air. In a short time the clay
was transferred from the board to a slab of stone and
applied in the same way, the reason being a minor one
known to Nampeo, — perhaps because the clay after
drying to a certain degree may adhere better to stone
than to wood. Sooner than anyone merely acquainted
with the desiccating properties of the moisture-laden
air of the East might imagine, the clay was ready to
work and the plastic mass was ductile under the fin
gers of the potter.
Nampeo set out first to show the process of coiling a
vessel. The even "ropes" of clay were rolled out from
her smooth palms in a marvelous way, and efforts to
rival excited a smile from the family sitting around as
interested spectators. The concave dish called tabipi,
in which she began the coiled vessel and which turns
easily on its curved bottom, seems to be the nearest ap
proach of the Pueblos to the potter's wheel. The
seeming traces of unobliterated coiling on the bases of
some vessels may be the imprints from the coils of the
tabipi. As the vessel was a small one, the coiling pro
ceeded to the finish and the interims of drying as ob
served in the manufacture of large jars were not neces
sary. Then gourd smoothers, tuhupbi, were employed