SECONDARY PARAPHERNALIA
Carrying and Storing Receptacles
The receptacles used for bringing clays and other ingredients from the pits to the village vary somewhat according to the distance that the material must be carried. If the beds are close at hand, the material is placed in a shawl spread flat on the ground. The shawl is then picked up, the corners are tied, and the bundle is carried on the back. Sometimes gunny-sacks and cement-sacks are used instead. If the beds are at some distance from the pueblo, the material is placed in sacks and brought home in the body of a wagon. As a rule the ingredients brought home in shawls are transferred to sacks or boxes for storage. Paints are kept in ollas, with the exception of the guaco paint, which is allowed to remain in the bowl in which it is dried.
Mixing Surfaces
Whenever ingredients are to be mixed or crushed, the work is done upon some sort of extra surface laid upon the floor. This surface is about a yard square, and may be, apparently, of any suitable material—a bit of old canvas, an opened-out cement-sack, or a small skin such as that of a goat or dog. Similar surfaces also serve for mixing clay and temper, for cleaning temper, for mixing the paste with water and kneading it, and finally for holding the kneaded clay during moulding. Partly finished vessels are placed upon such a surface at various stages of construction. For winnowing clay, the women’s shawls are used.
Boards
No boards are placed beneath the pukis, or moulding trays, while they are being used on the hard floor of the house, but in the courtyard boards are used under them in order that holes may not be worn in the ground during the constant turning necessary in moulding vessels. When small vessels are completed they are placed in rows on a board, where they remain during the early stages of the drying process. Rectangular, flat-bottomed vessels are built directly on boards, or on low footstools made of short boards with legs at each end.
Water Containers
While the potter is at work, she always has beside her a small lard-pail partly filled with water, which serves to keep the kajepes damp, to moisten parts of the vessel, and from time to time to clean her hands. When the kajepes are not in use, they are usually placed in the pail. At San Ildefonso such a pail is now the only form of water-container; formerly pottery bowls were probably used.