CHAPTER XVI
POTTERY WITHOUT A POTTER'S WHEEL
ALMOST every girl at one time in her life has loved dearly to make mud-pies, and it is not strange, for her mother, grandmother, and many, many times great-great-grandmother before her delighted in making mud-pies. The last, the primitive women of our race, made them to some purpose, for they were the inventors of pottery. The home-making, house-keeping instinct was strong even in these women, who had no houses to keep, and they did their best with the material at hand.
First they wove rude baskets for holding and carrying food; then they learned that cooked food was better than uncooked and could be preserved much longer, so they made baskets of a closer weave and cooked in them by means of water heated by hot stones; finally, they tried cooking over the fire in shallow baskets lined with clay. The clay came out of the basket baked and hard, and behold, they had a new kind of vessel—fire-proof and water-proof.
We may imagine with what joy they welcomed this addition to their meagre store of home-making utensils and with what patient industry they strove to improve upon this discovery.
