_Artificial originals_.--There is no doubt that among most peoples art had produced vessels in other materials antecedent to the utilization of clay. These would be legitimate models for the potter and we may therefore expect to find them repeated in earthenware. In this way the art has acquired a multitude of new forms, some of which may be natural forms at second hand, that is to say, with modifications imposed upon them by the material in which they were first shaped. But all materials other than clay are exceedingly intractable, and impress their own characters so decidedly upon forms produced in them that ultimate originals, where there are such, cannot often be traced through them. It will be most interesting to note the influence of these peculiarities of originals upon the ceramic art. A nation having stone vessels, like those of California, on acquiring the art of pottery would use the stone vessels as models, and such forms as that given in Fig. 466 would arise, _a_ being in stone and _b_ in clay, the former from California and the latter from Arizona. Similar forms would just as readily come from gourds, baskets, or other globular utensils. Nations having wooden vessels would copy them in clay on acquiring the art of pottery. This would give rise to a distinct group of forms, the result primarily of the peculiarities of the woody structure. Thus in Fig. 467, _a_, we have a form of wooden vessel, a sort of winged trough that I have frequently found copied in clay. The earthen vessel given in Fig. 467, _b_, was obtained from an ancient grave in Arkansas. [Illustration: _a_, stone. _b_, clay. FIG. 466.--Form derived from a stone pot.] [Illustration: _a_, wood. _b_, clay. FIG. 467.--Form derived from a wooden tray.] [Illustration: _a_, Horn. _b_, Clay. FIG. 468.--Form derived from a horn spoon.] [Illustration: _a_, Bark. _b_, Clay. FIG. 469.--Form derived from a bark vessel.] The carapace of some species of turtles, and perhaps even the hard case of the armadillo, could be utilized in a similar way. The shaping of a knot of wood often gives rise to a dipper-shaped vessel, such as may be found in use by many tribes, and is as likely an original for the dipper form in clay as is the gourd or the conch shell; the familiar horn vessel of the western tribes, Fig. 468, _a_, would have served equally well. The specimen given in _b_ is from Arkansas. As a rule, however, such vessels cannot be traced to their originals, since by copying and recopying they have varied from the parent form, tending always toward uniform conventional shapes. A vessel of rectangular outline might originate in wood or bark. In Fig. 469, _a_, we have a usual form of bark tray, which is possibly the prototype of the square-rimmed earthen vessel given in _b_. [Illustration: _a_, Wicker. _b_, Clay. FIG. 470.--Form originating in basketry.] [Illustration: _a_, Wicker. _b_, Clay. FIG. 471.--Form originating in basketry.]