The pointed bottom appears here as it does in the early forms of the Greek amphora; and, as the illustrations show, this involves a necessity for a further invention in the tripods upon which they rest. I have seen no explanation of this more difficult construction, and can think of none. It is certainly no easier to make the pointed than the flat bottom, and it certainly is not so useful. Why, then, was it so common? I can only suppose that when _first_ made the point was intended to be thrust into the ground; but the moment they had hit upon the flat bottom, that moment the point, I should fancy, would have been abandoned; but it evidently was not. Perhaps they loved the _old_ as some of us do, not because it was good, but _because it was old_. Who can tell? [Illustration: FIG. 10.--_Ancient Peru._] [Illustration: FIG. 11.--_Ancient Peru._] [Illustration: FIG. 12.--_Ancient Peru._] How early the varied decoration showed itself we cannot know, but in many examples of early fictile work, the meander, the chevron or saw-tooth, and the fret, now called the Greek fret, are sure to appear--and among the most diverse and distant nations; so, too, the forms and the uses of the vessels. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--_Ancient Peru._] Do not these things show that man develops everywhere along a corresponding line? They have not copied from one another, but a like want has produced a similar result in all. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--_Ancient Peru._] [Illustration: FIG. 15.--_Ancient Peru._] As we approach the historic ages, we find among the Egyptians, the Mexicans, the Peruvians, the Greeks, the Assyrians, the Romans, the Gauls, the Germans, the use of the potter's wheel, one of the earliest machines made by man. Of the Egyptian and Greek pottery I shall have something to say in a chapter upon the "_Greek Vase_." [Illustration: FIG. 16.--_Roman Cup._] The MEXICAN pottery, sometimes called _Aztec_, is usually of reddish clay, and the vessels are almost identical in form and decoration with those of the Peruvians, which will appear in their place. They are of great variety, and must have been made in large numbers. The Mexicans also made grotesques and idols of clay, which are usually hideous, and are intended to be; for the gods of evil were those they feared and worshiped most. These potteries are of unglazed clay, as are all those we are now treating. [Illustration: FIG. 17.--_Roman Vase._]