Cushing describes the Havasupai in Arizona as using a wicker tray lined with clay for the purpose of roasting or parching seeds, and this was probably used by all primitive peoples. The seeds were placed on the clay-lined tray and agitated with live coals. Naturally the clay is hardened by the heat of the coals, and would be sure to suggest the making of utensils from it by means of fire. The turning up of the edges would follow the use of the first trays made of clay, in imitation of wicker bowls, and so would other forms of basketry be imitated, as well as forms in horn, wood or shell. Perhaps the wicker jugs may have been coated with clay on the outside for protection, and eventually the heat not only baked the clay but destroyed the wicker framework that had supported it. Thus jugs of clay may have been made by burning away the framework every time, just as Lamb’s discoverer of roast pig could find no other way of securing his toothsome morsel than that of burning down the house. Or the jar may have been modelled on the inside and then the wicker burned off. When we speak contemptuously of primitive peoples it is well to remember that they were inventors as well as ourselves. [Illustration: IROQUOIS BIRCHBARK VESSEL NORTH-WEST COAST BASKET ] When the art of pottery was discovered basketry remained in use, for pottery could not take its place in many uses then any more than it can to-day. The environment and habits of a tribe controlled the amount, the quality, the character, of both basketry and pottery. A tribe possessing plenty of good clay would make more and better pottery than one finding clay difficult to acquire, provided both had reached the same degree of proficiency in this art, but mere abundance of good clay would not necessarily make skilful potters; that is, the degree of progress in culture of a tribe and other factors of environment than the presence or absence of good clay in quantity had much to do with pottery-making. For example, the Pueblos and the Navajos occupy the same kind of a region, or rather the same region, with plenty of clay and a similar abundance of yucca, willows, etc., for basketry, yet the Pueblos carried pottery-making to a high degree of excellence, while the Navajos produced only a limited amount of inferior ware. Nor is this a matter of intelligence, for the Navajos are as intelligent as any Amerinds living, and besides, as has been mentioned, probably have a strong infusion of Pueblo blood. While the Navajos have gone farther in silver- and iron-smithing, they have lagged behind in pottery and house-building. So it is also with basketry. While the Pueblos no longer make boiling-baskets or jugs, or at least, if they do occasionally make them, they do not use them for cooking purposes, yet they produce some fine trays and bowls.[78] Inclination and fancy, as well as necessity, have much to do with the development of the arts. Tribes might attain a wonderful development politically, like