Pottery dishes and vessels, so Catlin wrote, "are a familiar part of the culinary furniture of every Mandan lodge, and are manufactured by the women of this tribe in great quantities, and modelled into a thousand forms and tastes. They are made by the hands of the women, from a tough black clay, and baked in kilns which are made for the purpose, and are nearly equal in hardness to our own manufacture of pottery; though they have not yet got the art of glazing, which would be to them a most valuable secret. They make them so strong and serviceable, however, that they hang them over the fire as we do our iron pots, and boil their meat in them with perfect success." (Op. cit., p. 116.) Maximilian described the art of pottery making among the Mandan as exactly like that of the two associated tribes, the Hidatsa and Arikara. He wrote regarding the three tribes that they "understand the manufacture of earthen pots and vessels, of various forms and sizes. The clay is of a dark slate colour, and burns a yellowish-red, very similar to what is seen in the burnt tops of the Missouri hills. This clay is mixed with flint or granite reduced to powder by the action of fire. The workwoman forms the hollow inside of the vessel by means of a round stone which she holds in her hand while she works and smooths the outside with a piece of poplar bark. When the pot is made, it is filled and surrounded with dry shavings, and then burnt, when it is ready for use. They know nothing of glazing." (Op. cit., p. 348.) This was probably the simple process of manufacture followed by the widely scattered tribes, and the apparent ease with which the vessels were made accounts for the great quantities of fragments now discovered scattered over ancient village sites. Two small vessels made by the Mandan, and collected by Dr. Matthews half a century ago, are in the National Museum collection, and one is shown in plate 41, _b_. Very few perfect specimens exist, several being in the collection of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The specimens in the National Museum are rather small, but some very large vessels were made and used in boiling their food.