Of next greatest frequency after basketry and stone implements among the Cahuilla of today, are objects of pottery, though they are seldom if ever manufactured now. Native pottery is of interest in California because until a few years ago it was believed not to occur. Its distribution is restricted. It is of greatest importance among the Yuman tribes living on the Colorado, who are without basketry of their own. It is made also by the Diegueño and by the interrelated Luiseño, Agua Caliente, and Cahuilla Indians. The Gabrielino and the tribes beyond, such as the Chumash, did not make pottery. No undoubted pieces have been found in the numerous archaeological explorations of the Santa Barbara islands. Whether the Serrano had pottery, and if so which of their divisions, is unknown. It was made to some extent by the Chemehuevi and probably other closely related Paiute tribes in the part of California bordering on the Mohave habitat and on southernmost Nevada. As compared with the pottery-making Mohave, these Paiute-Chemehuevi tribes
Like the pottery of the Mohave, that of the Cahuilla was made by coiling together narrow cylinders or ropes of clay, which were then patted between a smooth rounded stone and a wooden paddle. The degree to which the art is now in abeyance may be judged from the fact that neither of these implements was seen. As Dr. Barrows has noticed, the vessel is not kept away from the fire in burning, so that it is often blackened in spots. The same is true of Mohave and Luiseño pottery. In recent times the Cahuilla have used dung for firing their pottery. Before the introduction of domestic animals they employed the wood of certain shrubs. Among the Mohave the making and baking of pottery, which takes place before an open wood fire, may still be seen.
There are four principal forms of Cahuilla pottery: a small-mouthed jar for water and perhaps for the storage of seeds; a somewhat wider-mouthed jar; a cooking pot, of which the mouth is approximately of the same diameter as the body of the vessel; and an open bowl or dish of perhaps half as great a depth as diameter. (Pl. 9, upper figures and lower left.) These forms are made with comparatively little variation except in size, and are identical with Mohave types, even to the binding of the bowl or dish with a strip of mesquite fibre just below the rim to insure greater strength. The only divergent forms that have been seen are a vessel with incurved mouth (Pl. 9, lower right), thus being intermediate in form between the open dish and the jar; and one or two small roughly-made dishes of a dull dark red
