The necks and apertures of these earliest forms of the water jar were
made very small in proportion to their other dimensions, presumably on
account of the necessity of often carrying them full of water over
steep and rough _mesa_ paths, coupled perhaps with the imitation of
other forms. To render them as light as possible they were also made
very thin. One of the consequences of all this was that when large
they could not be stroked inside, as the shoulders or uttermost upper
peripheries of the vessel could not be reached with the hand or
scraper through the small openings. The effect of the pressure exerted
in smoothing them on the outside, therefore, naturally caused the
upper parts to sink down, generating the spheroidal shape of the jar.
(see Fig. 531), one of the most beautiful types of the olla ever known
to the Pueblos. At Zuñi, wishing to have an ancient jar of this form
which I had seen, reproduced, I showed a drawing of it to a woman
expert in the manufacture of pottery. Without any instructions from me
beyond a mere statement of my wishes, she proceeded at once to
sprinkle the inside of a basket-bowl with sand, managing the clay in
a way above described and continuing the vessel-shaping upward by
spiral building. She did not at first make the shoulders low or
sloping, but rounded or arched them upward and outward (see again Fig.
529). At this I remonstrated, but she gave no heed other than to
ejaculate "_wá na ni, àná!_" which meant "just wait, will you!" When
she had finished the rim, she easily caused the shoulders to sink,
simply by stroking them--more where uneven than elsewhere--with a wet
scraper of gourd (see Fig. 532, _a_) until she had exactly reproduced
the form of the drawing. She then set the vessel aside _in_ the
basket. Within two days it shrank by drying at the rate of about one
inch in twelve, leaving the basket far too large. (See Fig. 533.) It
could hence be removed without the slightest difficulty.