Note 13 — Chapter IV · FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO.

The uses of pottery in Central America are almost universal; it supplies not only water-cisterns, flour-barrels, ovens, stoves, wash-tubs, baths, coffee-pots, stew-pans, but dishes, lamps, floors, roofs, and aqueducts. Some made of white clay is exceedingly light, and the patterns are often very tasteful. The tinajas (water-jars) and cántaras are also light, but very strong, while the cazuelas, or flat pans, and the coffee-pots are quite fire proof. I have seen a house-wall built of pots not unlike a Yankee bean-pot in shape, the mouths opening into the house being “pigeon-holes” for the human inhabitants; while those opening out of doors were the nesting-places of pigeons and hens. The roof-tiles are not in great variety, usually semicylindrical or conical, and seldom ornamented; floor-tiles are large, square, and not very thick. The porous water-jars suspended in a current of air keep their contents refreshingly cool.