mall communities. Their flocks of sheep and goats
have decreased materially in the last few years, a decrease due largely
to the removal of the duty on wool and the consequent low price they
obtained from the traders for this staple article of their trade.

In both cases the result, so far as the house structures are concerned,
is the same. The houses of the people, the homes "we have always had,"
as they put it, are rapidly disappearing, and the examples left today
are more or less influenced by ideas derived from the whites. Among the
Navaho such contact has been very slight, but it has been sufficient to
introduce new methods of construction and in fact new structures, and it
is doubtful whether the process and the ritual later described could be
found in their entirety today. Many of the modern houses of the Navaho
in the mountainous and timbered regions are built of logs, sometimes
hewn. These houses are nearly always rectangular in shape, as also are
all of those built of stone masonry in the valley regions.

There is a peculiar custom of the Navaho which should be mentioned, as
it has had an important influence on the house-building practices of the
tribe, and has done much to prevent the erection of permanent abodes.
This is the idea of the _tc[)i]'ndi_ hogan. When a person dies within
a house the rafters are pulled down over the remains and the place is
usually set on fire. After that nothing would induce a Navaho to touch a
piece of the wood or even approach the immediate vicinity of the place;
even years afterward such places are recognized and avoided. The place
and all about it are the especial locale of the _tc[)i]'ndi_, the
shade or "spirit" of the departed. These shades are not necessarily
malevolent, but they are regarded as inclined to resent any intrusion or
the taking of any liberties with them or their belongings. If one little
stick of wood from a _tc[)i]'ndi_ hogan is used about a camp fire, as is
sometimes done by irreverent whites, not an Indian will approach the
fire; and not even under the greatest necessity would they partake of
the food prepared by its aid.

This custom has had much to do with the temporary character of the
Navaho houses, for men are born to die, and they must die somewhere.
There are thousands of these _tc[)i]'ndi_ hogans scattered over the
reservation, not always recognizable as such by whites, but the Navaho
is unerring in identifying them. He was not inclined to build a