fine
house when he might have to abandon it at any time, although in the
modern houses alluded to above he has overcome this difficulty in a very
simple and direct way. When a person is about to die in one of the stone
or log houses referred to he is carried outside and allowed to die in
the open air. The house is thus preserved.

LEGENDARY AND ACTUAL WINTER HOGANS

The Navaho recognize two distinct classes of hogans--the _keqai_ or
winter place, and the _kej[)i]'n_, or summer place; in other words,
winter huts and summer shelters. Notwithstanding the primitive
appearance of the winter huts, resembling mere mounds of earth hollowed
out, they are warm and comfortable, and, rude as they seem, their
construction is a matter of rule, almost of ritual, while the dedicatory
ceremonies which usually precede regular occupancy are elaborate and
carefully performed.

Although no attempt at decoration is ever made, either of the inside or
the outside of the houses, it is not uncommon to hear the term beautiful
applied to them. Strong forked timbers of the proper length and bend,
thrust together with their ends properly interlocking to form a
cone-like frame, stout poles leaned against the apex to form the sides,
the whole well covered with bark and heaped thickly with earth, forming
a roomy warm interior with a level floor--these are sufficient to
constitute a "_qo[.g]an n[)i]joni_," house beautiful. To the Navaho the
house is beautiful to the extent that it is well constructed and to the
degree that it adheres to the ancient model.

There are many legends and traditions of wonderful houses made by the
gods and by the mythic progenitors of the tribe. In the building of
these houses turquois and pearly shells were freely used, as were also
the transparent mists of dawn and the gorgeous colors of sunset. They
were covered by sunbeams and the rays of the rainbow, with everything
beautiful or richly colored on the earth and in the sky. It is perhaps
on account of these gorgeous mythical hogans that no attempt is now made
to decorate the everyday dwelling; it would be _bats[)i]c_, tabooed (or
sacrilegious). The traditions preserve methods of house building that
were imparted to mortals by the gods themselves. These methods, as is
usual in such cases, are the simplest and of the most primitive nature,
but they are still scrupulously followed.

Early mention of house building occurs in the creation myths: First-man
and First-wom