nary bird's
nest. There is a certain interest that attaches to these rude attempts,
as they exhibit the working of the human mind practically untrammeled
by precedent.

Perhaps the most primitive and simple shelter the Navaho builds is a
circle or part-circle of green boughs, generally pine or cedar. Half an
hour of work by two men with axes is all that is required to erect one
of these. A site having been selected, a tree is felled on the windward
side, and the branches trimmed from it are piled up to a height of
4 or 5 feet on three sides of a circle 15 or 20 feet in diameter. A fire
is built in the center and the natives dispose themselves around it.
Blankets are thrown over outstanding branches here and there, affording
an abundance of shade in the hot summer days when even a little shade
is agreeable. Rude as this shelter is, it is regarded by the Navaho as
sufficient when no better is available. During the recent construction
of some irrigating ditches on the reservation, when from 50 to 100 men
were employed at one time, this form of shelter was the only one used,
although in several instances the work was carried on in one place for
five or six weeks. Shelters of this kind, however, are possible only in
a wooded region, and are built only to meet an emergency, as when a man
is away from home and there are no hogans in the vicinity where he can
stop.

Another form, scarcely less rude, is sometimes found in localities
temporarily occupied for grazing or for horticulture. It consists of a
circle of small branches, sometimes of mere twigs, with the butts stuck
into the ground, and not over 2-1/2 or 3 feet high. The circle is broken
by a narrow entrance way on one side. This form of shelter, hardly as
high as a man's waist, does little more than mark the place where a
family have thrown down their blankets and other belongings, but it may
afford some protection against drifting sand. Shelters of this type
are occupied several months at a time. They are often seen on the sandy
bottom lands of Canyon Chelly and in other regions of like character,
and the same sites are sometimes occupied several years in succession.

From these rude makeshift types there is an unbroken range up to the
standard winter hut, which also meets the requirements of a summer
house, being as comfortable in warm weather as it is in cold weather.
The kind of house which a man builds depends almost entirely on
the purposes which it is to serve