struction of a house, and are still practiced, exhibit
almost a new phase of Indian culture. The essentially religious
character of the Indian mind, and his desire to secure for himself and
for his family those benefits which he believes will follow from the
establishment of a perfect understanding with his deities--in other
words, from the rendering of proper homage to benignant deities and the
propitiation of the maleficent ones--are exhibited in these ceremonies.
The sketch of them which is here given, the songs which form a part of
the ceremony, and the native explanations of some of the features will,
it is believed, assist to a better understanding of Indian character.

Finally, the rather full nomenclature of parts and elements of the house
which forms the last section of this memoir will probably be of service
to those who find in language hints and suggestions, or perhaps direct
evidence, of the various steps taken by a people in the course of their
development. As the writer is not competent to discuss the data from
that point of view, it is presented here in this form for the benefit of
those who are. Some suggestions of the derivation of various terms are
given, but only as suggestions.

Much of the material which is comprised in this report was collected by
the late A. M. Stephen, who lived for many years among the Navaho. His
high standing and universal popularity among these Indians gave him
opportunities for the collection of data of this kind which have seldom
been afforded to others. Some of the notes and sketches of Mr Victor
Mindeleff, whose studies of Pueblo architecture are well known, have
been utilized in this report. The author is indebted to Dr Washington
Matthews, the well-known authority on the Navaho Indians, for revising
the spelling of native terms occurring throughout the text.

In the present paper two spellings of the Navaho word for hut are used.
The proper form is _qo[.g]an_, but in and around the Navaho country it
has become an adopted English word under the corrupt form _hogan_. Thus
nearly all the whites in that region pronounce and spell it, and many
of the Indians, to be easily understood by whites, are pronouncing it
lately in the corrupted form. Therefore, wherever the term is employed
as an adopted English word, the form _hogan_ is given, but where it is
used as part of a Navaho phrase or compound word the strictly correct
form _qo[.g]an_ is preserved.

An inverted comma ('