1. Those made from the close-spun
native yarn dyed in the old colors and woven in the simple old patterns;
when aged they closely resemble the old bayeta blankets. 2. Blankets woven
in a great variety of designs from coarse, loose-spun yarn dyed with
commercial dyes of many shades; these are the Navaho blankets of commerce.
3. Those woven from commercial or "Germantown" yarn; they are of fine
texture and sometimes beautiful, but lack interest in that their material
is not of Indian production. Fortunately the decrease in the demand for
blankets woven of commercial yarn is discouraging their manufacture.

The Navaho woman weaves her blanket not so much for profit as for love of
the work. It is her recreation, her means of expressing imagination and
her skill in execution. Civilized women may write books, paint pictures,
or deliver ringing addresses; these are unknown worlds to the Navaho
woman: but when after months of labor she finishes a blanket, her pride in
her work of art is indeed well justified.

Because of their pastoral life the Navaho are not villagers. Their
dome-shaped, earth-covered hogans are usually grouped two or three in the
same locality. The summer house is a rude brush shelter, usually made with
four corner posts, a flat top of brush, and a windbreak of the same
material as a protection against the hot desert siroccos. The hogan
proper, used for storage during the summer, affords a warm and comfortable
shelter to its occupants through the cold winters of their high altitude.
When a hogan is built it is ceremonially consecrated, and if an occupant
should die in it, it is forever deserted and is called _tsi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ndi hogan_,
"evil house." No Navaho will go near such a house or touch anything taken
from it. If a meal were cooked with decayed wood from a hogan a hundred
years deserted, a Navaho, even if starving, could not be induced to
partake of it. Thus strong are the religious beliefs of this primitive
people.

[Illustration: The Blanket Maker - Navaho]

The Blanket Maker - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

The domestic equipment of the Navaho is simplicity itself and reflects the
simple life of the tribe. Of household furniture there is none. The
bedding consists usually of a few sheepskins; cooking utensils are earthen
pots of their own making, and cups, knives, and spoons of civilization.
Plates they do n