North American Folklore 1

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the habits and surroundings of the American Indians are undergoing a gradual change through the advance of western civilisation, and their original conditions of life are disappearing, yet, thanks to American enterprise in the fields of archaology and folklore, the records of such things are being faithfully kept that they may not entirely die out or become vague tradition. It is with this object that two valuable papers on Arizona have been published in Part 2 of the “Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,” the first dealing with the Navaho hogáns or houses, and the secon I giving an account of excavations in Arizona in 1895. The former, by Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff contains, not only his material, but also much of the late A. M. Stephen, who lived for many years among the Navaho. The Navaho Indians now occupy a reservation of more than eleven thousand square miles in the north-eastern part of Arizona and north-western corner of New Mexico, the whole tract lying within the plateau region, and under modern conditions they are slowly developing into an a ricultural tribe, although they still retain their pastoral habits. It is with the curious customs relating to the bulding of hogáns or houses by this people that the author has concerned himself, and he has elicited many it teresting facts about them. The Navaho are accuston ed to build two kinds of hogán, one for the winter and one for the summer; the former resemble mere mounds of earth hollowed out, yet they are comfortable and excellent for their purpose, and although they are of rough appearance their builders conform, not only to custom, but even to what amounts almost to ritual in their construction, with inaugural ceremonies of the most elaborate description. There is no attempt at decoration; a framework is formed of interlocked forked timbers, to which are added stout poles for the sides, and the whole is covered with bark and earth. Usually a hogán can be finished with the help of the neighbours in one day, and in the same evening begins the dedication. The goodwife sweeps and garners the new house, while a fire is kindled inside directly under the smoke hole. The head of the family then comes in and, after rubbing a handful of dry meal on the five principal timbers and strewing some on the floor, begins to chant the following: —