1883.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 133 



the width of its edge. When finished carefully the serrated edges along 

 the seam should be perfectly regular, and many of the young men take 

 great pains with this style of seam. 



The other specimen, B (fig. 3), completes the four styles of shoe stitch 

 known among the Navajoes. Shoes sewed 

 thus are called Ke pik ya-a-klo — that is, 

 "shoe with thread showing above." 



The women's shoes are sewed in either 

 of the above styles, and the front portion 

 of the upper is fitted the same as on a 

 man's shoe, but tbe back portion of the 

 upper is always a half of a buckskin, 

 which is wrapped around the leg from 

 ankle to just below the knee. A long 

 strip of buckskin is also attached to this 

 half skin, which strip constitutes the outer 

 wrapping, laid in regular overlapping 

 turns from the foot upward to just below 

 the bottom of their short skirt, where it 

 is secured with silver buttons. 



In snowy weather they sometimes make 

 from goat-skin a sort of overshoe, sewed 

 with yucca — the skin being turned hair 

 side in, and cut so that one straight seam 

 from toe to ankle completes the shoe. It 

 is called Ke tcfigi — worthless shoe. The 

 early yucca shoes were called Tsii zi n ke. 

 Yucca is tsii zi n — literally "bunch of 

 awls," from the manner in which the 

 yucca grows in bunches and its sharp 

 pointed and awl-like tips. The early 

 yucca and grass shoes are always de- 

 scribed as sandals. 



Formerly the Navajoes ornamented 

 their shoes with beads and dyed porcu- 

 pine quills, but these are now never used. 



I procured a curious pair of shoes 

 called Ke-nas-khuti Ho-zo-bi " shoe sewed FlG - 3 - Kava J° « lance sho °- 



with single straight seam that makes a peculiar mark." They are only 

 used by the sacred dancers in the ceremony known as the " Song of 

 the winds." 



Formerly these dancers carried snakes of all sorts, as the Mokis do, 

 in their snake dance. Now, however, the Navajo only paints a snake 

 upon his arms, the tail on his shoulder, the body twining down the 

 arm over the back of the hand and between the fingers, the head 

 depicted on the palm. 



