A NAVAJO ARTIST, ETC. 24.') 



complicated tliiii.n, crowded witli deluil, and an object which the ma- 

 jority of tlic Navajos have only had the opportunity of seeing; for a few 

 yeai;<. The question possesses no little interest Irom an educational 

 point of view; for if one full-blooded Navajo Indian can, of his own 

 volition, thus stej) out of the archaic aboriginal rut and make a i)ass- 

 able picture of a steam engine, are there not hidden sparks and abilities 

 in other directions, and how would this one thrive if it were properly 

 guided and nourislied '! 



Choh presented me with his drawing, and during the course of the 

 day made me two others upon some rather common drawing paper, 

 which I gave him for the purpose. The last tw^o efforts were even 

 better than the one he bad made for his own amusement, and each pos- 

 sesses points of interest that thej' do not have in common. 



I selected the one I considered the best of all, and present it here as 

 one of the illustrations of this paper, it having been reduced rather 

 more than one-third for the purpose. 



In one of the others he drew the telegraph })oles and wires alongside 

 the track, and placed a bird on top of eacli pole — a very common sight 

 in this prairie country; but the birds are entirely out of proportion 

 with the rest of the picture, being fully ten times too large. 



In the third he has attempted to represent the rays of light as they 

 issue fron] the lieadlight, and the steam in this om> is blowing off. Ilis 

 ]»ow(us of observation have served him well here, i'or he has drawn the 

 white steam simply in outline, and has tried to show how it cuts 

 throngli the smoke, which is drawn black, as it comes from the stack. 



One of the most interesting things to me was to observe the great 

 care he took to show the "bright line" on the smokestack. Not only 

 tluit, but he was familiar with the fact that it did not show on the 

 under side of the upper enlarged portion of this part of the engine. 

 lie has likewise represented it upon the brass steam-(;hest and else- 

 where, and there is an evident attempt to properly shade the bod^- of 

 the engine itself, or boiler. Now, surely this is good work for an un- 

 taught Indian, and I can attest it is far above anything that I have 

 ever seen one of them attempt before, much loss accomplish. 



Again, the detail about the engine is by no means bad, ami, moreover, 

 each of these locomotives is upon a somewhat different model, as in one 

 he has the bell in a frame in front of the sand-box, in anotlier it is belted 

 to it, while finally, in the third, it is in the middle, between sand-box 

 and steam-chest. The driving-gear is not as well shown in the figure 

 as he is wont to nud^e it sometimes, and one has to but watch him draw 

 these parts to become satisfied that the man is ignorant of the principle 

 involved. 



He invariably places two men within the cab, ami takes evident pains 

 to always draw the top of this part perfectly flat. 



For the tender he usually adopts one model, from which he rarely 

 departs, though somet imes he fills it heaping full of coal, while at others, 



