614 NAVAJO DYE STUFFS. 
and gray—so they have always a fair range of tints with which to 
execute their artistic designs. The brilliant red figures in their finer 
blankets were, a few years ago, made entirely of bayeta, and this mate- 
rial is still largely used. Bayeta is a bright, scarlet cloth, with a long 
nap, much finer in appearance than the scarlet strouding which forms 
such an important article in the Indian trade of the North. It was 
originally brought to the Navajo country from Mexico, but is now sup- 
plied to the trade from our eastern cities. The Indians ravel it and 
use the weft. While many handsome blankets are still made only of 
the colors and material above described, American yarn has lately be- 
come very popular among the Navajos, and many fine blankets are 
now made wholly, or in part, of Germantown wool. 
Yellow.—There are, the Indians tell me, three different processes for 
dyeing yellow; two of these I witnessed. The first process is thus 
conducted. (Specimen No. 2, Catalogue No. 153349, is wool dyed by 
this process.) 
The flowering tops of Bigelovia graveolens are boiled for about six 
hours, until a decoction of deep-yellow color is produced. When the 
dyer thinks the decoction is strong enough, she heats over the fire in 
a pan or earthen vessel some native almogen (an impure native alum), 
until it is reduced to a somewhat pasty consistency; this she adds 
gradually to the decoction, and then puts the wool in the dye to boil. 
From time to time a portion of the wool is taken out and inspected 
until (in about half an hour from the time it is first immersed) it is 
seen to have assumed the proper color. The work is then done. The 
tint produced is nearly that of lemon color. (No. 2.) 
In the second process they use the large fleshy root of a plant which, 
as I have never yet seen it in fruit or flower, I am unable to determine. 
The fresh root is crushed to a soft paste on the metate, and, for a mor- 
dant, the almogen is added while the grinding is going on. The cold 
paste is then rubbed between the hands into the wool. If the wool 
does not seem to take the color readily a little water is dashed on the 
mixture of wool and paste, and the whole is very slightly warmed. The 
entire process does not occupy over an hour, and the result is a color 
much like that now known as “old gold.” 
The dull reddish dye, specimen No. 3, Catalogue No. 153350, is made 
of the bark of the Alder, Alnus incaua var. virescens (Watson) and the 
bark of the Cercocarpus parvifolius, a kind of mountain mahogany. On 
buckskin this makes a brilliant tan color, but applied to wool it pro- 
duces a much paler shade, as shown in the specimen (No. 3). 
The orange dye, Specimen No. 4, Catalogue No. 153351, is made from 
the roots of a sorrel Rumex hymenosepalum. 
Specimen No. 5, Catalogue No. 153352, is wool, half natural white 
and half dyed black, carded together. 
Black dye.—The black dye, specimen No. 6, Catalogue No. 153353, is 
made of the twigs and leaves of the aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica), 
