124 SADDLE AND CAME 



Unlike the Hopi, the Navajo is exceedingly 

 superstitious about handling dead bodies. He 

 believes that the evil spirit that kills a person 

 hovers about the hogan, or lodge, awaiting 

 other victims, and a hogan in which a death 

 occurs is never again occupied. Navajo hogans 

 are always built with the entrance facing the 

 east, and when a death takes place in one of 

 them another opening is invariably made in 

 the north side. Therefore, when one sees a 

 hogan with an opening to the north, one may be 

 certain that some one has died in it and that it 

 has been abandoned. 



Thus the Navajos live the free, pastoral, no- 

 madic life for which nature has designed them, 

 with an ample reservation over which to range. 

 They are industrious and progressive, enjoying 

 the good health insured them by a free, wild 

 life in the region to which they are acclimated. 

 This is why they are increasing in numbers. 

 They are industrious and progressive because 

 they have a religious faith that holds them to a 

 high standard of morality and permits them to 

 maintain their self-respect. 



Our visit at Tuba was all too short, and with 

 regret we turned our back upon this charming 

 oasis, and its interesting people, to renew our 

 trail over the desert to Utah and the north. 



