206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



10 it is immediately spent for soda pop, candy and small notions. 

 The next stop is always the disposal of any rugs which have been 

 brought in. They are assessed and priced, and their allowed value 

 is traded out in merchandise on the spot. Small quantities of wool 

 (i.e., out of season), minor crafts, and pifion nuts, if any, are sim- 

 ilarly disposed of in trade. Only when all trade goods have been 

 taken care of, and value received in merchandise, does the serious 

 business of buying on credit begin. For most families this will ac- 

 count for the bulk of the purchases on any given day, including such 

 staples as flour, coffee, and other necessities of the whole household. 



Insofar as large cash purchases are made at Shonto Trading Post, 

 they are made either by persons not entitled to credit (i.e., from out- 

 side the community in most cases) or by persons whose credit is ex- 

 hausted. In these cases they take the place of credit buying in the 

 normal sequence of transactions. In some cases a customer's credit 

 will be exhausted in the middle of trading, m which case he may con- 

 tinue to buy for cash if he has any. It is highly unusual for anyone 

 to spend cash as long as he or she can get credit. 



If an item is to be pawned, this is nearly always the final order of 

 business, undertaken when trade, book credit and cash transactions 

 are out of the way 



It is very rare for an individual or household to cari-y out more than 

 two or three types of transaction during the course of the same trad- 

 ing session. The entire sequence from hides to pawn as set forth 

 above has never occurred in actual practice. Wliat the sequence rep- 

 resents is a consistent order of preference which is, from the Navaho 

 point of view, entirely logical. 



Navahos buy heavily on impulse, so that few of them, as they enter 

 the store, have more than a very general idea of what and how much 

 they are going to buy. Their uncertainty is increased by the fact that 

 they can never be sure exactly what the store will and will not have 

 in stock (see "Inventory Control," p. 180). Since few of Shonto's 

 customers have had any experience with addition beyond one figure, 

 it follows that they usually have even less idea of how much they are 

 going to spend than of how much they are going to buy. The trader 

 who asks a Navaho "how much credit do you want" ? is sure to get 

 the answer "I don't know ; I'U just have to see." 



Fully aware that they are unable to calculate their expenditures in 

 advance, Navahos simply go through their resources in the order of 

 expendability. First hides; then rugs, wool, and the like; then future 

 earnings; then cash on hand; and finally jewelry, wliich is to say 

 secure capital, are offered as exchange. If trading can be completed 

 and necessary items acquired before the last of these are reached, well 

 and good; but most Navahos come to the trading post prepared to 

 pay cash or to pawn in case their commodities and book credit will 



