484 NAVAHO HOUSES [RTH. ANN. 17 
survival from the time when the Navaho were warriors and plunderers, 
and lived in momentary expectation of reprisals on the part of their 
victims. 
Although the average Navaho family may be said to be in almost 
constant movement, they are not at all nomads, yet the term has 
frequently been applied to them. Each family moves back and forth 
within a certain circumscribed area, aud the smallness of this area is 
one of the most remarkable things in Navaho life. 
Ninety per cent of the Navaho one meets on the reservation are 
mounted and usually riding at a gallop, apparently bent on some 
important business at a far-distant point. Buta closer acquaintance 
will develop the fact that there are many grown men in the tribe who 
are entirely ignoraut of the country 30 or 40 miles from where they were 
born. Itis an exceptional Navaho who knows the country well 60 miles 
about his birthplace, or the place where he may be living, usually the 
same thing. Itis doubtful whether there are more than a few dozens of 
Navaho living west of the mountains who know anything of the coun- 
try to the east, and vice versa. This ignorance of what we may term 
the immediate vicinity of a place is experienced by every traveler who 
has occasion to make a long journey over the reservation and employs 
a guide. But he discovers it only by personal experience, for the guide 
will seldom admit his ignorance and travels on, depending on meeting 
other Indians living in that vicinity who will give him the required 
local knowledge. This peculiar trait illustrates the extremely restricted 
area within which each ‘‘nomad” family lives. : 
Now and then one may meet a family moving, for sueh movements 
are quite common. Usually each family has at least two locations—not 
definite places, but regions—and they move from one to the other as 
the necessity arises. In such cases they take everything with them, 
including flocks of sheep and goats and herds of ponies and cattle, if 
they possess any. The qas¢giy, as the head of the family is called, 
drives the ponies and cattle, the former a degenerate lot of little beasts 
not much larger than an ass, but capable of carrying a man in an 
emergency 100 miles in a day. He carries his arms, for the coyotes 
trouble the sheep at night, two or three blankets, and a buckskin on 
his saddle, but nothing more. It is his special duty to keep the ponies 
moving and in the trail. Following him comes a flock of sheep and 
goats, bleating and nibbling at the bushes and grass as they slowly 
trot along, urged by the dust-begrimed squaw and her children. Sey- 
eral of the more tractable ponies carry packs of household effects 
stuffed into buckskin and cotton bags or wrapped in blankets, a little 
corn for food, the rude blanket loom of the woman, baskets, and wicker 
bottles, and perhaps a scion of the house, too young to walk, perched 
on top of all. Such a caravan is always accompanied by several dogs— 
eurs of unknown breed, but invaluable aids to the women and children 
in herding the flocks. 
