488 NAVAHO HOUSES (ETH. ANN. 17 
is beautiful to the extent that it is well constructed and to the degree 
that it adheres to the ancient model. 
There are many legends and traditions of wonderful houses made by 
the gods and by the mythic progenitors of the tribe. In the building 
of these houses turquois and pearly shells were freely used, as were 
also the transparent mists of dawn and the gorgeous colors of sunset. 
They were covered by sunbeams and the rays of the rainbow, with 
everything beautiful or richly colored on the earth and in the sky. It 
is perhaps on account of these gorgeous mythical hogéns that no 
attempt is now made to decorate the everyday dwelling; it would be 
bitsi¢, tabooed (or sacrilegious). The traditions preserve methods 
of house building that were imparted to mortals by the gods them- 
selves. These methods, as is usual in such cases, are the simplest and 
of the most primitive nature, but they are still scrupulously followed. 
Early mention of house building occurs in the creation myths: First- 
man and First-woman are discovered in the first or lowest underworld, 
living in a hut which was the prototype of the hogan. There were 
curious beings located at the cardinal points in that first world, and 
these also lived in huts of the same style, but constructed of different 
materials. In the east was Tiéholtsodi, who afterward appears as a 
water monster, but who then lived in the House of Clouds, and I¢ni‘ 
(Thunder) guarded his doorway. In the south was Teal‘ (Frog) in a 
house of blue fog, and Tiel‘iy, who is afterward a water monster, lay 
at that doorway. Acihi Ests4n (Salt-woman) was in the west, and her 
house was of the substance of a mirage; the youth (6‘nenili (Water- 
sprinkler) danced before her door. In the north Oqaltlaqale’ made a 
house of green duckweed, and Sistyél‘ (Tortoise) lay at that door. 
Some versions of the myth hold that First-man’s hut was made of 
wood just like the modern hogan, but it was covered with gorgeous 
rainbows and bright sunbeams instead of bark and earth. At that 
time the firmament had not been made, but these first beings possessed 
the elements for its production. Rainbows and sunbeams cousisted of 
layers or films of material, textile or at least pliable in nature, and 
were carried about like a bundle of blankets. Two sheets of each of 
these materials were laid across the hut alternately, first the rainbows 
from north to south, then the sunbeams from east to west. According 
to this account the other four houses at the cardinal points were 
similarly made of wood, the different substances mentioned being used 
merely for covering. Other traditions hold that the houses were made 
entirely of the substances mentioned and that no wood was used in 
their construction because at that time no wood or other vegetal mate- 
rial had been produced. 
After mankind had ascended through the three underworlds by 
means of the magic reed to the present or fourth world, Qastcé¢yalci, 
the God of Dawn, the benevolent nature god of the south and east, 
1Recorded by Dr Matthews as the Blue Heron. 
