512 NAVAHO HOUSES [ETH. ANN. 17 
placed closely around the excavated floor area, with their upper ends 
leaning against the roof beams. They are not set very regularly and 
boughs are often used to fill the larger crevices, while the corners are 
turned in a clumsy manner, with the tops of the timbers overlapping 
each other, while the butts diverge in a haphazard curve. 
The roof is laid with smaller timbers, the longest resting on the smoke- 
hole timber and the western beam, while the shorter pieces span the 
smaller interval from the former timber to the eastern beam. The 
arrangement of the smoke exit differs from that of the ordinary hogan. 
In the latter an open space is left between the doorway timbers at their 
upper ends; in the iyd¢askuni the doorway roof is continued up to the 
eastern beam, which forms the eastern side of the smoke hole. This 
( 
‘UM TOUTE AMON 
= a 2 a 5) y 
Fic. 242—Framework of Yébitcai house 
hole is in the main roof, in line with the doorway but just beyond the 
ends of its timbers, and it is usually about 5 feet square. Figure 242 
is an interior view of the frame, looking outward. The structure is 
finished like the hogans; the frame is covered by heavy layers of cedar 
or juniper bark over the sides and roof, and finally with a deep covering 
of earth packed firmly over the whole exterior. The door frame is 
usually about 4 feet high and 24 feet wide; the roof is about 7 feet high 
in the interior, and the floor area measures roughly 20 feet square, with 
the four posts standing about 5 feet from the base of the sides. Figure 
243 shows some actual measurements. 
While the Yébitcai ceremony is in progress the hut is occupied by 
the qacali and his assistants and by the young men who assume the 
sacred masks and personate the various deities in the nightly dances. 
