MATiriEwsi NAVAJO WORKSHOPS. 173 



rings or hoops of wood are placed in the skin-tube to keep it distended, 

 while the tube is constricted between the hoops with buckskin thongs, 

 and thus divided into a number of compartments, as shown in PI. XVII. 

 The nozzle is made of four pieces of wood tied together and rounded 

 on the outside so as to form a cylinder about ten inches long and three 

 inches in diameter, with a quadrangular hole in the center about one 

 inch square. The bellows is worked by horizontal movements of the 

 arm. I have seen among the Navajos one double-chambered bellows 

 with a sheet-iron tweer. This bellows was about the same size as the 

 single chambered one described above. It was also moved horizontally, 

 and by means of an iron rod ])assiug fi-om one end to the other and at- 

 tached to the disks, one chamber was opened at the same time that the 

 other was closed, and vice versa. This gave a more constant current of 

 air than the single-chambered implement, but not as steady a blast as 

 the bellows of our blacksmiths. Such a bellows, too, I have seen in 

 the Pueblo of Zuiii. 



For an anvil they usually use any suitable piece of iron they may 

 happen to pick up, as for instance an old wedge or a large bolt, such as 

 the king-bolt of a wagon. A wedge or other large fragment of iron may 

 be stnck in the ground to steady it. A bolt is maintained in position 

 by being driven into a log. Hard stones are still sometimes used for 

 anvils and perhaps they were, at one time, the only anvils they pos- 

 sessed. 



Crucibles are made by the more careful smiths of clay, baked hard, 

 and they are nearly the same shape as those used by our metallurgists, 

 having three-cornered edges and rounded bottoms. They are usually 

 about two inches in every dimension. 



Fig. 1, PI. XVIII represents one of ordinary shape and size, which I 

 have In my collection. The Navajos are not good ])otters ; their earthen- 

 ware being limited to these crucibles and a few unornamented water- 

 jars; and it is probably in consequence of their inexperience in the 

 ceramic art that their crucibles are not durable. After being put in the 

 fire two or three times they swell and become very porous, and when 

 used for a longer time they often crack and fall to pieces. Some smiths, 

 instead of making crucibles, melt their metal in suitable fragments of 

 Pueblo pottery, which may be picked up around ruins in many localities 

 throughout the Navajo country or purchased from the Pueblo Indians. 



The moulds in which they cast their ingots, cut in soft sandstone with 

 a home-made chisel, are so easily formed that the smith leaves them 

 behind when he moves his residence. Each mould is cut api^roximately 

 in the shape of the article which is to be wrought out of the ingot cast 

 in if, and it is greased with suet before the metal is poured in. In Figs. 

 2 and 3, PI. XVIII, are represented pieces of sand-stone, graven for 

 molds, now in my possession. The figures are one-third the dimensions 

 of the subjects. In the middle cavity or mould shown in Fig. 2, PI. 

 XVIII, was cast the ingot from which was wrought the arrow-shaped 



