376 NAVAJO WEAVERS. 



The wool is not washed until it is sheared. At the present time it is 

 combed with hand cards purchased from the Americans. Iu spinning, 

 the simplest form of the spindle— a slender stick thrust through the 

 center of a round wooden disk — is used. The Mexicans on the Rio 

 Grande use spinning-wheels, and although the Navajos have often seeu 

 these wheels, have had abundant opportunities for buying and stealing 

 i hem, and possess, I think, sufficient ingenuity to make them, they have 

 never abandoned the rude implement of their ancestors. Plate XXXI V 

 illustrates the Navajo method of handling the spindle, a method differ- 

 ent from that of the people of Zuni. 



They still employ to a great extent their native dyes : of yellow, red- 

 dish, and black. There is good evidence that they formerly had a blue 

 dye ; but indigo, originally introduced, I think, by the Mexicans, has 

 superseded this. If they, in former days, had a native blue and a native 

 yellow, they must also, of course, have had a green, and they now make 

 greeu of their native yellow and indigo, the latter being the only im- 

 ported dye-stuff I have ever seen in use among them. Besides the hues 

 above indicated, this people have had, ever since the introduction of 

 sheep, wool of three different natural colors — white, rusty black, and 

 gray — so they had always a fair range of tints with which to execute 

 their artistic designs. The brilliant red figures iu their finer blankets 

 were, a few years ago, made entirely of bayeta, and this material is still 

 largely used. Bayeta is a bright scarlet cloth with a long nap, much 

 finer in appearance than the scarlet strouding which forms such an im- 

 portant article in the Indian trade of the North. It was originally 

 brought to the Navajo country from Mexico, but is now supplied to the 

 trade from our eastern cities. The Indians ravel it and use the weft. 

 While many handsome blankets are still made only of the colors and 

 material above described, American yarn has lately become very popu- 

 lar among the Navajos, and many fine blankets are now made wholly, 

 or in part, of Gerinantown wool. 



The black dye mentioned above is made of the twigs and leaves of the 

 aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica), a native yellow ocher, and the gum 

 of the pinou (Pirius edulis). The process of preparing it is as follows : 

 They put into a pot of water some of the leaves of the sumac, aud as 

 many of the branchlets as can be crowded in without much breaking or 

 crushing, and the water is allowed to boil lor five or six hours until a 

 strong decoctiou is made. While the water is boiling they attend to other 

 parts of the process. The ocher is reduced to a fine powder between 

 two stoues and then slowly roasted over the fire in an earthen or metal 

 vessel until it assumes a light-brown color ; it is then taken from the 

 tire and combined with about an equal quantity in size of pinou gum; 

 again the mixture is put on the fire aud constantly stirred. At first 

 the gum melts and the whole mass assumes a mushy consistency ; but, 

 as the roastiug progresses it gradually becomes drier and darker until 

 it is at last reduced to a fine black powder. This is removed from the 



