388 THE MOUNTAIN CHANT. 
down close to the spring. The elder son suggested that it would be 
well to dig into the soft sandy soil, in order to have a good shelter; so 
the old man selected a sandy hillock, overgrown with grease-wood, and 
excavated it near one edge, digging straight down, so as to have a wall 
on one side. 
12. They had a stone ax-head, with a groove init. Around this they 
bent a flexible twig of oak and tied it with the fibers of the yucea, and 
thus they made a handle. The first day after the spring was found the 
young men went out and chopped all day, and in the evening brought 
home four poles, and while they were gone the old man dug in the hill- 
ock. The next day the young men chopped all day, and at night re- 
turned with four more poles, while their father continued his digging. 
They worked thus for four days, and the lodge was finished. They made 
mats of hay to lie on and a mat of the same material to hang in the 
doorway. They made mats of fine cedar bark with which to cover them- 
selves in bed, for in those days the Navajo did not weave blankets such 
as they make now. ‘The soles of their moccasins were made of hay and 
the uppers of yucca fibers. The young men were obliged to go hunting 
every day; it was only with great labor they could keep the house 
supplied with meat; for, as has been said, they lived mostly on small 
animals, such as could be caught in fall traps, These traps they set at 
night near the burrows, and they slept close to the traps when the lat- 
ter were set far from home. They hunted thus for four days after the 
house was finished, while their sisters scoured all the country round in 
search of seeds. 
13. With all their work they found it hard to make a living in this 
place. The land was barren; even rats and prairie dogs were scarce, 
and the seed bearing plants were few. At the end of the fourth day 
they held a consultation, and the old man said they would do better to 
move on to the San Juan River, where food was more abundant, and 
they could trap and gather seeds as they traveled. They determined 
to leave, and next morning broke camp. They journeyed on till they 
reached the banks of the San Juan. Here they found abundance of 
teiltcin (fruit of Rhus aromatica) and of grass seeds, and they encamped 
beside the river at night. : 
14. Next day they traveled up the stream to a place called Tse‘eqaka, 
and here again they halted for the night. This place is noted for its 
deposits of native salt. The travelers cut some out from under a great 
rock and filled with it their bags, made out of the skins of the squirrels 
and other small animals which they had captured. Thence they fol- 
lowed up the river to Tse‘¢eza‘ (Rock Sticking Up), and thence to 
Cisya-qojoni (Beautiful Under the Cottonwoods), where they remained a 
day and killed two rabbits. These they skinned, disemboweled, crushed 
between two stones, bones and all, so that nothing might be lost, put 
them into an earthen pot to boil, and when they were sufficiently cooked 
they added some powdered seeds to make a thick soup; of all this they 
