Part 2 (1/2)
While the sides are being inclosed by some of the workers a door-frame is constructed by others. This consists simply of two straight poles with forked tops driven into the ground at the base of and close inside of the doorway timbers, as shown in figure 232. When in place these poles are about 4 feet high, set upright, with a straight stick resting in the forks, as shown clearly in plate Lx.x.xIV. Another short stick is placed horizontally across the doorway timbers at a point about 3-1/2 feet below the apex, at the level of and parallel with the cross-stick of the door-frame. The s.p.a.ce between this cross-stick and the apex is left open to form an exit for the smoke. Sometimes when the hogan is unbearably smoky a rough chimney-like structure, consisting of a rude cribwork, is placed about this smoke hole. Such a structure is shown in plate Lx.x.xIII.
The doorway always has a flat roof formed of straight limbs or split poles laid closely together, with one end resting on the crosspiece which forms the base of the smoke hole and the other end on the crosspiece of the door-frame. The whole doorway structure projects from the sloping side of the hogan, much like a dormer window. Sometimes the doorway roof is formed by a straight pole on each side of the smoke hole crosspiece to the crosspiece of the door-frame, supporting short sticks laid across and closely together with their ends resting on the two poles. This style of doorway is shown in plate Lx.x.xIV.
The sides of the projecting doorway--that is, the s.p.a.ces between the roof and the sloping doorway timbers--are filled in with small sticks of the required length. Sometimes the ends of these sticks are bound in place with twigs of yucca, being made fast to the door-frame, but generally they are merely set in or made to rest against the outer roof covering. Usually the larger timbers are roughly dressed on the sides toward the interior of the hut, and the smaller poles also are stripped of bark and rough hewn.
The entire structure is next covered with cedar bark; all the interstices are filled with it, and an upper or final layer is spread with some regularity and smoothness. Earth is then thrown on from base to apex to a thickness of about six inches, but enough is put on to make the hut perfectly wind and water proof. This operation finishes the house, and usually there are enough volunteers to complete the work in a day.
It is customary to make a kind of recess on the western side of the hut by setting out the base of the poles next to the west timber some 8 to 15 inches beyond the line. This arrangement is usually placed next to and on the south side of the west timber, and all the poles for a distance of 3 or 4 feet are set out. The offset thus formed is called the ”mask recess,” and when a religious ceremony is performed in the hogan, the shaman or medicine-man hangs a skin or cloth before it and deposits there his masks and fetiches. This recess, of greater or less dimensions, is made in every large hogan, but in many of the smaller ones it is omitted. Its position and general character are shown in the ground plan, plate XC. In the construction of a hogan all the proceedings are conducted on a definite, predetermined plan, and the order sketched above is that ordinarily followed, but nothing of a ceremonial nature is introduced until after the conclusion of the work of construction.
SUMMER HUTS OR SHELTERS
The rules which govern the building of a regular hogan or winter house, although clearly defined and closely adhered to, do not apply to the summer huts or shelters. These outnumber the former and are found everywhere on the reservation, but they are most abundant in the mountain regions and in those places where horticultural operations can be carried on.
These structures are of all kinds and of all degrees of finish, although certain well-defined types, ancient in their origin, are still closely adhered to when the conditions permit. But under other circ.u.mstances the rudest and most primitive shelters are constructed, some of them certainly not so high in the scale of construction as an ordinary bird's nest. There is a certain interest that attaches to these rude attempts, as they exhibit the working of the human mind practically untrammeled by precedent.
Perhaps the most primitive and simple shelter the Navaho builds is a circle or part-circle of green boughs, generally pine or cedar. Half an hour of work by two men with axes is all that is required to erect one of these. A site having been selected, a tree is felled on the windward side, and the branches trimmed from it are piled up to a height of 4 or 5 feet on three sides of a circle 15 or 20 feet in diameter. A fire is built in the center and the natives dispose themselves around it.
Blankets are thrown over outstanding branches here and there, affording an abundance of shade in the hot summer days when even a little shade is agreeable. Rude as this shelter is, it is regarded by the Navaho as sufficient when no better is available. During the recent construction of some irrigating ditches on the reservation, when from 50 to 100 men were employed at one time, this form of shelter was the only one used, although in several instances the work was carried on in one place for five or six weeks. Shelters of this kind, however, are possible only in a wooded region, and are built only to meet an emergency, as when a man is away from home and there are no hogans in the vicinity where he can stop.
Another form, scarcely less rude, is sometimes found in localities temporarily occupied for grazing or for horticulture. It consists of a circle of small branches, sometimes of mere twigs, with the b.u.t.ts stuck into the ground, and not over 2-1/2 or 3 feet high. The circle is broken by a narrow entrance way on one side. This form of shelter, hardly as high as a man's waist, does little more than mark the place where a family have thrown down their blankets and other belongings, but it may afford some protection against drifting sand. Shelters of this type are occupied several months at a time. They are often seen on the sandy bottom lands of Canyon Ch.e.l.ly and in other regions of like character, and the same sites are sometimes occupied several years in succession.
From these rude makes.h.i.+ft types there is an unbroken range up to the standard winter hut, which also meets the requirements of a summer house, being as comfortable in warm weather as it is in cold weather.
The kind of house which a man builds depends almost entirely on the purposes which it is to serve and very little on the man or his circ.u.mstances. The houses of the richest man in the tribe and of the poorest would be identical unless, as often happens in modern times, the former has a desire to imitate the whites and builds a regular house of stone or logs. If, however, a man builds a summer place to which he intends to return year after year, and such is the usual custom, he usually erects a fairly substantial structure, a kind of half hogan, or house with the front part omitted. If it is possible to do so he locates this shelter on a low hill overlooking the fields which he cultivates.
The restriction which requires that the opening or doorway of a regular hogan shall invariably face the east does not apply to these shelters; they face in any direction, but usually they are so placed as to face away from the prevailing wind, and, if possible, toward the fields or farms.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 233--Ground plan of a summer shelter]
Figure 233 is a ground plan of a shelter of this type, which is shown also in plate Lx.x.xV. The effect is that of a half hogan of the regular type, but with a short upright timber in place of the usual north piece.
The example shown is built on a somewhat sloping site, and the ground inside has been slightly excavated, but on the front the floor reaches the general level of the ground. The princ.i.p.al timbers are forked together at the apex, but not strictly according to rule. The structure is also covered with earth in the regular way, and altogether appears to occupy an intermediate position between the summer shelter and the winter hut. It is a type which is common in the mountain districts and in those places where a semipermanent shelter is needed, and to which the family returns year after year.
The supporting post in front in this case was so short that the use of its fork would have made the roof too low. To overcome this the side beams were not laid directly in the fork, but a tablet or short piece of wood was inserted, as shown in figure 234, and the timbers rest on this.
The entrance or open front faced to the northwest, and to protect it from the evening sun a temporary shelter of pinon brush was put up, as shown in the ill.u.s.tration. This feature is a common accompaniment of summer shelters and is often found with the regular winter hogan.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 234--Supporting post in a summer hut]
Figure 235 shows another type of summer shelter in plan, and figure 236 is a section of the same. It is of the ”lean-to” type, and consists of a horizontal beam resting on two forked timbers and supporting a series of poles, the upper ends of which are placed against it. The structure faces the east, and the southern end is closed in like a hogan, but it was covered only with cedar boughs laid close together without an earth facing.
This shelter stood upon a slope and the timbers used in its construction were small and crooked. Perhaps on account of these disadvantages the interior was excavated, after the shelter was built, to a depth of nearly 24 inches on the higher side, as shown in figure 236. By this expedient the s.p.a.ce under the shelter was greatly enlarged. The excavation was not carried all the way back to the foot of the rafters, but, as shown in the section, a bench or ledge some 18 inches wide was left, forming a convenient place for the many little articles which const.i.tute the Navaho's domestic furniture.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 235--Ground plan of a summer hut]
Mention has been made before of this interior bench, which is an interesting feature. It has been suggested by Mr Victor Mindeleff, whose well-known studies of Pueblo architecture give his suggestions weight, that we have here a possible explanation of the origin of the interior benches which are nearly always found in the kivas or ceremonial chambers of the Pueblo Indians, that the benches in the kivas may be survivals of archaic devices pertaining to the primitive type from which Pueblo architecture developed. If a low wall of masonry were used as a support for rafters, in the manner shown in figure 237, and additional s.p.a.ce were sought by excavation, the form shown in the ill.u.s.tration would be retained, for the construction would be seriously weakened if the rude stonework were placed directly on the edge of the excavation.
Possibly this practice has some bearing on the Pueblo requirement that the kivas should be at least partly excavated, a requirement still rigidly adhered to. The conservatism of the Indian mind in matters connected with their ceremonials is well known, and forms and practices long abandoned in ordinary house construction still survive in the building of the kivas.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 236--Section of a summer hut]
Plate Lx.x.xVI shows a shelter somewhat resembling that last described, but of more simple construction. Here the main crosspiece which forms the front of the shelter is supported by forked upright timbers, as in the previous example, and here also the fork of the main upright is too large and has been filled in.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 237--Masonry support for rafters]