When the place is to be used a fire is made close beside it, and in this fire numerous stones are heated. The patient to be treated is then stripped, placed inside the little hut, and given copious drafts sometimes of warm or hot water. The nearly red-hot stones are rolled in beside him and the entrance is closed with several blankets, forming in fact a hot-air bath. In a short time the air in the interior rises to a high temperature and the subject sweats profusely. When he is released he rubs himself dry with sand, or if he be ill and weak he is rubbed dry by his friends. This ceremony has a very important place in the medicine-man’s therapeutics, for devils as well as diseases are thus cast out; but aside from their religious use, the çó‘tce are often visited by the Indians for the cleansing and invigorating effect of the bath, with no thought of ceremonial. The Navaho, as a race or individually, are not remarkable for cleanliness, but they use the çó‘tce freely.
During the Yébĭtcai dance or ceremony four çó‘tce are set around the song house, about 40 yards distant from it, one at each cardinal point. The qaçál‘i, or chief medicine-man, sweats the patient in them on four successive mornings, just at dawn, beginning with the east and using one each morning. The çó‘tce on the east is merely an uncovered frame, and after the patient enters it and hot stones have been rolled in it is covered with many blankets and a large buckskin is spread over all. On this skin the qaçál‘isprinkles iron ochers and other colored sands in striated bands, symbolic of the rainbow and sunbeams which covered the early mythic houses. He and his assistants stand near the hut shaking rattles and singing a brief song to Qastcéjĭni, at the conclusion of which the patient is released. The initial spark of the fire used at these ceremonies and for all religious purposes is obtained by friction, and is regarded as essentially different from fire produced by flint and steel or otherwise, because the first spark of friction fire was brought from Qastcéjĭni, who is the god of the underworld fire. The production of fire by friction is a very simple matter to these Indians and is often done in play; frequently, under the windy conditions that prevail in their country, in but little more time than a white man can accomplish the same result with matches. For this purpose they often use the dry, brittle stalks of the common bee weed (Cleome pungens). The drill, which is whirled between the palms of the hands, consists of a stalk perhaps a quarter of an inch in diameter. This is made to revolve on the edge of a small notch cut into a larger stalk, perhaps an inch in diameter. A pinch of sand is sometimes placed under the point of the drill, the rapid revolution of which produces a fine powder. This powder runs down the notch or groove, forming a little pile on the ground. Smoke is produced in less than a minute, and finally, in perhaps two minutes, tiny sparks drop on the little pile of dry powder, which takes fire from them. By careful fostering by feeding with bits of bark and grass, and with much blowing, a blaze is produced.
It is said that First-man made the first çó‘tce. After coming up the qadjinaí, or magic reed, he was very dirty; his skin was discolored and he had a foul smell like a coyote. He washed with water, but that did not cleanse him. Then Qastcéjĭni sent the firefly to instruct him concerning the çó‘tce and how to rotate a spindle of wood in a notched stick. As First-man revolved the spindle, or drill, between his hands, Firefly ignited the dust at its point with a spark of fire which Qastcéjĭni had given it for that purpose. There is another myth concerning the origin of these little sweat houses which does not agree with that just stated. According to this myth, the çó‘tce were made by the Sun when the famous twins, Nayénĕzgani and Ço‘badjĭstcíni, who play so large a part in Navaho mythology, were sent to him by Estsánatlehi. When they reached the house of the Sun they called him father, as they had been instructed to do, but the Sun disowned them and subjected them to many ordeals, and even thrust at them with a spear, but the mother had given each of the youths a magic feather mantle impervious to any weapon. Kléhanoai (the night bearer—the moon) also scoffed at them and filled the mind of the Sun with doubts concerning the paternity of the twins, so he determined to subject them to a further ordeal.
He made four çó‘tce, but instead of using wood in their construction he made them of a metallic substance, like iron. He placed these at the cardinal points and sent the moon to make a fire near each of them. This fire was obtained from the “burning stars,” the comets. The çó‘tce were made exceedingly hot and the twins were placed in them successively; but instead of being harmed they came out of the last one stronger and more vigorous than ever. Then the Sun acknowledged them as his sons and gave the elder one the magic weapons with which he destroyed the evil genii who infested the Navaho land. This is the reason, the Navaho say, why it is well to have many çó‘tce and to use them frequently. Their use gives rest and sweet sleep after hard work; it invigorates a man for a long journey and refreshes him after its accomplishment.
First-woman, after coming up the qadjinaí, was also foul and ill smelling, and after First-man she also used the çó‘tce. Hence the Navaho women use the çó‘tce like the men, but never together except under a certain condition medical in character. The çó‘tce is built usually in some secluded spot, and frequently large parties of men go together to spend the better part of a day in the enjoyment of the luxury of a sweat bath and a scour with sand. On another day the women of the neighborhood get together and do the same, and the men regard their privacy strictly.
[EFFECT OF MODERN CONDITIONS]
Up to a comparatively recent period the Navaho have been what is usually termed a “wild tribe;” that is, they have existed principally by war and plunder. Since the conquest of the country by General Kearny and the “Army of the West,” in 1846, they have given us but little trouble, but prior to that time they preyed extensively on the Pueblo Indians and the Mexican settlements along the Rio Grande. Practically all their wealth today, and they are a wealthy tribe, consists of thousands of sheep and goats and hundreds of horses, all descended from flocks and herds originally stolen. When the country came into the possession of the United States marauding expeditions became much less frequent, and almost insensibly the tribe changed from a predatory to a pastoral people. But aside from the infrequency or absence of armed expeditions the life of the people remained much the same under the changed conditions. When the Atlantic and Pacific railroad entered the country some sixteen or seventeen years ago traders came with it, although there were a few in the country before, and numerous trading posts were established in the reservation and about its borders. The effect of this was to fix the pastoral habits of the people. Wool and pelts were exchanged for flour, sugar, and coffee, and for calico prints and dyes, and gradually a demand for these articles was established.
The men looked after their herds of horses and took very good care of the few cattle that drifted into the reservation; the women attended to their domestic duties and, with the aid of the children, took care of the sheep and goats, which, according to long-established custom, belonged exclusively to them. Agriculture was practically unknown. But with the removal of the duty on wool a new era opened for the Navaho. The price of wool fell to about one-half of the former figure, and a flock of sheep no longer furnished the means for procuring the articles which had grown to be necessities. The people were gradually but surely forced to horticulture to procure the means of subsistence. It is this tendency which is especially destructive of the old house-building ideas, and which will eventually cause a complete change in the houses of the people. Recently the tendency has been emphasized by the construction, under governmental supervision, of a number of small irrigating ditches in the mountain districts. The result of these works must be eventually to collect the Navaho into small communities, and practically to destroy the present pastoral life and replace it with new and, perhaps, improved conditions.
But many of the arts of the Navaho, and especially their house building, grew out of and conformed to the old methods of life. It is hardly to be supposed that they will continue under the new conditions, and, in fact, pronounced variations are already apparent. Up to ten years ago there was so little change that it might be said that there was none; since then the difference can be seen by everyone. Should the price of wool rise in the near future the change that has been suggested might be checked, but it has received such an impetus that the Navaho will always henceforth pay much more attention to horticulture than they have in the past, and this means necessarily a modification in the present methods of house building. The average Navaho farm, and almost every adult male now has a small garden patch, comprises less than half an acre, while two acres is considered a large area to be worked by one family at one time.
One result of this industrial development of the people is an increased permanency of dwellings. As the flocks of sheep and goats diminish and their care becomes less important, greater attention is paid to the selection of sites for homes, and they are often located now with reference to a permanent occupancy and with regard to the convenience of the fields, which in some cases furnish the main source of subsistence of the family. As a collateral result of these conditions and tendencies an effort is now sometimes made to build houses on the American plan; that is, to imitate the houses of the whites. Such houses are a wide departure from the original ideas of house structures of the Navaho. They are rectangular in plan, sometimes with a board roof, and occasionally comprise several rooms. When the local conditions favor it they are constructed of stone, regular walls of masonry; but perhaps the greater number of those now in existence are in the mountain districts, and were built of logs, often hewn square before being laid in place. Plate LXXXVIII shows a stone house belonging to one of the wealthiest men in the tribe, Bitcai by name. It is situated on the western slope of the Tunicha mountains and was built some years ago, but it is a type of house which is becoming more and more frequent on the reservation. There is practically nothing aboriginal about it except a part of its interior furniture and its inhabitants, and the only one of the old requirements that has been met is the fronting of the house to the east, while the character of the site and the natural conditions demand a western front.