Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.
The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.
All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner [[51]]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.
They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.
The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.
The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.
These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.
White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.
Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or [[52]]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.
A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.