ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plate XXXIV.—­Navajo woman spinning 376
       XXXV.—­Weaving of diamond-shaped diagonals 380
      XXXVI.—­Navajo woman weaving a belt 384
     XXXVII.—­Zuni women weaving a belt 388
    XXXVIII.—­Bringing down the batten 390
    fig. 42.—­Ordinary Navajo blanket loom 378
         43.—­Diagram showing formation of warp 379
         44.—­Weaving of saddle-girth 382
         45.—­Diagram showing arrangement of threads of
              the warp in the healds and on the rod 383
         46.—­Weaving of saddle-girth 383
         47.—­Diagram showing arrangement of healds in
              diagonal weaving 384
         48.—­Diagonal cloth 384
         49.—­Navajo blanket of the finest quality 385
         50.—­Navajo blankets 386
         51.—­Navajo blanket 386
         52.—­Navajo blanket 387
         53.—­Navajo blanket 387
         54.—­Part of Navajo blanket 388
         55.—­Part of Navajo blanket 388
         56.—­Diagram showing formation of warp of sash 388
         57.—­Section of Navajo belt 389
         58.—­Wooden heald of the Zunis 389
         59.—­Girl weaving (from an Aztec picture) 391

NAVAJO WEAVERS.

By Dr. Washington Matthews.

Sec.  I. The art of weaving, as it exists among the Navajo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, possesses points of great interest to the student of ethnography.  It is of aboriginal origin; and while European art has undoubtedly modified it, the extent and nature of the foreign influence is easily traced.  It is by no means certain, still there are many reasons for supposing, that the Navajos learned their craft from the Pueblo Indians, and that, too, since the advent of the Spaniards; yet the pupils, if such they be, far excel their masters to-day in the beauty and quality of their work.  It may be safely stated that with no native tribe in America, north of the Mexican boundary, has the art of weaving been carried to greater perfection than among the Navajos, while with none in the entire continent is it less Europeanized.  As in language, habits, and opinions, so in arts, the Navajos have been less influenced than their sedentary neighbors of the pueblos by the civilization of the Old World.