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Show i9oo] SOUTHWESTERN INDIANS 179 summer, and a more permanent lodge for the winter months. The typical winter dwelling, or " hogan," is a conical structure made of stout poles inclining inward at an angle of about forty- five degrees and covered with bark and earth. A doorway something like a dormer- window is constructed on one side, and in cold weather is covered with a blanket or skin; and an opening for the escape of smoke is left at the top. These houses average about seven feet high by fourteen feet in diameter. When long poles can be obtained " medicine lodges" are built, similar in structure but larger. In other places the medicine lodges are constructed on a rude frame with walls and roof separate, presenting an appearance somewhat like that of the earth lodges of the Mandan. The house and all that it contains, aside from the husband's weapons and personal possessions, belong by common consent to the wife. Neither has the husband any claim upon whatever sheep, horses, or fields the wife may have acquired by inheritance or purchase. The children belong wholly to the mother and to her clan, and she assumes the entire direction of the house life. It is the duty of the men to do most of the field- work, and most of them are active workers, the care of their fields, flocks, and herds demanding considerable attention. Within recent times many of the Navajo men have become expert silversmiths. 1 The women are also 1 Matthews, " Navajo Silversmiths" ( Bureau of Ethnology, Second Annual R$ fforf). |