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Show i8o BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1600 very industrious, spinning, weaving, and knitting, taking most of the time they can spare from household duties. The Navajo blankets are justly famed for their durability, fineness of finish, beauty of design, and variety of pattern. The manufacture of pottery is on the decline, and most of the baskets in use among the Navajo have been obtained from other tribes. Their mythology is very complex and their religious practices and beliefs are difficult to comprehend. They have a large number of ceremonies, some of which are long and elaborate, and all ostensibly for the cure of some sick person, and conducted by the shaman or medicine- man. In connection with these, very elaborate sand mosaics or paintings, depicting mystic emblems and groups of various deities, are made of dry sand of different colors, of charcoal, and of ochres. A considerable part of the rites consists in dancing and the singing of sacred songs, which vary for each ceremonial. They have in addition, for every important act of their lives, from birth to death, songs or poems, as they might be called, which may be numbered by the thousand, handed down from generation to generation. These rites and ceremonies, while less elaborate than those of the Pueblos, show general resemblance, which suggests the possibility that they are borrowed. The differences are marked enough, however, to indicate fairly that the Navajos have held independent development for a considerable |