The Navaho recognize two distinct classes of hogáns--the _keqaí_ or
winter place, and the _kejĭ´n_, or summer place; in other words, winter
huts and summer shelters. Notwithstanding the primitive appearance of
the winter huts, resembling mere mounds of earth hollowed out, they are
warm and comfortable, and, rude as they seem, their construction is a
matter of rule, almost of ritual, while the dedicatory ceremonies which
usually precede regular occupancy are elaborate and carefully performed.
Although no attempt at decoration is ever made, either of the inside or
the outside of the houses, it is not uncommon to hear the term beautiful
applied to them. Strong forked timbers of the proper length and bend,
thrust together with their ends properly interlocking to form a
cone-like frame, stout poles leaned against the apex to form the sides,
the whole well covered with bark and heaped thickly with earth, forming
a roomy warm interior with a level floor--these are sufficient to
constitute a “_qoġán nĭjóni_,” house beautiful. To the Navaho the house
is beautiful to the extent that it is well constructed and to the degree
that it adheres to the ancient model.
There are many legends and traditions of wonderful houses made by the
gods and by the mythic progenitors of the tribe. In the building of
these houses turquois and pearly shells were freely used, as were also
the transparent mists of dawn and the gorgeous colors of sunset. They
were covered by sunbeams and the rays of the rainbow, with everything
beautiful or richly colored on the earth and in the sky. It is perhaps
on account of these gorgeous mythical hogáns that no attempt is now made
to decorate the everyday dwelling; it would be _bátsĭç_, tabooed (or
sacrilegious). The traditions preserve methods of house building that
were imparted to mortals by the gods themselves. These methods, as is
usual in such cases, are the simplest and of the most primitive nature,
but they are still scrupulously followed.
Early mention of house building occurs in the creation myths: First-man
and First-woman are discovered in the first or lowest underworld, living
in a hut which was the prototype of the hogán. There were curious beings
located at the cardinal points in that first world, and these also lived
in huts of the same style, but constructed of different materials. In
the east was Tiéholtsodi, who afterward appears as a water monster, but
who then lived in the House of Clouds, and I¢ní‘ (Thunder) guarded his
doorway. In the south was Teal‘ (Frog) in a house of blue fog, and
Tiel‘íŋ, who is afterward a water monster, lay at that doorway. Ácihi
Estsán (Salt-woman) was in the west, and her house was of the substance
of a mirage; the youth Çó‘nenĭli (Water-sprinkler) danced before her
door. In the north Çqaltláqale[1] made a house of green duckweed, and
Sĭstél‘ (Tortoise) lay at that door.
[Footnote 1: Recorded by Dr Matthews as the Blue Heron.]
Some versions of the myth hold that First-man’s hut was made of wood
just like the modern hogán, but it was covered with gorgeous rainbows
and bright sunbeams instead of bark and earth. At that time the
firmament had not been made, but these first beings possessed the
elements for its production. Rainbows and sunbeams consisted of layers
or films of material, textile or at least pliable in nature, and were
carried about like a bundle of blankets. Two sheets of each of these
materials were laid across the hut alternately, first the rainbows from
north to south, then the sunbeams from east to west. According to this
account the other four houses at the cardinal points were similarly
made of wood, the different substances mentioned being used merely for
covering. Other traditions hold that the houses were made entirely of
the substances mentioned and that no wood was used in their construction
because at that time no wood or other vegetal material had been
produced.
After mankind had ascended through the three underworlds by means of the
magic reed to the present or fourth world, Qastcéyalçi, the God of Dawn,
the benevolent nature god of the south and east, imparted to each group
of mankind an appropriate architecture--to the tribes of the plains,
skin lodges; to the Pueblos, stone houses; and to the Navaho, huts of
wood and earth and summer shelters. Curiously enough, nowhere in Navaho
tradition is any mention or suggestion made of the use by them of skin
lodges.
In building the Navaho hogán Qastcéyalçi was assisted by Qastcéqoġan,
the God of Sunset, the complementary nature god of the north and west,
who is not so uniformly benignant as the former. In the ceremonies which
follow the erection of a hogán today the structure is dedicated to both
these deities, but the door is invariably placed to face the east, that
the house may be directly open to the influences of the more kindly
disposed Qastcéyalçi.
When a movement of a family has been completed, the first care of the
_qasçíŋ_, or head of the family, is to build a dwelling, for which
he selects a suitable site and enlists the aid of his neighbors and
friends. He must be careful to select a place well removed from hills
of red ants, as, aside from the perpetual discomfort consequent on
too close a proximity, it is told that in the underworld these pests
troubled First-man and the other gods, who then dwelt together, and
caused them to disperse.
[Illustration: Fig. 230--The three main timbers of a hogán]
A suitable site having been found, search is made for trees fit to make
the five principal timbers which constitute the _qoġán tsá¢i_, or house
frame. There is no standard of length, as there is no standard of
size for the completed dwelling, but commonly piñon trees 8 to 10
inches in diameter and 10 to 12 feet long are selected. Three of the
five timbers must terminate in spreading forks, as shown in figure 230,
but this is not necessary for the other two, which are intended for the
doorway and are selected for their straightness.
When suitable trees have been found, and sometimes they are a
considerable distance from the site selected, they are cut down and
trimmed, stripped of bark, and roughly dressed. They are then carried or
dragged to the site of the hogán and there laid on the ground with their
forked ends together somewhat in the form of a T, extreme care being
taken to have the butt of one log point to the south, one to the west,
and one to the north. The two straight timbers are then laid down with
the small ends close to the forks of the north and south timbers and
with their butt ends pointing to the east. They must be spread apart
about the width of the doorway which they will form.
When all the timbers have been laid out on the ground, the position
of each one of the five butts is marked by a stone or in some other
convenient way, but great care must be exercised to have the doorway
timbers point exactly to the east. Sometimes measurements are made
without placing the timbers on the site, their positions and lengths
being determined by the use of a long sapling. The interior area being
thus approximated, all the timbers are removed, and, guided only by the
eye, a rough circle is laid out, well within the area previously marked.
The ground within this circle is then scraped and dug out until a fairly
level floor is obtained, leaving a low bench of earth entirely or partly
around the interior. This bench is sometimes as much as a foot and a
half high on the high side of a slightly sloping site, but ordinarily it
is less than a foot. The object of this excavation is twofold--to make
a level floor with a corresponding increase in the height of the
structure, and to afford a bench on which the many small articles
constituting the domestic paraphernalia can be set aside and thus avoid
littering the floor.
The north and south timbers are the first to be placed, and each is
handled by a number of men, usually four or five, who set the butt ends
firmly in the ground on opposite sides at the points previously marked
and lower the timbers to a slanting position until the forks lock
together. While some of the men hold these timbers in place others set
the west timber on the western side of the circle, placing it in such a
position and in such a manner that its fork receives the other two and
the whole structure is bound together at the top. The forked apex of the
frame is 6 to 8 feet above the ground in ordinary hogáns, but on the
high plateaus and among the pine forests in the mountain districts
hogáns of this type, but intended for ceremonial purposes, are sometimes
constructed with an interior height of 10 or 11 feet, and inclose an
area 25 to 30 feet in diameter. Following is a list of measurements of
four typical hogáns:
_Measurements of typical hogáns_
+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Ft. in.|Ft. in.|Ft. in.|Ft. in.|
+-----------------+---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Door frame |Height | 3 8 | 4 0 | 4 0 | 3 6 |
| |Width | 3 8 | 1 8 | 1 6 | 1 9 |
+-----------------+---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Interior |North & south |17 10 |12 8 |14 9 |14 5 |
| |East & west |18 0 |12 0 |15 0 |14 0 |
+-----------------+---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Height under apex | 7 9 | 6 6 | 7 0 | 6 9 |
+-----------------+---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Smoke hole |Width at apex | 1 10 | Very | 1 2 | 1 10 |
| |Width at base | 3 0 | irre- | 2 4 | 2 10 |
| |Length | 3 10 | gular | 3 0 | 3 0 |
+-----------------+---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Space between |At apex | 1 10 | 2 0 | 1 2 | 1 10 |
| doorway timbers |At base | 3 8 | 3 0 | 3 0 | 3 5 |
+-----------------+---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
In the large hogáns mentioned a crowd of workers are engaged in the
construction and ropes and other mechanical aids are employed to lift
the heavy timbers of the frame in position.
At this stage in the construction the house shows only the three
principal timbers of the frame, securely locked at the apex by the
interlacing forks (as shown in figure 231) and firmly planted in the
ground. The two doorway timbers are next placed in position, with their
smaller ends resting on the forked apex of the frame, from 1-1/2 to 2
feet apart, and with the butt ends resting on the ground about 3-1/2
feet apart. The whole frame, comprising five timbers, is known as
_tsá¢í_, but each timber has its own specific name, as follows:
South timber, _ca¢aá¢e naaí_.
West timber, _iŋiŋá¢e naaí_.
North timber, _náqokos¢e naaí_.
Doorway timbers (two), _tcíŋĕçin¢e naaí_.
The appearance of the frame as seen from below is shown in figure 231.
[Illustration: Fig. 231--Frame of a hogán, seen from below]
These names afford a good illustration of the involved nomenclature
which characterizes Indian languages. _Naaí_ means a long, straight
object, like a piece of timber. The first word in each of the terms
above is the name of the cardinal point, the place it occupies (south,
west, and north), with the suffix _¢e_, meaning “here” or “brought
here.” The same words are used with the suffix _dje_, instead of _¢e_,
as _ca¢aádje_ _naaí_ for the north timber, _dje_ meaning “there” or
“set there.” The west timber is also specially designated as _bigídje
nabkád_, “brought together into it,” an allusion to its functions as
the main support of the frame, as the two other timbers rest within its
spreading fork. The two doorway timbers are also designated as north
timber and south timber, according to the position each occupies, and
they are sometimes called _tcíŋĕçin bĭnĭnĭ´li_, “those in place at the
doorway passage.” A full nomenclature of hogán construction will be
found in another section.
When the _tsá¢i_, or frame of five timbers, is completed the sides are
filled with smaller timbers and limbs of piñon and cedar, the butt ends
being set together as closely as possible on the ground and from 6 to 12
inches outside of the excavated area previously described. The timbers
and branches are laid on as flat as possible, with the upper ends
leaning on the apex or on each other. The intervening ledge thus formed
in the interior is the bench previously mentioned, and aside from its
convenience it adds materially to the strength of the structure.
[Illustration: Fig. 232--Frame of a doorway]
While the sides are being inclosed by some of the workers a door-frame
is constructed by others. This consists simply of two straight poles
with forked tops driven into the ground at the base of and close inside
of the doorway timbers, as shown in figure 232. When in place these
poles are about 4 feet high, set upright, with a straight stick resting
in the forks, as shown clearly in plate LXXXIV. Another short stick is
placed horizontally across the doorway timbers at a point about 3-1/2
feet below the apex, at the level of and parallel with the cross-stick
of the door-frame. The space between this cross-stick and the apex is
left open to form an exit for the smoke. Sometimes when the hogán is
unbearably smoky a rough chimney-like structure, consisting of a rude
cribwork, is placed about this smoke hole. Such a structure is shown
in plate LXXXIII.
The doorway always has a flat roof formed of straight limbs or split
poles laid closely together, with one end resting on the crosspiece
which forms the base of the smoke hole and the other end on the
crosspiece of the door-frame. The whole doorway structure projects from
the sloping side of the hogán, much like a dormer window. Sometimes the
doorway roof is formed by a straight pole on each side of the smoke hole
crosspiece to the crosspiece of the door-frame, supporting short sticks
laid across and closely together with their ends resting on the two
poles. This style of doorway is shown in plate LXXXIV.
The sides of the projecting doorway--that is, the spaces between the
roof and the sloping doorway timbers--are filled in with small sticks
of the required length. Sometimes the ends of these sticks are bound
in place with twigs of yucca, being made fast to the door-frame, but
generally they are merely set in or made to rest against the outer roof
covering. Usually the larger timbers are roughly dressed on the sides
toward the interior of the hut, and the smaller poles also are stripped
of bark and rough hewn.
The entire structure is next covered with cedar bark; all the
interstices are filled with it, and an upper or final layer is spread
with some regularity and smoothness. Earth is then thrown on from base
to apex to a thickness of about six inches, but enough is put on to make
the hut perfectly wind and water proof. This operation finishes the
house, and usually there are enough volunteers to complete the work
in a day.
It is customary to make a kind of recess on the western side of the
hut by setting out the base of the poles next to the west timber some
8 to 15 inches beyond the line. This arrangement is usually placed next
to and on the south side of the west timber, and all the poles for a
distance of 3 or 4 feet are set out. The offset thus formed is called
the “mask recess,” and when a religious ceremony is performed in the
hogán, the shaman or medicine-man hangs a skin or cloth before it and
deposits there his masks and fetiches. This recess, of greater or less
dimensions, is made in every large hogán, but in many of the smaller
ones it is omitted. Its position and general character are shown in
the ground plan, plate XC. In the construction of a hogán all the
proceedings are conducted on a definite, predetermined plan, and the
order sketched above is that ordinarily followed, but nothing of a
ceremonial nature is introduced until after the conclusion of the work
of construction.