The deer skins which hang over the entrance of the sweat houses (a
different skin being used for each sweat house) must be from animals which
have been killed by being smothered. The deer is run down and secured by
ropes or otherwise. Corn pollen is then put into the mouth of the deer and
the hands are held over the mouth and nostrils until life is extinct. The
animal now being placed upon his back, a line is drawn with corn pollen,
over the mouth, down the breast and belly to the tail. The line is then
drawn from the right hoof to the right foreleg to the breast line. The
same is done on the left fore leg and the two hind legs. The knife is then
passed over this line and the deer is flayed. Skins procured in this way
are worth, among the Navajo, $50 each. Masks are made of skins prepared in
the same manner. If made of skins of deer that have been shot the wearer
would die of fever.
Buckskin over the entrance to an eastern sweat house denotes dawn; over a
southern, denotes red of morning; over a western, sunset; over a northern,
night.