of bayeta, and this material is still largely used.  Bayeta is a bright scarlet cloth with a long nap, much finer in appearance than the scarlet strouding which forms such an important article in the Indian trade of the North.  It was originally brought to the Navajo country from Mexico, but is now supplied to the trade from our eastern cities.  The Indians ravel it and use the weft.  While many handsome blankets are still made only of the colors and material above described, American yarn has lately become very popular among the Navajos, and many fine blankets are now made wholly, or in part, of Germantown wool.

The black dye mentioned above is made of the twigs and leaves of the aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica), a native yellow ocher, and the gum of the pinon (Pinus edulis).  The process of preparing it is as follows:  They put into a pot of water some of the leaves of the sumac, and as many of the branchlets as can be crowded in without much breaking or crushing, and the water is allowed to boil for five or six hours until a strong decoction is made.  While the water is boiling they attend to other parts of the process.  The ocher is reduced to a fine powder between two stones and then slowly roasted over the fire in an earthen or metal vessel until it assumes a light-brown color; it is then taken from the fire and combined with about an equal quantity in size of pinon gum; again the mixture is put on the fire and constantly stirred.  At first the gum melts and the whole mass assumes a mushy consistency; but as the roasting progresses it gradually becomes drier and darker until it is at last reduced to a fine black powder.  This is removed from the fire, and when it has cooled somewhat it is thrown into the decoction of sumac, with which it instantly forms a rich, blue-black fluid.  This dye is essentially an ink, the tannic acid of the sumac combining with the sesquioxide of iron in the roasted ocher, the whole enriched by the carbon of the calcined gum.

[Illustration:  Pl.  XXXIV.—­Navajo woman spinning.]

There are, the Indians tell me, three different processes for dyeing yellow; two of these I have witnessed.  The first process is thus conducted:  The flowering tops of Bigelovia graveolens are boiled for about six hours until a decoction of deep yellow color is produced.  When the dyer thinks the decoction strong enough, she heats over the fire in a pan or earthen vessel some native almogen (an impure native alum), until it is reduced to a somewhat pasty consistency; this she adds gradually to the decoction and then puts the wool in the dye to boil.  From time to time a portion of the wool is taken out and inspected until (in about half an hour from the time it is first immersed) it is seen to have assumed the proper color.  The work is then done.  The tint produced is nearly that of lemon yellow.  In the second process they use the large, fleshy root of a plant which, as I