During the rainy season pools and little lakes of water are formed all over the flat country, lasting sometimes several weeks.  Advantage is taken of the opportunity thus afforded and the flocks are driven out on the plains and grazed in the vicinity of the water so long as the supply holds out, but as this is seldom prolonged more than a few weeks it is not surprising that the house erected by the head of the family should be of a very temporary nature.  In fact the most finished house structures of these people must be temporary rather than permanent so long as the conditions sketched above prevail; in other words, so long as they depend principally on their sheep.

Another result of these conditions is that each family lives by itself and, as it were, on its own ground.  Large communities are impossible, and while there are instances where eight or ten families occupy some place of exceptionally favorable location, these are rare.  In fact to see even three or four hogans together is remarkable.  There are perhaps more hogans in Canyon Chelly than in any other one locality, but the people who live here are regarded by the other Navaho as poor, because they own but few sheep and horses and depend principally on horticulture for their subsistence.  Incidentally it may be stated that horses are well esteemed by the Navaho as an article of food, and that the large herds which some of them own are not so wholly useless as they appear to the casual traveler.

Canyon Chelly, which the Navaho call Tsegi, contains several small streams and numerous patches of arable land on the bottoms.  The conditions here are exceptionally favorable for horticulture; indeed, the numerous remains of cliff dwellings which are found in the canyon would show this if other evidence were lacking.  It has long been famous among the Navaho as the horticultural center of the tribe, and for its peach crops, derived from thousands of trees planted in sheltered nooks.  In the summer scattered members of the various families or clans gather there by hundreds from every part of the reservation to feast together for a week or two on green corn, melons, and peaches.

As a rule, however, each hogan stands by itself, and it is usually hidden away so effectually that the traveler who is not familiar with the customs of the people might journey for days and not see half a dozen of them.  The spot chosen for a dwelling place is either some sheltered nook in a mesa or a southward slope on the edge of a pinon grove near a good fuel supply and not too far from water.  A house is very seldom built close to a spring—­perhaps a survival of the habit which prevailed when the people were a hunting tribe and kept away from the water holes in order not to disturb the game which frequented them.