Viewing page 44 of 46

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[strikethrough]] The [[strikethrough]] A study of the Navajo designs has shown that most of them have no definite meaning in connection with their neighboring figures. Names for all of them are given by the weavers but, as a rule, they are simply descriptive. Some with a definite form, like the lightning, are known as the "bent line", this being due to the fact that, in the old days, the esoteric designs of the priesthood could not be used in their textile work. I am preparing a book on Navajo textiles and in it the subject of designs will be given serious consideration as there are many misconceptions in connection with certain of their [[strikethrough]] great [[/strikethrough]] MORE recent productions.

Blanket No. 3 is one with a design much used by the Navajos and in it they have combined their native wool and a soft alien zephyr or worsted, the red and yellow being readily recognized as the European product. The Navajos have a yellow of their own but, since the traders have made it possible to get the European dyes they seldom make it. Except in exceptional cases, only the very old blankets show the native yellow. It is made by boiling the flowering tips of the rabbit weed and adding, as a mordant, a native [[strikethrough]] alien [[/strikethrough]] ALUM known as alunogen. This and the black dye, now used occasionally for dyeing buckskin for moccasin-tops, were the only satisfactory native dyes that could be applied to wool.

Blankets Nos. 4-5 are of the usual type and are of native wool with the selvage cords of European worsted. The dyes in both are of alien origin.

Blanket No. 6 is a Mexican [[strikethrough]] native [[/strikethrough]] INDIAN blanket and was probably made in the Saltillo region of Northern Mexico. Mexican Indian blankets were made to some extent in the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico. Each settlement seems to have had its own patterns, some of which have been determined, and the Pueblo of Chimallo still produces blankets for the market. This field has remained practically unworked and some