f making an
air chamber of the mouth; they blow with undistended cheeks, hence the
current of air directed on the flame is intermitting. The flame used in
soldering with the blow-pipe is derived from a thick braid of cotton
rags soaked in mutton suet or other grease. Their borax is purchased
from the whites, and from the same source is derived the fine wire with
which they bind together the parts to be soldered. I have been told by
reliable persons that it is not many years since the Navajos employed a
flux mined by themselves in their own country; but, finding the pure
borax introduced by the traders to be much better, they gradually
abandoned the use of the former substance.

For polishing, they have sand-paper and emery-paper purchased from the
whites; but as these are expensive, they are usually required only for
the finishing touches, the first part of the work being done with
powdered sandstone, sand, or ashes, all of which are used with or
without water. At certain stages in the progress of the work, some
articles are rubbed on a piece of sandstone to reduce the surfaces to
smoothness; but the stone, in this instance, is more a substitute for
the file than for the sand-paper. Perhaps I should say that the file is
a substitute for the stone, for there is little doubt that stone, sand,
and ashes preceded file and paper in the shop of the Indian smith.

For blanching the silver, when the forging is done, they use a mineral
substance found in various parts of their country, which, I am informed
by Mr. Taylor, of the Smithsonian Institution, is a "hydrous sulphate of
alumina," called almogen. This they dissolve in water, in a metal basin,
with the addition, sometimes, of salt. The silver, being first slightly
heated in the forge, is boiled in this solution and in a short time
becomes very white.

The processes of the Navajo silversmith may be best understood from
descriptions of the ways in which he makes some of his silver ornament.
I once engaged two of the best workmen in the tribe to come to Fort
Wingate and work under my observation for a week. They put up their
forge in a small outbuilding at night, and early next morning they were
at work. Their labor was almost all performed while they were sitting or
crouching on the ground in very constrained positions; yet I never saw
men who worked harder or more steadily. They often labored from twelve
to fifteen hours a day, eating their meals with dispatch and returni