d it has been inferred
that in the same period the sedentary tribes of New Mexico also wrought
at the forge. From either of these sources the first smiths among the
Navajos may have learned their trade; but those who have seen the
beautiful gold ornaments made by the rude Indians of British Columbia
and Alaska, many of whom are allied in language to the Navajos, may
doubt that the latter derived their art from a people higher in culture
than themselves.

The appliances and processes of the smith are much the same among the
Navajos as among the Pueblo Indians. But the Pueblo artisan, living in a
spacious house, builds a permanent forge on a frame at such a height
that he can work standing, while his less fortunate Navajo _confrere_,
dwelling in a low hut or shelter, which he may abandon any day,
constructs a temporary forge on the ground in the manner hereafter
described. Notwithstanding the greater disadvantages under which the
latter labors, the ornaments made by his hand are generally conceded to
be equal or even superior to those made by the Pueblo Indian.

A large majority of these savage smiths make only such simple articles
as buttons, rosettes, and bracelets; those who make the more elaborate
articles, such as powder-chargers, round beads (Pl. XVI), tobacco cases,
belts, and bridle ornaments are few. Tobacco cases, made in the shape of
an army canteen, such as that represented in Fig. 6, are made by only
three or four men in the tribe, and the design is of very recent origin.

Their tools and materials are few and simple; and rude as the results of
their labor may appear, it is surprising that they do so well with such
imperfect appliances, which usually consist of the following articles: A
forge, a bellows, an anvil, crucibles, molds, tongs, scissors, pliers,
files, awls, cold-chisels, matrix and die for molding buttons, wooden
implement used in grinding buttons, wooden stake, basin, charcoal, tools
and materials for soldering (blow-pipe, braid of cotton rags soaked in
grease, wire, and borax), materials for polishing (sand-paper,
emery-paper, powdered sandstone, sand, ashes, and solid stone), and
materials for whitening (a native mineral substance--almogen--salt and
water). Fig. 1, taken from a photograph, represents the complete shop of
a silversmith, which was set up temporarily in a summer lodge or
_hogan_, near Fort Wingate. Fragments of boards, picked up around the
fort, were used, in part, in the constr