BY FRANK H. CUSHING.

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HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT.


It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are due
chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this
sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of
a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak,
they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and
driven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was the
influence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt an
almost waterless area for their habitat.

It is apparent at least that they entered the country wherein their
remains occur while comparatively a rude people, and worked out there
almost wholly their incipient civilization. Of this there is important
linguistic evidence.

[Illustration: FIG. 490.--A Navajo hut.]

A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive-shaped or conical structure (see
Fig. 490) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stones
chinked with mud. Yet its modern Zuñi name is _hám´ pon ne_, from _ha
we_, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _pó an ne_, covering, shelter