warm and comfortable, and, rude as they seem, their construction is a
matter of rule, almost of ritual, while the dedicatory ceremonies which
usually precede regular occupancy are elaborate and carefully performed.

Although no attempt at decoration is ever made, either of the inside or
the outside of the houses, it is not uncommon to hear the term beautiful
applied to them. Strong forked timbers of the proper length and bend,
thrust together with their ends properly interlocking to form a
cone-like frame, stout poles leaned against the apex to form the sides,
the whole well covered with bark and heaped thickly with earth, forming
a roomy warm interior with a level floor--these are sufficient to
constitute a “_qoġán nĭjóni_,” house beautiful. To the Navaho the house
is beautiful to the extent that it is well constructed and to the degree
that it adheres to the ancient model.

There are many legends and traditions of wonderful houses made by the
gods and by the mythic progenitors of the tribe. In the building of
these houses turquois and pearly shells were freely used, as were also
the transparent mists of dawn and the gorgeous colors of sunset. They
were covered by sunbeams and the rays of the rainbow, with everything
beautiful or richly colored on the earth and in the sky. It is perhaps
on account of these gorgeous mythical hogáns that no attempt is now made
to decorate the everyday dwelling; it would be _bátsĭç_, tabooed (or
sacrilegious). The traditions preserve methods of house building that
were imparted to mortals by the gods themselves. These methods, as is
usual in such cases, are the simplest and of the most primitive nature,
but they are still scrupulously followed.

Early mention of house building occurs in the creation myths: First-man
and First-woman are discovered in the first or lowest underworld, living