144 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

The earthen walls of the excavation are retained by planks set on edge,
and the winter provisions are stored in baskets lying upon the banks of
earth that flank the family room, except at the entrance end, where the fire-
wood is kept as in the modern houses of the Babines and the old winter
huts of the Carriers!. The style proper to those habitations was copied from
the neighbouring tribes of the Klamath River region.

The summer residences of the Navahoes are extremely primitive; in
fact, mere shelters of rudely piled brushwood. Types of more careful construc-
tion are: boughs in foliage set round in a circle near some conveniently
spreading cedar tree, which is utilized to form a latticed roof for the enclo-
sure; simple scaffolds framed around with interlacing boughs, and many
quaint little sheds made of branches leaning upon a straight pole supported
by forked uprights. A. M. Stephen says that six forms of summer bowers are
recognized and appropriately named by the Navahoes.

As they have no tradition that they ever lived in skin lodges, and as,
on the other hand, they are of all the Dénés the people richest in traditions,
it might be inferred that their separation from their northern kinsmen ante-
dates the adoption by the latter of the Algonquin tepee.

As we reach the Apache hordes we are confronted by still another and,
if possible, even more primitive or at least more picturesque, style of archi-
tecture. Our illustration will give an excellent idea of the outward appear-
ance of their kAuivas or huts. Their ground plan is slightly oval, measuring
from ten to twelve feet in its longer diameter and eight or nine across,
while they are fully nine feet in height. The poles that form their framework
are generally of green willow clear of bark, and stuck in the ground every
two feet or so, with the tops bent down and tied together. The usual opening
for the escape of smoke is left in the middle of the upper part of the structure.

Once this is finished, the ground is excavated inside to a depth of a
foot or more, and the earth piled against the base of the khtva, as a protec-
tion against floods. The sheeting shown in our illustration is canvas, which
is often added as a further means of protecting the inmates against rain. This
replaces the skins formerly used, which still occasionally enter into the
composition of the sides, when the roofing is made of bundles of long rushes,
the well known tule (Scirpus lacustris) of the south.

The whole work of khiva building is performed by the women, who
usually complete it in a single day.

Winter Habitations.

Several tribes have special styles of habitations for the cold season. The
Apaches then simply make their khtivas smaller, that they may be warmer.
But the Navahoes construct for the winter houses which are altogether differ-

' Cf. Goddard’s “Life and Culture of the Hupa”.